This paper examines local initiatives for a sports stadium-centered economic development project in Athens, Greece within the framework of urban political theories. This project was not successful for the proponents, which in itself makes a crucial issue as most stadium projects are successful in the US, where most stadium research has been conducted. The local growth coalition (LGC) concept is used as a template for understanding this Athenian project. In this case, the coalition was strong yet ineffective. In any LGC, ineffectiveness may result from various structural factors that are unrelated to the coalition’s internal organizational or institutional composition. In this case, the key structural factor was a judicial decision by the Supreme Administrative Court of Greece that severely impeded the LGC’s ultimate goals. This paper also briefly compares judicial decisions in the US and Greece regarding new private sports stadia as projects for the "public good."