Search results
Jul 7, 2023 · 6 Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2023. Learn about the stadium concessions customer of today; what they’re looking for, and see what’s new on stadium menus. And we offer solutions to reduce your labor and improve your profitability.
- Overview
- Classical stadiums
- Modern stadiums
stadium, enclosure that combines broad space for athletic games and other exhibitions with large seating capacity for spectators. The name derives from the Greek unit of measurement, the stade, the distance covered in the original Greek footraces (about 600 feet [180 metres]). The course for the footrace in the ancient Olympic Games at Olympia was ...
The first Greek stadiums were long and narrow, in the shape of a U or a horseshoe. They were sometimes cut into the side of a hill, as at Thebes, Epidaurus, and at Olympia, the site of the Olympic Games, which began there in the 8th century bce. The Greeks also built hippodrome stadiums similar in layout but broad enough to accommodate four-horse chariot races, a feature of the Olympic Games as early as the 7th century bce.
The design of the Greek stadium was taken over and improved upon by the Romans, who built two types of stadiums: the circus and the amphitheatre. The circus was the Roman version of the hippodrome, a long, narrow, U-shaped structure designed for chariot races. The largest, and doubtless the finest ever built, was the Circus Maximus in Rome. In contrast to the circus, the amphitheatre, one of the most characteristic of all Roman buildings, was oval or round in plan and was completely enclosed on all sides. Intended for gladiatorial contests, in which the precise dimensions of the field were of slight importance, the amphitheatre was designed to afford maximum seating capacity and optimum visual facility for spectators. The giant amphitheatre built in Rome in the 1st century ce is known as the Colosseum. After the fall of Rome, amphitheatres survived for some time until the decline of the cities themselves terminated the spectacles that they had held. Nearly two millennia passed before the form was revived; much smaller, usually temporary stands sufficed for such intervening spectatorial events as the knightly tournaments of the Middle Ages in Europe.
The renewal of large-scale spectator sports came about gradually in the 19th century with the growth of European cities and the revival of interest in athletic contests; symbolically, the great impetus for the design of modern stadiums came from the revival of Olympic competition in 1896.
Britannica Quiz
The stadium for the first modern Olympiad in Athens was a reconstruction of the ancient marble stadium built by Herodes Atticus on the site of an even earlier stadium in Athens. The Olympics since that time have provided a major focal point for the development of the modern stadium concept. In each period since the first modern Olympiad, the host country has usually erected a permanent stadium to mark the event. The first stadium of the modern genre was constructed for the IV Olympiad in 1908 at Shepherd’s Bush in London. The stands were partly roofed, and the stadium seated more than 50,000 people. Other Olympic stadiums of architectural note that were built before World War II include those at Stockholm (1912), Colombes, outside Paris (1924), Amsterdam (1927), and Berlin (1936). The Helsinki stadium built for the XII Olympiad (1940), which was canceled by the outbreak of World War II, served as the site for the XV Olympiad in 1952.
Stadiums rivaling the size of those of ancient Rome were constructed in several cities in the first half of the 20th century, notably the vast Strahov Stadium, in Prague, which was completed in 1934 for the Sokol gymnastics exhibition and had a seating capacity of more than 240,000. Other stadiums built to accommodate in excess of 100,000 people include Rungrado May Day Stadium, in P’yŏngyang, North Korea; Melbourne Cricket Ground, in Melbourne; Aztec Stadium, in Mexico City; Salt Lake Stadium, in Kolkata (Calcutta); and Michigan Stadium, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S. These figures of course denote how many people can be “accommodated”; the official “seating” capacities may be considerably lower.
Exclusive academic rate for students! Save 67% on Britannica Premium.
Learn More
- Lev Zetlin
People also ask
What is a stadium used for?
What is a football stadium?
How are stadiums designed?
Should stadiums be funded by the government?
A stadium ( pl.: stadiums or stadia) [1] is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event. [2] [3]
Feb 2, 2015 · The Colosseum, built in 80 AD, still serves as the father of all modern stadiums. Tim Cahill, architect of the NFL’s newest venue, Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, tells SI.com his ...
Development of football stadiums. Before 1960, football pitches featured regular grass. Later in the 1980s, developers installed drainage systems in them. Originally, pitches required substantial amount of maintenance to keep them in the right shape. They were reliant on regular lighting and watering.
Jul 13, 2016 · As far back as the Tax Reform Act of 1986, the government has tried to limit public financing of stadiums, arguing that the stadiums — unlike other publicly funded infrastructure like roads and ...
Mar 8, 2022 · Designing the Stadium. You know your stadium’s purpose and location, your timeline and how to fund it. Now you can finally turn your attention to designing the stadium itself. A look at how stadiums are designed shows that the process breaks down into the five phases of architectural design.
