@@coastaku1954 Apparently, you haven't been in the USA the last 50+ years where half of the voters will cause mass violence calling any infrastructure investment SOCIALISM, especially the ultimate socialist infrastructure: passenger rail. Here in the Detroit area don't even have adequate tranportation to the airport. It would take FULL SCALE WARFARE in order to accomplish that.
Soldier Field was built for a possible bid for the Olymics in the 1920s. Like a lot college football stadiums, there was room for an 8-lane running track.
I thought Soldier Field looked better before they "renovated" it. But it wasn't a "renovation" at all. They tore down the entire thing except for those columns and replaced it with a weird, misshapen thing that looks like a giant slug.
It was also used as a sky jump and auto racing site. Football was an afterthought all along. The only reason the Bears even used it was that Wrigley Field was too small for NFL standards. Actually the Chicago (now Phoenix) Cardinals played there after the left Comiskey Park.
That is the second rebuild. The first rebuild was basically eliminate the lack of a true press box, and the old 100,000 seating was useless for football since the field was in the horseshoe at the south, and anyone sitting there could not sit and watch a game.
Cleveland Municipal Stadium was built to host the 1932 olympics but lost the bid to LA. Thus the LA coliseum still stands and the Muni was lost to time.
You might have mentioned about Cleveland Stadium, that it was built with the purpose of attracting the 1932(?) Olympics. The L.A. Colosseum was built for the same purpose, except that L.A. actually won the Olympics.
One of numerous memories I have of Cleveland Municipal Stadium occurred in early August 1973. The Orioles were playing an Indians team that was about 35 games below .500. The sportscast opened with a shot to the Orioles bullpen. The only 2 people seen were the starting pitcher warming up and the catcher. Chuck Thompson, the Orioles play-by-play announcer opened with this comment: "Welcome to Municipal Stadium in Cleveland where the Orioles are facing the Indians, and no, this game has not been canceled due to lack of interest."
Sydney (NSW Australia) Olympic Stadium, currently Accor Stadium, was originally opened in 1999 when 2000 Olympic test events were played. It has had attendances exceeding 115,000 in the original format but had the seating capacity and playing area reduced later to the current 80,000. The FIFA 2023 Women's World Cup opener between Australia and Ireland had over 75,000 in attendance last night, July 20.
That sounds very similar to Centennial Staduim for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. It could hold about 100k, but after the Olympics it was converted into Turner Field, which only held about 45k.
There is no way the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs will ever fill that joint. The Souths Rabbitohs would find it difficult as well. But you can't have every NRL game at CommBank or Allianz the way AFL has all Melbourne-based-team games at the MCG or Marvel, though it would seemingly make more sense for the Doggies to have a ground-share at CommBank and the Rabbitohs at Allianz. Leave Accor for Origin and the Grand Final and for international events like the FIFA Women's World Cup and the Rugby World Cup, or hold an NRL Magic Weekend there instead of Brisbane.
Arizona State's Sun Devil Stadium was built too big, not because they werent able to draw a crowd, it that it was too heavy for the sand base it was built on. It was cracking too much and had to be reduced by removing nearly 20,000 seats in the north end zone upper deck. They said it was an upgrade.
Sun Devil Stadium was originally built with a 30,000 capacity. As the team became better known nationally it was increased to 50k than 57k and finally to 74k. Attendance was great while they won. Has season tickets in 82 and they were over 70k most games.
@@jamesfields2916 I was a kid when i met Frank Kush at the old stadium on Apache. The old football field was a parking lot in about 1974. That was where Kush parked and we walked across campus with him to the new stadium where he led the Sun Devils to an unexpected 31-27 loss to UTEP. But it was great meeting Coach Kush.
@@andynaz5631 I think Tempe HS used Godwin Stadium until the early 70s. Went to my first ASU game in 77 against Arizona. They were adding on the upper deck end zone seats then. Was last there in 08. Came in for the Georgia game and we set in the end zone with about 20,000 Georgia fans.
JFK did host LiveAid. In the seventies and eighties it held huge concerts like the Grateful Dead and The Rolling Stones but it was a mess and it fell into disrepair. I saw the last show there in 2989 (the Grateful Dead).
Municipal Stadium was very large, but it was only too large for baseball because the Indians reeked. I went to a MNF game against the Bears at the height of the Cardiac Kids era, and the sold-out stadium was so loud that my Bears fan roommate developed an instant headache.
Cleveland Municipal was an absolute shithole when I went there to see my Bengals play the Browns in the early 90s. Literally had raw sewage coming up the sinks and toilets. It was raining that day and there were literally cascades of dirty water that was seeping through the cracks and holes in the dirty roof. Some of it was coming down so hard that they had to evacuate those sections and move everyone in them to standing room only. Total dump, and I don't blame Art Modell for moving the Browns to Baltimore after the levy for a new stadium failed.
The levy didnt fail, it passed the day after he announced the move, Modells move was illegal as it was 3 years before the lease ran out, thats why the browns got another team because the nfl knew theyd lose in court
Strictly speaking, Yankee Stadium 1.0 was too big most of the time, except for the WS, but they did hold football and championship boxing matches there. When it was renovated in the 1970's, they knocked out about 20,000 seats.
My guess is you never attended a game at Yankee Stadium 1.0. Back in the 20's through the 50's and early 60's attendance was regularly 30,000 to 40,000 and big sell outs 70,000 for Sunday doubleheaders. It was a great place to watch a game as the seats were very close to the field. Great seat were down the RF line only 296' from home plate. Right center bleachers, 345' were also good seats for 50 cents. It was built for baseball. For football the right center bleachers were the best seats in the house.
@@deepcosmicloveMLB made them tear out the roof as by 1973, roofs were banned except for domed/retractable roof stadiums as I remember. I believe that remodeling was at the insistence of MLB, who I believe wanted the super-short right field porch (296 feet) eliminated. That to me is why Yankee Stadium was remodeled.
