STADIUM, the Latin form of a Greek word for a standard of length. A stade = roo opyvtat (about 6 ft. or one fathom) = 6 7rX0pa (Ioo Greek or about 'or English feet) = about 6o6 English feet, or about one-eighth of a Roman mile. The course for the foot-race at Olympia was exactly a stade in length, and thus the word for measurement became transferred first to the race and then to the place in which it was run. The modern word stadium is used for the permanent construction of an amphitheatre in which games and sports of various kinds can be conducted on a central space surrounded by continuous tiers of seats for the spectators. For a description of the Colosseum and other Roman amphitheatres, with illustrations, see AMPHITHEATRE.
The amphitheatre was a distinctively Roman building. The Greeks had their palaestra, their theatre and their circus. Upon the ruins of one of the most famous of these latter, the first "sta dium" used for the first modern celebration of the revived Olympic games was built. Its original design was carried out in 33o B.C. in Athens. Its reconstruction by Herodes Atticus some 500 years later nearly exhausted the marble of the Pentelic quar ries. It then fell gradually into decay. Excavations were begun by the king of Greece in 1870, and, in preparation for the Olympic games of 1896, this stadium was magnificently restored in white marble, with an arena seating 6o,000 spectators, by the personal generosity of M. Averoff, a wealthy Greek merchant of Alexandria. It enjoys a setting which no other structure of the kind can ever equal, for above it are Lycabettus and the Acropolis. Unfor tunately, as may be seen from the picture, the track contains cor ners at each end which make really high speed impossible and cannot now be altered, and the central enclosure is too narrow for the proper arrangement of the details of a modern Olympic programme. These are the results of taking the Greek instead of the Roman plan as the key of the design.
Though nothing can take from Athens the honour of having been the scene of the first meeting of the revival, it was clear that as soon as the Olympic games were fixed for London (in 1908) more care would have to be taken for the requirements of the modern athlete. The London stadium has remained the type
of all subsequent constructions for successive Olympic meetings, and is also illustrated here, for it is still in use; and the con sideration arises that, as the years pass, many such constructions, more or less permanent, will form an integral part of every great city in which the Olympic games have been or will be held. Those at Stockholm and Paris are also illustrated here. London's sta dium at Shepherd's Bush could hold the whole external breadth of the Athenian marble building upon the ioo yd. of turf inside its running track, and the 235 yd. in length of that same turf is bigger than the external measurement of the Colosseum. The cin der-path all round the grass measures 1,760 ft., or exactly one-third of a mile. A concrete cycle-track runs all round and outside the cinder-path, and is embanked at each corner with solid slopes that form the inside of the wall containing a large public promenade all round the lowest tiers of seats. There are seats for more than 50,000 spectators, built up of steel girders and concrete, contain ing beneath the audience an enormous range of dressing rooms, committee rooms and offices. Two large portions of the seating area are completely sheltered from the weather ; and opposite the royal box is a great concrete swimming bath, built just inside the running track, 1094 yd. long by 5o ft. wide, and a depth of 12 ft. in the middle, with movable raised platforms for high diving. The turf in the centre is 235 yd. long by 99 yd. broad, the cinder path is 24 ft. wide, and the concrete cycle track is 35 ft. broad. The first stanchion was set on July 3r, 1907 ; and the final cost was in the neighbourhood of £40,000. Even larger, and with far more architectural pretensions was the gigantic stadium erected after the World War at a cost of about £200,000 for the Empire Exhibition at Wembley, and that too is, of course, still in use.