Epilogue – Cathedrals of Sport

Europe has a much longer history of building sport-related edifices than the United States, starting with the ancient Greeks and continuing through the Roman empire. The construction that has unfolded in the United States may be of more recent origin, but the historic trajectory of such construction is not unlike what transpired in ancient Greece and Rome. [ ¹ ] The first American ballparks were modest and lacked amenities, but over time, as was the case in Europe, more sophisticated and more elaborate construction began to take shape. American sports venues were built with secular intentions, unlike construction in early Greece, so in a sense, the Roman model, with politics at its core, was more similar to what has unfolded in the United States.