@@WaltGekko In some measure you are correct. But the MLG "recommendations" were for new stadiums only. In the late 60's and early 70's the Yankees stunk and I mean they were horrible. There were no more 70,000 Sunday doubleheaders. No more weekday 30,000 games. There was just this vast stadium with 60,000 empty seats. This is why they tore the place apart.
I saw the last Army-Navy game played at JFK/Municipal on 1 Dec 1979. It was a massive place where the fans sat on benches. Definitely a throw back to giant arenas with few amenities. Im happy I got to see it though.
I grew up going to the South Philly sports complex area. By that time, JFK had been replaced by Wells Fargo Center(Corestate's Center at the time in '96). Also, JFK Stadium's most notable moment would be hosting the North American leg of Live Aid '85.
Grew up in Cleveland. Municipal was beyond a dump. Poles in the way, creaky uncomfortable seats and they were too small. If you were under the upper deck you couldn’t see fly balls or punts. It smelled. I5 was an abomination. I loved it.
Chicago put up Soldier Field in a bid for the Olympics. While many events, concerts, the old Pro-College Bowl games were held there as were midget stock car races, even a sky jump, it basically has been a white elephant--perhaps owing to the previous politics of Chicago, and who actually owns the stadium. Even the largest crowd to ever see a high school football game (an estimated 100,000+) was in there.
Another entry would be original Stanford Stadium. Seating 85000+ that is about 12 times the undergraduate enrollment of the school. Stanford games rarely drew more than 25000. It did allow Stanford Stadium to host a Super Bowl and World Cup games, which is crazy to think as its amenities and facilities were extremely spartan, even for the time, and sightlines were terrible. Eventually maintenance of such a massively oversized, decrepit stadium became too much and a much smaller, modern stadium took its place. Rice Stadium has a very similar history, even hosting a Super Bowl, as a wildly oversized stadium for a small, non-football school, though that has been refitted and reduced several times, trying to maintain it without replacing it entirely. Also Rice Stadium actually is a pretty nice place to see a game, better than the old Stanford Stadium.
With the exception of Aloha Stadium, none of these stadiums were “built too big”. I live near Philadelphia and old buildings and architecture is a hobby of mine. Speaking for JFK stadium, it was used by the city quite wisely. It held not only football games games, but several big time boxing matches, as well as political rallies and the Phillies used it for the culmination of their 1980 World Championship parade. The stadium became obsolete because of its age, not its size. Hell, the Vet replaced JFK and held over 60,000- which was great in the late 70’s early 80’s when the Eagles and Phillies were competitive. But appeared too large when they weren’t. As the university of Michigan and Penn State prove, if you put a fine product on the field, there is no such thing as a stadium being too big. Don’t blame the stadium for lousy teams. Cleveland Indians sold out when they had winners, they just had too few competitive teams.
They could have rebuilt JFK in the late 1960's for the Eagles to seat 75-80,000 which would have allowed The Vet to have been built as a baseball-only stadium seating around 50,000. Maybe both stadiums are still here if they did that.
As mentioned some were built for the Olympics and warranted the size. Most of them were built with bench seating and no luxury boxes. Each extra seat brought in the revenue. The cost was probably not that much more to build bigger.
Los Angeles coliseum was also built too big. It was competed in 1923, built for the Olympics in 1932. Outside of USC vs UCLA games, it never sells 97,000 tickets. The Rams struggled to fill it halfway, but now there's SoFi stadium
Candlestick Park was a stadium that was built way too big in that freeway access going to and leaving the stadium was a complete nightmare when the stadium was filled to capacity. It was also too cold and windy during baseball season and the Giants baseball team suffered low attendance for many seasons until they moved up north to AT&T Park.
And the great thing about Oracle Park (it's no longer A T and T) is one doesn't have to drive there. One can take Muni if one lives in San Francisco, BART from the East Bay, then Muni on the Embarcadero, Cal Train if one lives down the Peninsula or the San Jose area, and a ferry comes over from Oakland.
Very true , games should have started there at 10:30 in the morning because by 3 pm the wind would kick up and blow infield dust and hot dog wrappers into the air . As mentioned , the freeway access was very bad .
A couple of examples from outside the US that I can think of. Estadio de la Cartuja, Seville 57,000 capacity. This was built as part of a failed Olympic bid and has struggled to justify its existence ever since. It has no tenant team. It’s recently started hosting the Spanish Cup final even though it’s not the best soccer stadium in Seville. Not just too big but also pointless. Stadio San Paolo, Naples. This opened in 1959 with a capacity of nearly 90,000. Napoli only ever filled it semi regularly during the Maradona era and the rest of the time they would see 50,000 against even Juventus or Milan as a good crowd. It’s capacity was recently reduced to 54,000 which has coincided with a revival in the home team’s fortunes in the field has seen it sell out more often. It’s still a poor stadium for soccer with its Athletics track and I’m not aware that it’s ever hosted a major track and field event worthy of the size.
Cleveland Stadium was built to attract the Olympics, resulting the round shape. For the record, Superman, aka Bo Jackson, hit a home run to the bleachers. It isn't just the distance, the wind from the lake blew in that direction.
People might have actually been able to get tickets if that were the case! From 1994 to 2001 every Jacobs Field game was sold out. I rarely got to go to games.
Better to build a stadium too big than to build one too small. I think teams would rather have empty seats than have to turn paying customers away because there's no room for them.
Not necessarily. Sometimes there's an allure to the "crowded parking lot." The CFL's Montreal Alouettes once committed to the folly of playing regularly in a NFL capacity stadium (Olympic Stadium) and they'd be lucky to put 10K in it. A scheduling fluke put them in McGill's 20K stadium and from then on, Olympic Stadium became the "special occasion game" location while the McGill stadium became the regular one. It completely revived the franchise's fortunes.
