[OldDeckHand]

The Flavian Amphitheatre (Roman Coliseum) was built in the last century, B.C. It held over 50K and most of it still stands today.

Why can't we, some 2,000 years later, build a stadium that can make it more than 20 or 30 years?

[Nervous Tick]

>> Why can’t we, some 2,000 years later, build a stadium that can make it more than 20 or 30 years?

Because the Romans weren’t handicapped with shoddy, lazy, second-rate union labor?

[discostu]

The problem is that only “most” of it is still standing. Also technology moves forward, newer stadiums have nicer just about everything, better seats, better site lines, better locker rooms, better drainage for rain, better sound system (goof for events other than sports). Our stadiums can last longer than 30 years, they just tend to not be the kind of place you want to put a billion sports business anymore.

[US Navy Vet]

Because we don’t have access to thousands of Jewish slaves and billions of Temple Gold. The same people who built the Temple in Jerusalem built the Coliseum.

[Richard Kimball]

Most of the stadiums are still structurally sound. The Los Angeles Coliseum, for example, was originally built in 1923. It doesn't have all the luxury boxes and other niceties expected of a professional football stadium, though. The same thing is true of the Astrodome. Texas Stadium was still functional, although Jones let it fall into some disrepair after Cowboys Stadium was approved.