Understanding organizational and public perspectives on stadium redevelopment through social media: A case study of Georgia State University's "new" stadium

Stadium-construction projects are costly and affect the community-positively and negatively. At urban universities, these impacts extend beyond campuses into the broader community. Thus, athletic-department communication about the value of stadium projects to a diverse group of stakeholders becomes important. Following stakeholder theory, the purpose of the study was to investigate socialmedia messages disseminated by an urban university engaged in a stadiumredevelopment project (Georgia State University [GSU]) and the public response. A content analysis of Facebook and Twitter posts by GSU (N = 39) and the public response (N = 359) yielded 8 themes: a focus on athletics, a focus on university, informing about urban community development impact, explaining capital project funding source, maintaining the stadium legacy, promoting public-private partnerships, and understanding effects on transit. Findings support previous literature that organizational communication reflects organizational priorities.