The first stadium you show is a very old photo of Michigan Stadium (before it was expanded with skyboxes). Yes its big, its the biggest stadium outside of Asia, and it can hold over 115,000 people, a record when Michigan played Notre Dame. . Michigan Stadium sells out every season -- and in attendance it sets all records for College Football. Why is it too big?
The best part about cleveland municipal stadium was that it held 80k ppl and only had like 4 bathrooms. During Browns games they would have orderly lines with people queuing up to pee in one of the bathrooms corners.
Totally agree. Sadly many home games during Barry Samders era were blacked out. Silverdome was around 80,300. The last home playoff game against Green Bay didn’t sell out (around 68,000 attendance) and was blacked out in the metro Detroit area. Too bad they didn’t tarp off sections of the upper level to make capacity around 65,000.
Soldier Field was the correct size for 75% of it's life before the major renovation in 2000. It was build before football was a sport and the bears didn't play there for their first half century of existence. It was the perfect size for concerts, nascar races, track and field events, college football games, civic events, etc...
I saw 2 of the greatest concerts in US history at JFK Stadium. Live Aid and The Jackson's Victory Concert. Other than that, it didn't get much play during the 80s.
Can you do a video on Atlanta Fulton County Stadium? Today was the 30th anniversary of the press box fire which happened before a Braves vs Cardinals game.
It must have been the smallest stadium in sports. Atlanta pitcher Pascal Perez got lost for hours in Atlanta looking for the stadium and ended up missing his start.😂
Its so funny now because Solider Field is actually the smallest stadium in the NFL and many fans have complained that is cannot accommodate all fans (price influx)
I remember going to the old solider field when I was a kid!! The exterior and all those stone pillars put me in mind of the romans!! I remember like it was yesterday!!! Just subscribed
Hawaii has had decent teams over the years and always brought in a big name team usually at the end of the season. Alabama, Nebraska,USC, Arizona State were some of the teams who played there bringing thousands of fans. BYU pretty much a guaranteed sell out.
100k+ seats is INSANE... When you really think about it compared to the USA population for example, we have 330 million ish people. How can anyone ever think that will get filled?
@scrubdubby3855 - 100,000+ stadiums fill up every Saturday in college football; Michigan Stadium hasn't had a crowd of less than 100,000+ since 1974 and a record crowd of 115,109, Ohio Stadium, Bryant Denny in Alabama, stadiums for Texas A&M and Texas; LSU's Tiger Stadium, Penn State's Beaver Stadium, Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, TN.
Went to dozens of Cleveland baseball games where the attendance was under 10,000. Talk about cavernous. Also saw the Rolling Stones there with probably 90,000 others. What a show. But the place was sorely outdated.
The 1960-1986 version of the Orange Bowl in Miami was likely overbuilt. 80,000 capacity. Only two tenants - the Dolphins (10 home games) and the U of M football (6-7 games) plus an annual new years Bowl game.when the Dolphins were an NFL champ power in early 1970s - they filled the place - but after that ( even though,they had good teams)was a struggle to sell out 80,000 stadium and 60,000 crowds were the norm. U of M only started to get big crowds regularly after 1982 …prior to that 20,000 -30,000 was the norm.
Oil Can Boyd, when he pitched for the Red Sox commented on Cleveland Stadium when a game was postponed due to fog, “What do you expect when you build a stadium on the ocean?” Says it all.
I went to JFK Stadium a couple times for concerts and the place was a cave. When I saw Pink Floyd in 1987, we were near the top in pretty much a different area code as the stage we were so far away. When I saw The Police and a few other acts in '83 I was more off to the side in the 2nd row but still kind of far. But they used to fill it during concerts. The Floyd show drew 120,000 which was twice as many people as my home town which is wild.
You completely missed old Baltimore Municipal Stadium, which was on the same site as Memorial Stadium. Baltimore built this 80,000 seat capacity park in 1922 in hopes of drawing a pro football team to the city. The Army/Navy games were played there for many years until pro football finally came to the city when the AAFC Miami Seahawks relocated to become the ORIGINAL Baltimore Colts who played in the AAFC from 1947-1949, and was one of the three teams to move to the NFL during the 1950 NFL-AAFC merger, only lasting one season before folding. (The other 2 teams were the SF 49ers and the ORIGINAL Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens) The stadium was rebuilt for baseball after old wooden Oriole Park of the minor league Baltimore Orioles burnt to the ground. The stadium was renovated again when the St Louis Browns came to town as the new MLB Orioles in 1954. The home plate from Municipal Stadium was used in Memorial Stadium, which in turn was in turn was moved to Camden Yards when it was opened in 1992.
The LA Coliseum was built for the Olympics, not for MLB. It absolutely is not too big for football, and was used for baseball only as a temporary option until construction on the current Dodgers Stadium was completed.
Or any track in the 90s and 2000s. NASCAR got greedy and overexpanded in that era. That level of popularity wasn't sustainable and all it took was a recession to start the decline.
Soldier Field was built so that the Bears had a place to help other franchise look good frankly they could tear it down tomorrow because Chicago needs another parking lot
Now that NASCAR has been a little off, the stadium has been not so full. Great for watching racing, Not a single good seat in the house for watching football. Bring your binoculars.
They are demolishing Aloha Stadium because it would cost too much to repair it. The problem is the type of steel it was built with, it's corroding because of the salt-laden environment.
I'm sure that were was an additional purpose intended for Soldier Field and the Philadelphia field, such as polo, rugby, or cricket. Wembley also was used for dog racing, so horse or dog racing might be another possibility.
