Dou you think race courses qualify as stadiums??

I'll go with yes. Spectators, whether you think the race is a sport or not.

Yes, but the sport is not team based.

A stadium to me should have stands on all sides, or at least around most of the pitch/field area.

They're stadiums, yeah.

yes :)

http://www.worldstadiums.com/stadium_pictures/north_america/united_states/tennessee/bristol_speedway1.jpg

IMO no.
Just some nascar pist are real stadiums, but the majority is not surrounded by stands

I think it's a fairly difficult call.
The example en1044 posted would qualify as a stadium in my view.
But many other race courses wouldn't.

http://www.google.de/images?q=tbn:Pp_9Lfn5rUGWCM::www.racecams.de/images/nordschleife_gr.jpg

The famous Nürburgring for example is simply not like a stadium at all. The tradtional Nordschleife is a huge racetrack in the forest with a few stands and grass hills spectators sit on.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/thumb/a/a4/Br%C3%BCnchen.jpg/800px-Br%C3%BCnchen.jpg

It does also have large stands in the part of the much shorter GP course, but the rest of the 20.832 kilometers of the traditional racecourse mostly just look like a pretty lonely road in the forest.
In Le Mans it's very simmilar.
And the racetrack in Monte Carlo simply just consists of the city streets used every day. So all those types of racecourses surely wouldn't qualify as stadia, I believe.

I tend to pretty much go along with Wezzas way of defining it.
Wikipedia has this to say:
A modern stadium (plural stadiums or stadia[2]) is a place, or venue, for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts or other events, consisting of a field or stage partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.
Doesn't really say anything about racetracks... But it doesn't exactly seem all too helpfull in terms of definition either.

The problem with Wezzas attempt is, that some stadia just have a single stand on one side of the pitch, some stadia only have two opposite stands. And that's also pretty far from reaching around most of the pitch, field or area.

Yes, but the sport is not team based.

That's a bizarre argument. :nuts:

yes :)

http://www.worldstadiums.com/stadium_pictures/north_america/united_states/tennessee/bristol_speedway1.jpg

To me, that's a racing circuit or race track - this is a racecourse:

http://www.prestbury.net/magazine/pictures/200703_2007_0110_140100aa_racecourse2r.jpg

bristol motor spedway - yes every other racecource - NO so i voted no

Yes, but the sport is not team based.
Neither is singles tennis.

What CharlieP said - racecourses are for horse racing. :)

Flemington Racecourse (http://www.austadiums.com/stadiums/stadiums.php?id=50) has a capacity of 120,000 with a record of almost 130,000 in 2006 which only makes it the country's biggest venue.

some are no different than an athletic stadium with a track, people running in an oval vs a car going in an oval, same basic idea as they are stands facing the oval with concorses, bathrooms, consesion stands, press boxes, luxury boxes, ect. I'm not a nascar fan but how are these not stadiums?

http://www.*******************/north-america/us/alabama/images/s/talladega.jpg
http://www.*******************/north-america/us/kansas/images/s/speedway.jpg

they are stands....

Definition from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadium

A modern stadium (plural stadiums or stadia[2]) is a place, or venue, for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts or other events, consisting of a field or stage partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.

Therefore in my view, race places are outside of stadium meaning.

Definition from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadium



Therefore in my view, race places are outside of stadium meaning.

If you going to quote wiki then how is it outside of that deffinition. Wiki lists racetracks on the stadiums by capatity page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stadiums_by_capacity#Motor_Racing_Venues

also worldstadiums.com lists racetracks

Charlotte's race track is 80% surrounded, it has a field, does it count?

It's curious how the oval racing culture impregnated in the US. I enjoy oval racing, I like NASCAR, IndyCar, but it's curious why they always loved that kind of racing. I guess Horse racing must have been extremely popular in the past there.

Anyway, I voted no, with the exception of Bristol Motorspeedway - a case that generates lots of discussion among architects, Bristol is a Stadium IMO.

If you going to quote wiki then how is it outside of that deffinition. Wiki lists racetracks on the stadiums by capatity page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stadiums_by_capacity#Motor_Racing_Venues

also worldstadiums.com lists racetracks

Its splitted on this page between current stadiums and Motor Racing Venues. Also the defintion speaks from partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed

and usually motor racing venues are in my opinion not structure designed. And worldstadiums.com is for me not a reference page, they can list up everything their, if they want...