And big events go to big cities that can handle the influx of people. Also i dont think any of the nba,nfl,mlb,nhl, etc care where the stadium/arena is, they care if you give them what THEY want, and a big part of that is event space, and that event space usually ends up as a bunch of tents on a parking lot surrounding the stadium. One example, supposed fan hellhole Jacksonville has hosted the superbowl before.