Soldier Field was built to host the Olympics, but it never happened. For many years, the south end of the horseshoe even had a never used Olympic torch. There were always some events held there, but it wasn't really suitable for American sports events until the Chicago Park District was forced to do something to keep the Chicago Bears, after having lost the Chicago Cardinals to St. Louis because of the poor condition of the stadium.
@@MetroCSN That's good to know! Poking around, the U-shape is pretty common, and I think it might've started with Harvard. European stadiums don't seem to be built like that. London, Berlin, and Paris all had all-round seating. Kind of interesting, they seem modeled after the Circus Maximus. Philly's was similar in design. The Polo Grounds (second one - NYC) were built in the same fashion. I want to say they could play GAA and cricket in there as well, which probably crossed the mind of Chicago when they built it. I thought the video maker though just shrugged and wondered "Who would build a football stadium like that?". Football wasn't a thing back then. Heck the reason the NFL field size is the way it is, because Harvard and McGill played the first games, and Harvard Bowl was small (McGill has a rugby field, which became the CFL standard).
One note: I'm pretty sure the Browns sold out most of the time at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Let's not forget, football is a secular religion in northeastern Ohio.
Great and unique topic choice, though I don't align with all of your choices. These venues were products of their time, with different needs when they were built. For instance, Cleveland Muni was not built just for the Indians and, in fact, the Indians only played there regularly for a year and a half and then moved back to League Park, only using it on weekends when they could outdraw League Park's cozy size. (It was also not built to lure the 1932 Olympics. That's an easily-disproven urban legend.) It was built before professional football in Cleveland, and the Rams did not even play there when they were founded five years later, so football was not the intent. That said, it was intended to draw large-scale events, like an Army-Navy game or an exhibition game of similar stature (Ohio State, etc.). Like the other venues, large public events were more commonplace before the advent of home entertainment and even the popularity of movie theaters. Muni was sized appropriately for its intent.
Jfkfor Floyd,. Roundup., Monsters, Desad, Frampton, Stones was awesome. Also bobus, had perfect alcoves for pee spots when tailgating for Birds, Phils or going to see show at the rectum.
That stadium in Philadelphia having temporary train stations to handle the crowds is a genius idea more stadiums need!
You need the tracks first.
@@toordal Then build them
It was a great stadium. Saw Pink Floyd and the Grateful Dead there. Was considered great times by the attendees
@@coastaku1954 Apparently, you haven't been in the USA the last 50+ years where half of the voters will cause mass violence calling any infrastructure investment SOCIALISM, especially the ultimate socialist infrastructure: passenger rail. Here in the Detroit area don't even have adequate tranportation to the airport. It would take FULL SCALE WARFARE in order to accomplish that.
Notre Dame and Navy met there during even-numbered years from 1960 to 1970
Next on, forgotten places former stadiums, that were built too small.😅
Two months ago, he did a video on current stadiums 🏟 that were built too small.
@@DavidSmith-rv1bg then the next one should be former stadiums built too weird. Or something.
Former stadiums that were not up to building code: 4le6zeta
@@stevensuarez4843hasn't everyone said that about the Trop in Tampa lol
Sick's Stadium in Seattle. The power alleys were only 345 feet! There are videos of the Red Sox playing the Pilots.
Soldier Field was built for a possible bid for the Olymics in the 1920s. Like a lot college football stadiums, there was room for an 8-lane running track.
I thought Soldier Field looked better before they "renovated" it. But it wasn't a "renovation" at all. They tore down the entire thing except for those columns and replaced it with a weird, misshapen thing that looks like a giant slug.
I believe it had the Pan American games.
It was also used as a sky jump and auto racing site. Football was an afterthought all along. The only reason the Bears even used it was that Wrigley Field was too small for NFL standards. Actually the Chicago (now Phoenix) Cardinals played there after the left Comiskey Park.
That is the second rebuild. The first rebuild was basically eliminate the lack of a true press box, and the old 100,000 seating was useless for football since the field was in the horseshoe at the south, and anyone sitting there could not sit and watch a game.
Yes, some events in 1959.
1:40 I know the Metrodome was really terrible in a lot of ways, but being an 80s Minnesota kid seeing it in Twins configuration was nostalgic as heck
Cleveland Municipal Stadium was built to host the 1932 olympics but lost the bid to LA. Thus the LA coliseum still stands and the Muni was lost to time.
municipal was far better than the los angeles mauseleum
I think that Municipal Stadium was on the drawing board before Cleveland decided to bid for the Olympics.
My Uncle said he went to a game at Cleveland Municipal Stadium back in the day, there were 50,000 in attendance and he said it still felt empty.
You might have mentioned about Cleveland Stadium, that it was built with the purpose of attracting the 1932(?) Olympics. The L.A. Colosseum was built for the same purpose, except that L.A. actually won the Olympics.
Theres conflicting reports on that, some sources say that some say that wasnt true
If Cleveland ever thought they would get the Olympics over L.A then they get what they deserve
One of numerous memories I have of Cleveland Municipal Stadium occurred in early August 1973.
The Orioles were playing an Indians team that was about 35 games below .500. The sportscast opened with a shot to the Orioles bullpen. The only 2 people seen were the starting pitcher warming up and the catcher. Chuck Thompson, the Orioles play-by-play announcer opened with this comment:
"Welcome to Municipal Stadium in Cleveland where the Orioles are facing the Indians, and no, this game has not been canceled due to lack of interest."
4:46 As I'm also a railway nerd, I loved this picture of a line of GG-1's!! 🤩🤩🤩
Sydney (NSW Australia) Olympic Stadium, currently Accor Stadium, was originally opened in 1999 when 2000 Olympic test events were played. It has had attendances exceeding 115,000 in the original format but had the seating capacity and playing area reduced later to the current 80,000. The FIFA 2023 Women's World Cup opener between Australia and Ireland had over 75,000 in attendance last night, July 20.
The stadium was always intended to remove excess capacity after the 2000 Olympics, though.
