In all seriousness, football is not really a strategy in this case, but high school sports in small towns have been known to create community cohesion.  In this case, the town of Canadian, Texas, seems to have defied all expectations and has not died out.  Located in the Panhandle of Texas more than 100 miles from the nearest city of Amarillo, the town of fewer than 3,000 managed to reinvent itself in the 1990s with ecotourism, downtown revitalization, and has a commodities trading center.  The “rebirth” of the town has helped to make the school district one of the wealthiest in Texas.  Football does seem to help create a sense of community here, and it seems to be in large part due to the revitalization of the town.

Click here to read the New York Times article.