Is Daytona A Stadium?

[Rollo75]

CamoDesigns: Amazing race amazing experience so upset Jimmie wrecked. Larson knocked Down the wall. I could hear it from the opposite side of the stadium. Brad hit here too. Glad they’re okay.
The_Tigg: Stands not stadium, this is racing not no ball and stick game.
- via Shoutbox, 21st Jan 2022.

Betteridge's Law is an one of those lovely laws of customs; which says "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word, 'No.'"

Is Daytona A Stadium? No.

If it is not, then what is it?

Firstly - what it is not.

Stadium is derived from the Greek stadion (στάδιον); which is a is a unit of measure - which is about 600ft.

Daytona International Speedway is a speedway which is officialy stated as being 2.5 miles long.

2.5 * 5280 = 13,200
13,200 / 600 = 22

Daytona is about 22 stadia long.
A Greek venue is a Theatre (θέατρον - theatron) or possibly a Circus (κρίκος).
Even that big thing which we call the Colosseum is named after the statue of the Colossus which stood out the front but the Romans would have called it the "amphitheatrum" (both sides theatre).

Daytona International Speedway is properly a Circus because it is round.

 

[jacobc62]

Um..... that math is incorrect. You calculated the length of Daytona as if it was one long single stretch of road, when one would need to measure from the center point of one end (in the middle of turns 1/2 or turns 3/4) and and the center point of the the opposite end. That distance is roughly only ~1.02 miles long, measuring from outside retaining wall to outside retaining wall.

(1.02 x 5280) / 600 = 8.976

Daytona is effectively only 9 stadia long in actuality.


Also, a speedway - by it's very definition in the Oxford English Dictionary - is a type of stadium. Therefore, the answer to the question of "Is Daytona a stadium?" is in actuality a difinitive "Yes", as Daytona is a larger type of speedway. The same thing goes for literally every other racetrack around the world.

Phoenix? Stadium.
Silverstone? Twisty Stadium.
Eldora? Dirty Stadium.
Bristol Motor Speedway? The best Speedway to ever Stadium in the history of Stadiums.

 

[ZiggyM]

https://www.britannica.com/technology/stadium - "The Greeks also built hippodrome stadiums similar in layout but broad enough to accommodate four-horse chariot races"

https://www.etymonline.com/word/stadium - "The meaning "running track," recorded in English from c. 1600, was extended to mean in modern-day context "large, open oval structure with tiers of seats for viewing sporting events" (1834)." Yes, auto racing IS a sporting event

https://www.worldhistory.org/Stadium/ - "The stadion was also the name of the place where spectators watched the event. The track itself was usually prepared with hard-packed clay" (dirt tracks, for certain).

The Circus Maximus was mentioned in a NASCAR commercial years ago and referred to in this Daytona promo -

View: https://youtu.be/_Wz71pJ9ogk?t=58



"Circus" and "aphitheatre" are types of stadiums (Daytona IS a circus). The promo mentions "Coliseum", which is an amphitheatre, again, a type of stadium.

Yes, Daytona is a race track and therefore a 'stadium'.

Have fun!

 

[Rollo75]

Um..... that math is incorrect. You calculated the length of Daytona as if it was one long single stretch of road, when one would need to measure from the center point of one end (in the middle of turns 1/2 or turns 3/4) and and the center point of the the opposite end. That distance is roughly only ~1.02 miles long, measuring from outside retaining wall to outside retaining wall.

(1.02 x 5280) / 600 = 8.976

Daytona is effectively only 9 stadia long in actuality.

Unlike Harpastum or Calcio Fiorentino though, the playing surface is not the middle of that ring.

Granted though, that chord length is 9 stadia.

 

[Cola83]

The Circus Maximus was the largest chariot stadium in ancient Rome and accommodate as many as 200,000 spectators = to Daytona. Daytona is a Stadium

 

[Rollo75]

The Circus Maximus was by definition and name... a circus.