That sounds very similar to Centennial Staduim for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. It could hold about 100k, but after the Olympics it was converted into Turner Field, which only held about 45k.
There is no way the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs will ever fill that joint. The Souths Rabbitohs would find it difficult as well. But you can't have every NRL game at CommBank or Allianz the way AFL has all Melbourne-based-team games at the MCG or Marvel, though it would seemingly make more sense for the Doggies to have a ground-share at CommBank and the Rabbitohs at Allianz. Leave Accor for Origin and the Grand Final and for international events like the FIFA Women's World Cup and the Rugby World Cup, or hold an NRL Magic Weekend there instead of Brisbane.
Arizona State's Sun Devil Stadium was built too big, not because they werent able to draw a crowd, it that it was too heavy for the sand base it was built on. It was cracking too much and had to be reduced by removing nearly 20,000 seats in the north end zone upper deck. They said it was an upgrade.
An upgrade to safety and chances of dying in a heap of concrete and sand, I guess
Sun Devil Stadium was originally built with a 30,000 capacity. As the team became better known nationally it was increased to 50k than 57k and finally to 74k. Attendance was great while they won. Has season tickets in 82 and they were over 70k most games.
@@jamesfields2916 I was a kid when i met Frank Kush at the old stadium on Apache. The old football field was a parking lot in about 1974. That was where Kush parked and we walked across campus with him to the new stadium where he led the Sun Devils to an unexpected 31-27 loss to UTEP. But it was great meeting Coach Kush.
@@andynaz5631 I think Tempe HS used Godwin Stadium until the early 70s. Went to my first ASU game in 77 against Arizona. They were adding on the upper deck end zone seats then. Was last there in 08. Came in for the Georgia game and we set in the end zone with about 20,000 Georgia fans.
It makes for an awesome view of the Superstition mountains. Sad even Packard Stadium was demolished.
Given the trend in sports attendance and further push for club and box seating, it seems inevitable most stadiums will fit this category.
You forgot Stanford Stadium which was reduced from 90,000 to 50,000 in 2006.
Bro i love your videos, i could listen to you talk about stadiums for hours
Just found your channel…. Just binged watched about 20! Keep it up!
JFK did host LiveAid. In the seventies and eighties it held huge concerts like the Grateful Dead and The Rolling Stones but it was a mess and it fell into disrepair. I saw the last show there in 2989 (the Grateful Dead).
Municipal Stadium was very large, but it was only too large for baseball because the Indians reeked. I went to a MNF game against the Bears at the height of the Cardiac Kids era, and the sold-out stadium was so loud that my Bears fan roommate developed an instant headache.
Right you are. Municipal Statium's problem was it was too symetrical, no nooks & cranies like the classic ballparks.
exactly.... people show up to see a winner.
@@deepcosmiclove It was too big. No batter ever reached the center field bleachers.
@@davidlafleche1142 Wow! Not even Vic Wertz?
@@deepcosmiclove Nobody. Not even Dave Parker or Jim Rice.
Cleveland Municipal was an absolute shithole when I went there to see my Bengals play the Browns in the early 90s. Literally had raw sewage coming up the sinks and toilets. It was raining that day and there were literally cascades of dirty water that was seeping through the cracks and holes in the dirty roof. Some of it was coming down so hard that they had to evacuate those sections and move everyone in them to standing room only. Total dump, and I don't blame Art Modell for moving the Browns to Baltimore after the levy for a new stadium failed.
The levy didnt fail, it passed the day after he announced the move, Modells move was illegal as it was 3 years before the lease ran out, thats why the browns got another team because the nfl knew theyd lose in court
Art Modell was not upfront about it, but the city politicians acted too late. He should've never taken the stadium off municipal hands to begin with!
@@forgottenplaces9780Yep, that's true.
Olympic Stadium in Montreal had a similar problem. It was too big for baseball even when the Expos were good.
Strictly speaking, Yankee Stadium 1.0 was too big most of the time, except for the WS, but they did hold football and championship boxing matches there. When it was renovated in the 1970's, they knocked out about 20,000 seats.
My guess is you never attended a game at Yankee Stadium 1.0. Back in the 20's through the 50's and early 60's attendance was regularly 30,000 to 40,000 and big sell outs 70,000 for Sunday doubleheaders. It was a great place to watch a game as the seats were very close to the field. Great seat were down the RF line only 296' from home plate. Right center bleachers, 345' were also good seats for 50 cents. It was built for baseball. For football the right center bleachers were the best seats in the house.
Also, they didn't just knock out 20,000 seats. They tore the roof off and turned the place into a dump.
@@deepcosmiclove You'd think they could have saved the roof and facade.
@@deepcosmicloveMLB made them tear out the roof as by 1973, roofs were banned except for domed/retractable roof stadiums as I remember. I believe that remodeling was at the insistence of MLB, who I believe wanted the super-short right field porch (296 feet) eliminated. That to me is why Yankee Stadium was remodeled.
@@WaltGekko In some measure you are correct. But the MLG "recommendations" were for new stadiums only. In the late 60's and early 70's the Yankees stunk and I mean they were horrible. There were no more 70,000 Sunday doubleheaders. No more weekday 30,000 games. There was just this vast stadium with 60,000 empty seats. This is why they tore the place apart.
I loved and dearly miss Clevelend Municipal stadium. I went to 100's of game there and ALWAYS enjoyed it.
Went to the last night game of the Indians in 1993 and there were 72,000 plus. It was incredible since most of the games i ever went to saw 5,000
I saw the last Army-Navy game played at JFK/Municipal on 1 Dec 1979. It was a massive place where the fans sat on benches. Definitely a throw back to giant arenas with few amenities. Im happy I got to see it though.
