Hampton Court Palace still has a Real Tennis court with gallery. Does that qualify as a stadium?
Fair enough, if we’re going to presume that college football is not a professional sport. Don’t want to hijack the post for that tangent. If the criteria are professional and major league stadiums, that confines us to discussing just MLB and the NFL in North America.
Chicago’s Wrigley Field is second oldest given that criteria. It opened in 1914. There’s nothing else still in use that opened before 1960, unless you want to stretch to include Lameau Field in Green Bay.
Lambeau Field opened in 1957, though I think one could argue that the stadium now bears little resemblance to the original structure. It was expanded six times and underwent major renovations in 2003. The next oldest would be San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, which opened in 1960 and has been home to the 49ers since 1971.
For what it’s worth, the oldest active NBA arena is Madison Square Garden (opened 1968), and the oldest active NHL arena is Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh (1961). The Penguins will move to a new building next year, making MSG the oldest NHL arena, too.
You’d be hard pressed to argue a case for Harvard football being a professional sport. We’ll leave the SEC, Pac 10, Big 10, etc out of it since none of those cathedrals of football were proposed.
As for Wrigley Field, didn’t they land a UFO on top of it a few years back? D’oh, puts mind in gear, was thinking of Soldier Field. (add on edit)
Amazing! Did they actually jack up Franklin from 33rd and Spruce in Philadelphia and move it to University Park, well over 100 miles away?
FWIW The Milwaukee Mile has held at least one race each year since 1903, making it the oldest continuing automobile racing venue in the world. That’s older than Fenway, but obviously doesn’t come close to horse racetracks, cricket grounds, tennis stadia, English football, or bull fighting. But probably second oldest to horse racing here in the states.
Sorry. I wrote Penn State instead of Penn. The University of Pennsylvania.
So do we have an answer yet? I’m thinking the bullring in Seville is looking like a solid contender, if we discount ancient greek or roman stadiums (disused for too long) and golf courses (distinctly lacking in stadium facilities).