This Guide is from the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the National Museum of American History. We empower the public to solve problems, navigate challenges, and effect change in their communities. Since its founding in 1995, the Lemelson Center has led research, exhibition, and educational initiatives that advance new perspectives on invention and innovation and foster interactions between the public and inventors.

The Panathenaic Stadium, originally a natural amphitheater used for athletic competitions beginning in the 550s BCE, was rebuilt of marble in 144 CE. Innovations include staggered starting blocks for runners on a circular track and a horseshoe design that brought crowds closer together and amplified sound. It was abandoned in the 4th century and then excavated in 1869 for Olympic events organized by businessman Evangelis Zappas; it then hosted the first modern Olympics in 1896 and again in 2004.

With room for 50,000, the Colosseum hosted spectacular events and competitions including gladiator combats, dramatic hunts, wild animal fights, and battle reenactments including at least one staged naval engagement. At 157 ft. tall, with 80 entrances, subterranean levels, and built of stone and concrete in an elliptical shape, it has influenced stadiums to the present day. Seating was hierarchical, but giveaways included wooden balls falling from above with tokens for food, money, or prizes.

English soccer originated at universities, but then expanded its appeal when factory workers established teams and built fields adjacent to their workplaces. In 1892, Everton F.C. opened Goodison Park in Liverpool as the first soccer-specific venue in England. Later expansions made it a four-sided stadium featuring three tiers of stands. The team still calls the facility home.

Opened in 1909, Shibe Park in Philadelphia was North America’s first stadium built of steel and concrete. The transition to steel-frame stadiums was not immediate; stone and brick Colosseum-styled stadiums continued to be built into the 1930s, including Franklin Field in Philadelphia when rebuilt in 1922, or perhaps most famously, Berlin’s 1936 Olympic stadium.

Air-inflated stadiums were brief popular in the 70s, starting with the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan, followed by approximately 15 large arenas and stadiums using air pressure technology to hold up the roof. These stadiums suffered high-profile failures from weather, leading to their abandonment. Despite innovations in convenience, multipurpose stadiums proved unpopular. They were disconnected from their communities and the concrete bowl design bored any but the most dedicated of fans.

When it opened in 1989, the Toronto Skydome featured the first working retractable roof on a stadium, able to open or close within 25 minutes. It also had the world’s largest JumboTron; at 110 feet x 33 feet, it cost $17M. The Skydome also has an innovative rail system to rotate seats on the 100 level between football and baseball. Projected to cost $150M, the stadium came in at $570M and earned the dubious honor of being the last multipurpose football/baseball stadium built in North America.

Opened in 1992, Oriole Park at Camden Yards set a new standard for American baseball stadiums through its inclusion of historical elements, integration with its surroundings, and contribution to the renewal of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Sightlines shifted with the playing field set below street level, and its location alongside a historic warehouse at a rail terminus helped it feel connected to the city in a new way. Popular with fans, it sparked a retro stadium construction boom.

Originally built as a venue for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the Sapporo Dome features an innovative grass pitch that slides in and out of the stadium. Conversion between sports events involves lifting the grass pitch on air pressure, then rotating and moving it using built-in wheels. Seats also rotate into place, allowing the stadium to be configured differently for soccer, baseball, or even Nordic ski events, with snow made inside the building using the system that moves the field.

Attention to environmental issues drove stadium innovations in the 2000s. The 2008 Beijing National Stadium—nicknamed “the Birds Nest” due to its striking design—has earthquake protections from a building within a building structure that separates the exterior steel structure from inner stadium seating. Other environmental innovations include a geothermal system drawing on 312 wells to heat the stadium in winter and cool it in summer. It also has a system to collect, filter, and use rainwater.

Built in 2009 using recycled materials, Kaohsiung Stadium’s spiral shape invokes a dragon but also increases air circulation during hot summer months. The oval structure is topped with a roof built of solar panels that can generate up to 75% of the stadium’s energy needs during events. On days when the stadium is not in use, extra energy (some 1.14 GWh annually) is fed into the power grid, making the stadium Taiwan’s largest photovoltaic installation.