I grew up going to the South Philly sports complex area. By that time, JFK had been replaced by Wells Fargo Center(Corestate's Center at the time in '96). Also, JFK Stadium's most notable moment would be hosting the North American leg of Live Aid '85.
your voice and demeanor are great bud please keep putting out videos
Grew up in Cleveland. Municipal was beyond a dump. Poles in the way, creaky uncomfortable seats and they were too small. If you were under the upper deck you couldn’t see fly balls or punts. It smelled. I5 was an abomination. I loved it.
Cleveland Municipal Stadium: 80,000 football... 72,000 baseball.
I always wondered why Chicago and Philadelphia built stadiums that looked like they were trying to recreate the Circus Maximus.
🤔
And the LA Collesium.
Chicago put up Soldier Field in a bid for the Olympics. While many events, concerts, the old Pro-College Bowl games were held there as were midget stock car races, even a sky jump, it basically has been a white elephant--perhaps owing to the previous politics of Chicago, and who actually owns the stadium. Even the largest crowd to ever see a high school football game (an estimated 100,000+) was in there.
Loved old cleve stadium.....miss the Tribe!
Another entry would be original Stanford Stadium. Seating 85000+ that is about 12 times the undergraduate enrollment of the school. Stanford games rarely drew more than 25000. It did allow Stanford Stadium to host a Super Bowl and World Cup games, which is crazy to think as its amenities and facilities were extremely spartan, even for the time, and sightlines were terrible. Eventually maintenance of such a massively oversized, decrepit stadium became too much and a much smaller, modern stadium took its place.
Rice Stadium has a very similar history, even hosting a Super Bowl, as a wildly oversized stadium for a small, non-football school, though that has been refitted and reduced several times, trying to maintain it without replacing it entirely. Also Rice Stadium actually is a pretty nice place to see a game, better than the old Stanford Stadium.
With the exception of Aloha Stadium, none of these stadiums were “built too big”. I live near Philadelphia and old buildings and architecture is a hobby of mine. Speaking for JFK stadium, it was used by the city quite wisely. It held not only football games games, but several big time boxing matches, as well as political rallies and the Phillies used it for the culmination of their 1980 World Championship parade. The stadium became obsolete because of its age, not its size. Hell, the Vet replaced JFK and held over 60,000- which was great in the late 70’s early 80’s when the Eagles and Phillies were competitive. But appeared too large when they weren’t.
As the university of Michigan and Penn State prove, if you put a fine product on the field, there is no such thing as a stadium being too big. Don’t blame the stadium for lousy teams.
Cleveland Indians sold out when they had winners, they just had too few competitive teams.
And don't forget about the live aid concert
They could have rebuilt JFK in the late 1960's for the Eagles to seat 75-80,000 which would have allowed The Vet to have been built as a baseball-only stadium seating around 50,000. Maybe both stadiums are still here if they did that.
Football stadiums do well in smaller communities, eg NFLs Lambeau, A&MS Kyle field, Penn State Beaver stadium, Bryant-Denny in Tuscaloosa,
As mentioned some were built for the Olympics and warranted the size. Most of them were built with bench seating and no luxury boxes. Each extra seat brought in the revenue. The cost was probably not that much more to build bigger.
Los Angeles coliseum was also built too big. It was competed in 1923, built for the Olympics in 1932. Outside of USC vs UCLA games, it never sells 97,000 tickets. The Rams struggled to fill it halfway, but now there's SoFi stadium
Candlestick Park was a stadium that was built way too big in that freeway access going to and leaving the stadium was a complete nightmare when the stadium was filled to capacity. It was also too cold and windy during baseball season and the Giants baseball team suffered low attendance for many seasons until they moved up north to AT&T Park.
And the great thing about Oracle Park (it's no longer A T and T) is one doesn't have to drive there. One can take Muni if one lives in San Francisco, BART from the East Bay, then Muni on the Embarcadero, Cal Train if one lives down the Peninsula or the San Jose area, and a ferry comes over from Oakland.
Very true , games should have started there at 10:30 in the morning because by 3 pm the wind would kick up and blow infield dust and hot dog wrappers into the air . As mentioned , the freeway access was very bad .
A couple of examples from outside the US that I can think of.
Estadio de la Cartuja, Seville 57,000 capacity. This was built as part of a failed Olympic bid and has struggled to justify its existence ever since. It has no tenant team. It’s recently started hosting the Spanish Cup final even though it’s not the best soccer stadium
in Seville. Not just too big but also pointless.
Stadio San Paolo, Naples. This opened in 1959 with a capacity of nearly 90,000. Napoli only ever filled it semi regularly during the Maradona era and the rest of the time they would see 50,000 against even Juventus or Milan as a good crowd. It’s capacity was recently reduced to 54,000 which has coincided with a revival in the home team’s fortunes in the field has seen it sell out more often. It’s still a poor stadium for
soccer with its Athletics track and I’m not aware that it’s ever hosted a major track and field event worthy of the size.
What year Olympic games this Spanish city was trying to host?
La Cartuja hosted the 1999 Athletics WC. You need a stadium this big to host that. It's also true that after that event, the stadium is rarely used.
I’m actually glad they are remaking the Aloha Stadium, since there is not that much people that live/go to Hawai’i.
You should do an investigation into how many teams made palyoff runs just after they got a new stadium. Its suspect
*playoff
@@email5023 It worked ! I got a perfectionist to respond !!!!
Cleveland Stadium was built to attract the Olympics, resulting the round shape. For the record, Superman, aka Bo Jackson, hit a home run to the bleachers. It isn't just the distance, the wind from the lake blew in that direction.
I would have loved to see the Indians 1995 season at Muni Stadium. Those crowds would have been massive
Too bad they couldnt win it all, definitely one of the top 5 teams all time to not win it all
People might have actually been able to get tickets if that were the case! From 1994 to 2001 every Jacobs Field game was sold out. I rarely got to go to games.
