The spatial externality fields of football stadiums: the effects of football and non-football uses at Kenilworth Road, Luton

Falling attendances and rising costs have forced English football clubs—especially those in smaller cities and towns and in the lower divisions—to seek additional sources of revenue in order to remain financially viable. One strategy has been to make greater use of their ground by renting it out for other activities. However, this creates additional negative externality effects to those generated by football matches for residents living in the vicinity of the ground. An examination of Luton Town FC, which has installed a synthetic pitch to allow it to make more intensive use of its Kenilworth Road ground, indicates that the negative externalities generated by the use of the ground for non-football activities are both less intense and smaller in extent than those generated by football matches. The decision by the football authorities to ban artificial pitches will eliminate this important source of revenue for clubs such as Luton Town. Their attempts to find alternative income-generating activities through more intensive use of their grounds may involve other non-football activities which generate negative externality effects of greater intensity and spatial extent.