Originally opened in 1976, Khalifa International Stadium was expanded to over 40,000 seats in 2005 and renovated in 2017 in preparation for the FIFA World Cup 2022. Environmental technologies, notably energy-efficient cooling, resulted in the stadium being the first in the world to be awarded a four-star rating from the Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS). The stadium anchors the Aspire Zone, which includes a tech accelerator, academy, luxury hotel, mall, and sports venues.

Al Janoub’s design invokes the sails of dhow boats traditionally used for fishing and pearl diving in the Arabian Gulf. Its innovative cooling technology distributes chilled water from underground storage to heat exchangers that blow air through small vents below the seats and along the pitch. The system creates an air envelope around players and fans rather than cooling the full volume of the stadium. After the World Cup, it will be scaled from 40,000 seats to 20,000 for the local Al Wakrah SC.

Built for the FIFA World Cup 2022, the Al Bayt stadium features an advanced polymer closable roof and a novel woven PVC wrap covering its steel framework that looks like traditional cloth of an Arabian tent. For the first time in a century, the structural framework of the stadium is not visible. Like other new stadiums in Qatar, Al Bayt has an air conditioning system that cools the playing field and the stands where fans sit without wasting energy cooling the entire stadium airspace.

Like other stadiums built in Qatar for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Education City Stadium has a demountable upper deck with plans to redesign the stadium for diverse educational uses after 2022. It earned a 5-star environmental rating for its reduced energy consumption, water re-use, indoor environment, site impact, use of recycled and locally sourced materials, public transportation links, and connectivity to the local community.

Designed by local Qatari architect Ibrahim Jaidah, Al Thumama stadium features an innovative exterior polymer cladding in a pattern like the Gahfiya, a traditional Arabian headpiece worn by boys and men under the larger Ghutra. Opened in 2021, the stadium’s upper deck seating will be donated after the FIFA World Cup 2022. Plans are in place to add a sports clinic and boutique hotel, while the area around the stadium will have facilities for a variety of sports.

Newly constructed on the site of an older stadium at the edge of the desert, Ahmad bin Ali stadium seats over 40,000 fans. It features an innovative 39,000 m2 membrane façade invoking traditional Qatari Naqsh decorations that is used to project images of the desert, native flora and fauna, match results, and other information. As part of FIFA World Cup 2022 environmental commitments, 90% of the materials from the prior stadium were recycled during demolition and new construction.

At 80,000 seats, Lusail is the largest of Qatar's eight FIFA World Cup 2022 stadiums. Wrapped in a metallic façade, it has the form of a giant golden vessel. The curved exterior is made up of several thousand flat triangular pieces supported on a steel frame. Its innovative cabled roof and shading system uses an outer compression ring connected to a central tension ring, thereby creating an open expanse without requiring additional support columns.

Built for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the Ras Abu Aboud Stadium is the first “fully demountable” stadium. Built of 949 shipping containers placed on a metal frame, with removable seats and other modular elements, it will be entirely repurposed after 2022. Materials will provide building blocks for another 40K-seat stadium elsewhere, or for several different types of sporting or non-sporting venues, while a new waterfront development will establish a new community in its place.

Stadiums have become central to the experience economy. At SoFi Stadium, new technologies aim to individualize the mass stadium experience through connectivity to handheld devices, on-site games, and other digital interactives as well as sightlines and spaces for fans to create and share social media from their cell phones. The cornerstone of a $5.1 billion sports, entertainment, retail, and residential complex, SoFi also features a massive 70,000 square foot, double-sided “Oculus” display.

Covid-19, environmental impacts, and a generation growing up with cell phones in their hands at all times have led some to question the future of large stadiums for mass in-person events. Yet, the first view of a vibrant green stadium field and the roar of a crowd continue to create lifelong memories unrivaled by television or virtual reality. Please visit the National Museum of American History to learn more about the interplay of technology change with all aspects of our lives.