@@Lostmymind1 the stadium was so big this still had a giant general admission section in the outfield. Ugh that would have been a hell of a year
Better to build a stadium too big than to build one too small. I think teams would rather have empty seats than have to turn paying customers away because there's no room for them.
Not necessarily. Sometimes there's an allure to the "crowded parking lot."
The CFL's Montreal Alouettes once committed to the folly of playing regularly in a NFL capacity stadium (Olympic Stadium) and they'd be lucky to put 10K in it. A scheduling fluke put them in McGill's 20K stadium and from then on, Olympic Stadium became the "special occasion game" location while the McGill stadium became the regular one. It completely revived the franchise's fortunes.
The first stadium you show is a very old photo of Michigan Stadium (before it was expanded with skyboxes). Yes its big, its the biggest stadium outside of Asia, and it can hold over 115,000 people, a record when Michigan played Notre Dame. . Michigan Stadium sells out every season -- and in attendance it sets all records for College Football. Why is it too big?
The Big House is not too big when your team draws right at 110,000 per game.
The best part about cleveland municipal stadium was that it held 80k ppl and only had like 4 bathrooms.
During Browns games they would have orderly lines with people queuing up to pee in one of the bathrooms corners.
How about the Pontiac Silverdome ?
Totally agree. Sadly many home games during Barry Samders era were blacked out. Silverdome was around 80,300. The last home playoff game against Green Bay didn’t sell out (around 68,000 attendance) and was blacked out in the metro Detroit area. Too bad they didn’t tarp off sections of the upper level to make capacity around 65,000.
Agreed...way too big...cavernous even.
What about the Pontiac Silverdome which was home to the Detroit Lions?
Soldier Field was the correct size for 75% of it's life before the major renovation in 2000. It was build before football was a sport and the bears didn't play there for their first half century of existence. It was the perfect size for concerts, nascar races, track and field events, college football games, civic events, etc...
I saw 2 of the greatest concerts in US history at JFK Stadium. Live Aid and The Jackson's Victory Concert. Other than that, it didn't get much play during the 80s.
Can you do a video on Atlanta Fulton County Stadium? Today was the 30th anniversary of the press box fire which happened before a Braves vs Cardinals game.
It must have been the smallest stadium in sports. Atlanta pitcher Pascal Perez got lost for hours in Atlanta looking for the stadium and ended up missing his start.😂
I remenber that game. It was on TBS. Wow 30 years ago!
@@donluego9448 I was at that game. Perez drove around the Perimeter (I-285) not realizing that it did not pass through downtown.
Its so funny now because Solider Field is actually the smallest stadium in the NFL and many fans have complained that is cannot accommodate all fans (price influx)
Thanks for new video
Entry #1 literally needed 10 Cent Beer Night to sell out a game.
Think about THAT for a moment.
05, 06, 07 aloha stadium was packed out.
I remember going to the old solider field when I was a kid!! The exterior and all those stone pillars put me in mind of the romans!! I remember like it was yesterday!!! Just subscribed
You may want to include the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (77,500) and the Rose Bowl (92,542).
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum should be mentioned. It was out of date after the 1932 Olympics.
It's been out of date nearly 90 years. It was out of date for the '84 Olympics.
Hawaii has had decent teams over the years and always brought in a big name team usually at the end of the season. Alabama, Nebraska,USC, Arizona State were some of the teams who played there bringing thousands of fans. BYU pretty much a guaranteed sell out.
100k+ seats is INSANE... When you really think about it compared to the USA population for example, we have 330 million ish people. How can anyone ever think that will get filled?
@scrubdubby3855 - 100,000+ stadiums fill up every Saturday in college football; Michigan Stadium hasn't had a crowd of less than 100,000+ since 1974 and a record crowd of 115,109, Ohio Stadium, Bryant Denny in Alabama, stadiums for Texas A&M and Texas; LSU's Tiger Stadium, Penn State's Beaver Stadium, Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, TN.
4:40 That picture of a boxing match is very impressive. Seems like it'd be hard to see the action unless you're close, though.
_'..hard to see the action..'_ ? lol Man, if that's not the understatement of the year.
You can put every multi use stadium up there. Nobody was selling those out in MLB
Went to dozens of Cleveland baseball games where the attendance was under 10,000. Talk about cavernous. Also saw the Rolling Stones there with probably 90,000 others. What a show. But the place was sorely outdated.
What about Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh or Exhibition Stadium in Toronto?
The 1960-1986 version of the Orange Bowl in Miami was likely overbuilt. 80,000 capacity. Only two tenants - the Dolphins (10 home games) and the U of M football (6-7 games) plus an annual new years Bowl game.when the Dolphins were an NFL champ power in early 1970s - they filled the place - but after that ( even though,they had good teams)was a struggle to sell out 80,000 stadium and 60,000 crowds were the norm. U of M only started to get big crowds regularly after 1982 …prior to that 20,000 -30,000 was the norm.
Next - stadiums that stole way too much of peoples tax money.
The list would be too long.
Oil Can Boyd, when he pitched for the Red Sox commented on Cleveland Stadium when a game was postponed due to fog, “What do you expect when you build a stadium on the ocean?” Says it all.
Most MLB stadiums have too many seats for regular season games. Playoffs would work
The Wells Fargo Center, home of the Flyers & 76ers, sits where JFK was standing
Was at JFK in Philly for Live Aid in '85' and Pink Floyd in '87'. Every bit of that stadium was used for both concerts.
Exhibition Stadium in Toronto was considered too big. That stadium was designed for football. Never to be for baseball.
I went to JFK Stadium a couple times for concerts and the place was a cave. When I saw Pink Floyd in 1987, we were near the top in pretty much a different area code as the stage we were so far away. When I saw The Police and a few other acts in '83 I was more off to the side in the 2nd row but still kind of far. But they used to fill it during concerts. The Floyd show drew 120,000 which was twice as many people as my home town which is wild.
