Millions of sports fans jam stadiums each year to watch their favorite teams compete. The idea of a big "bowl," with terraced steps on which people can sit, goes back nearly 3,000 years, to the ancient Greeks. When the first Olympic Games were held in 776 B.C., the events took place in a magnificent stadium built for the occasion in the city of Olympia. Ancient stadiums still stand, such as the one at Pergamum, in Turkey.
The Greeks, and later the Romans, erected many of these arenas, which often were used for entertainments other than sports. Circuses were held there, and plays were performed on a stage at one end.
Today, stadiums continue to have various uses. Yankee Stadium in New York City, for example, is mainly a place to play baseball. Yet it has also held huge crowds who have wanted to attend a concert or to hear the pope during his visit to the United States.
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