A Journey Through the Evolution of Stadia: How the Colosseum Moved into America

This paper will describe the differences and highlight the similarities between antiquity and the modern era in stadium design, construction, materials, and function as well as social implications of and connections to the stadium in an effort to demonstrate that we are forever indebted to the classical model of the stadium. Through detailed description of ancient stadia, and then a description of the evolution of modern stadia in America and Europe, this paper will show that the classical model, which was perfected in the Colosseum, is a direct influence upon our stadium model, even though the Colosseum and our stadium model evolved to their pinnacle forms in completely different ways. This will be shown using examples of various stadia across several eras beginning in the 1850s when sports were first codified. These examples will emerge from a variety of sports in an attempt to demonstrate that the influence is relatively universal