I don't most of those stadiums were too big, just awkwardly built!
U shaped stadiums had no business being around, Solider Field, JFK (Philly), Shae stadium, and Exhibition Stadium are some weird u shaped stadiums
You completely missed old Baltimore Municipal Stadium, which was on the same site as Memorial Stadium. Baltimore built this 80,000 seat capacity park in 1922 in hopes of drawing a pro football team to the city. The Army/Navy games were played there for many years until pro football finally came to the city when the AAFC Miami Seahawks relocated to become the ORIGINAL Baltimore Colts who played in the AAFC from 1947-1949, and was one of the three teams to move to the NFL during the 1950 NFL-AAFC merger, only lasting one season before folding. (The other 2 teams were the SF 49ers and the ORIGINAL Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens)
The stadium was rebuilt for baseball after old wooden Oriole Park of the minor league Baltimore Orioles burnt to the ground. The stadium was renovated again when the St Louis Browns came to town as the new MLB Orioles in 1954. The home plate from Municipal Stadium was used in Memorial Stadium, which in turn was in turn was moved to Camden Yards when it was opened in 1992.
JFK was HUGE! Biggest crowd I was in was the Aminsity International concert in 88, 138,000 people! I was in section WB, aka way back.
The LA Coliseum was built for the Olympics, not for MLB. It absolutely is not too big for football, and was used for baseball only as a temporary option until construction on the current Dodgers Stadium was completed.
Thats not even in this video
I attended the last concert at JFK stadium. Grateful Dead, summer of 89.
Rich Stadium in Buffalo for most of it’s history. They blacked out home games there for YEARS
Thanks to Mayor Lightfoot, the Bears have just left Chicago.
Not really the original Yankee Stadium was built when baseball was king the number one sport !
Oakland Colosseum---when was the last time they used all those seats?
The A’s drew over 55,000 to the Wild Card game agains the Rays in 2019.
Los Angeles Memorial Colosseum? 100, 000 seats and 3 bathrooms!
Insert any NASCAR track built during the cookie cutter era
Or any track in the 90s and 2000s. NASCAR got greedy and overexpanded in that era. That level of popularity wasn't sustainable and all it took was a recession to start the decline.
I love this guy's cleveland accent.
Saw Live Aide at JFK & it was awesome!!!
Soldier Field was built so that the Bears had a place to help other franchise look good frankly they could tear it down tomorrow because Chicago needs another parking lot
RFK was perfect for the Live Aid concert
Wasn’t the polo grounds really large at one point?
Bristol motor speedway could have made the list
Now that NASCAR has been a little off, the stadium has been not so full. Great for watching racing, Not a single good seat in the house for watching football.
Bring your binoculars.
Soldier Field and RFK have sold out concerts consistently.
Taxpayers had no business funding these places for people to chase a ball.
They are demolishing Aloha Stadium because it would cost too much to repair it. The problem is the type of steel it was built with, it's corroding because of the salt-laden environment.
Yes, i have a whole video about it
How about best stadium for concerts
$1 beer night in Cleveland did the trick!
Surprised LA Coliseum was not in this video
Nice video 👍.
I'm sure that were was an additional purpose intended for Soldier Field and the Philadelphia field, such as polo, rugby, or cricket. Wembley also was used for dog racing, so horse or dog racing might be another possibility.
Soldier Field was built to host the Olympics, but it never happened. For many years, the south end of the horseshoe even had a never used Olympic torch. There were always some events held there, but it wasn't really suitable for American sports events until the Chicago Park District was forced to do something to keep the Chicago Bears, after having lost the Chicago Cardinals to St. Louis because of the poor condition of the stadium.
@@MetroCSN That's good to know! Poking around, the U-shape is pretty common, and I think it might've started with Harvard.
European stadiums don't seem to be built like that. London, Berlin, and Paris all had all-round seating. Kind of interesting, they seem modeled after the Circus Maximus. Philly's was similar in design.
The Polo Grounds (second one - NYC) were built in the same fashion. I want to say they could play GAA and cricket in there as well, which probably crossed the mind of Chicago when they built it.
I thought the video maker though just shrugged and wondered "Who would build a football stadium like that?". Football wasn't a thing back then.
Heck the reason the NFL field size is the way it is, because Harvard and McGill played the first games, and Harvard Bowl was small (McGill has a rugby field, which became the CFL standard).
@@patrickvolk7031 The U-shape is probably from Greek/Roman arenas and amphitheaters and just expanded for a simple way to provide more seating.
One note: I'm pretty sure the Browns sold out most of the time at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Let's not forget, football is a secular religion in northeastern Ohio.
Aloha Stadium is actually condemned.
OG Stanford Stadium:
Great and unique topic choice, though I don't align with all of your choices. These venues were products of their time, with different needs when they were built.
For instance, Cleveland Muni was not built just for the Indians and, in fact, the Indians only played there regularly for a year and a half and then moved back to League Park, only using it on weekends when they could outdraw League Park's cozy size. (It was also not built to lure the 1932 Olympics. That's an easily-disproven urban legend.) It was built before professional football in Cleveland, and the Rams did not even play there when they were founded five years later, so football was not the intent. That said, it was intended to draw large-scale events, like an Army-Navy game or an exhibition game of similar stature (Ohio State, etc.). Like the other venues, large public events were more commonplace before the advent of home entertainment and even the popularity of movie theaters. Muni was sized appropriately for its intent.
Jfkfor Floyd,. Roundup., Monsters, Desad, Frampton, Stones was awesome. Also bobus, had perfect alcoves for pee spots when tailgating for Birds, Phils or going to see show at the rectum.
What about Rice stadium 🏟 in Houston?