Aspects and the significance of stadiums
Team Managing Researcher Siwoo Jung
Seoul, September 2020
The concept of a stadium is not difficult to understand. It is simply a place or venue for sports games, 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. Still, stadiums have a profound history and sophisticated designs and are required a sublime quality of its own.
The history of stadiums is more profound than one would commonly imagine. The oldest known stadium in the world is the stadium in Greece, where the initial Olympic Games have taken place in 776 B.C.E. That is to say that the first stadium has been constructed approximately 2800 years ago from the current date. From the vast 2800 years since its origin, the stadium has gone through numerous innovations and developments and has attained its current appearance.
Current stadiums of the world come in diverse forms and functions.
To primarily state the functions, even though a substantial number of stadiums function as a site to hold a sports event such as a
football match, some current day stadiums have other applications such as galleries, concert halls, or even shelters. The role of stadiums in the 21st century is no longer constrained; they can be applied to any
purpose. For example, a baseball stadium in Korea known as ‘Gocheok sky dome’ is used as a baseball stadium in the baseball season, and in the off-season it is utilised as the most popular concert stadium in Korea.
The forms of stadiums have developed in more diverse sorts and many of them exhibit conspicuous designs that would easily attract viewers. To examine some sophisticated examples of stadiums, the Borisov Football Stadium located in Belarus contains an impressive structure. The stadium forms a unified rounded dome, giving the impression of a single closed object and the skin of the dome gives the illusion of a perforated textile pulled over the stadium skeleton. Allianz
Arena, the football stadium of the current European champion Bayern Munchen, is also always mentioned in examples of beautiful stadiums. The stadium has a smooth exterior with diamond-shaped translucent claddings and it offers space for 80,000 spectators. The last stadium to demonstrate is North Korea’s Rungrado 1 st of May Stadum of Pyongyang. It is highly acknowledged for its capacity to accommodate as much as 114,000 people. Even though it was erected in 1998, it still has the honour of being the largest stadium in the world.
Nonetheless, diverse functions and lavish designs and structure are not the only reason a stadium posses the ability to overpower and individual and the majority. Stadiums have been capable of conveying social messages and spreading positive effects to the world for the past centuries. Various ways were employed in the process such as determining its social belief and values and using it for beneficial
causes. An infamous example is the Live Aid of 1985. To delineate, Live Aid was a benefit concert held on 1985, as well as an ongoing music-based fund raising initiative. It was organized to raise funds for relief of the ongoing Ethiopian famine, and it featured eminent artist of the period such as Queen, John Elton, and Madonna. The concert was held
simultaneously at two prominent stadiums of the globe: Wembley Stadium in London, UK, and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, US. Approximately 160,000 people were able to attend these concerts live due to the vast size of the stadiums and an estimated audience of 1.9 billion, across 150 nations, watched the live broadcast, meaning 40% of the world population witnessed the beneficial event. As can be recognised from the significant influences of the Live Aid, stadiums have continuously undertaken the role of a symbolic keystone from the past. The Wembley Stadium and the John F. Kennedy Stadium had successfully alerted almost 2 billion people worldwide of the Ethiopian famine and conveyed crucial qualities such as morality and altruism.
However, these two stadiums are not the only ones which could
influence the majority with its principles. Stadiums have kept on conveying meaningful messages like sportsmanship, equality, or brotherhood and by applying its message in structural designs of the stadium or nominating it as its ideology and utilising the stadiums to related purposes. To examine current social issues, racial segregation is currently a controversial issue in America and NBA stadiums have decided to support the Black Lives Matter movement by directly imprinting the message in the centre of the court so all the audience watching the game can always be reminded of the movement. Even though there are negative perspectives on this decision, not a person in
the world would deny the fact stadiums are the keystone of social influences based on their principles.
As the past and the present, stadiums should continue on taking the initiative in rendering changes to the society. Stadiums are not just a field or court where ‘only’ sports games are held. As everyone involved in the occasion held in stadiums are able to encounter the stadium and so it can widely affect human society, the qualities it pursue are becoming more significant than ever.
References
https://www.archdaily.com/897020/9-inventive-large-scale-stadiums-
and-their-constructive-details
