The next candidate I would like to consider as part of my Modern Cathedrals series (Part 1 here) is the stadium.

Stadiums are amongst the largest, most open and community-centred buildings of our time. A stadium is one of the few buildings where tens of thousands of people can come together for a single purpose, or to view a single event.

Barack Obama’s recent address at the DNC presents a good allegory through which we can explore the religious aspects of the stadium. Here we have thousands of people coming together in ‘worship’ of a captivating figure; by observing some of the members of the audience and their emotional response to his speech, we see that this was certainly a borderline religious event in and of itself. The choice of a Hellenic themed stage and twilight timing only served to strengthen the ethereal nature of the experience. In our allegory we have Obama acting as both the God figure and the head of the church (the papal authority perhaps). That is, people have come to see him, but they have also come to receive a message, a political/ideological message that they can apply to their own selves and actions and also spread to others. We can see the vote as a parallel of belief, and the grass roots campaigner represents the evangelical nature of the lay christian, at least from a short term perspective. Just to round out the metaphor, the media and campaign team can act as the clergy, although there are of course key differences relating to vested interests and their structure is far from hierarchical.

Such a speech is a rare event, seldom does politics draw the masses in quite the way Obama has done. More generally, stadiums form the stage for sporting events. Club football stadiums especially, seem to be tightly analogous to cathedrals; a building where the local community can come together to worship, in a sense.

I came up with a few explanations for why people are drawn to stadiums to watch sport. Most obviously, people attend in pursuit of a feeling of unity, to be a part of an immense mutual desire to see a team win. Not only does this support the team and the team brand, but it provides a sense of warmth and belonging to the individual supporter. We can see this sense of unity not only through the almost militaristic use of team colours, slogans etc, but through the way a supporter tends to align themselves with one particular club whilst directing animosity towards all overs. This is seen more clearly from a national perspective, and represents a (usually) violence free manifestation of a more general national pride. In the past we would have had a war to relieve some of this national fervour, but now we can express it through international sporting events. The sense of unity in a stadium of people united together is tangible. There’s nothing quite like being with thousands of other people all cheering for the same thing to ignite passion and loyalty (as religious and political organisations well know).

We see a similar idea in churches and cathedrals, a community united towards a common goal of spreading the gospel and glorifying God; here again both the individual and the church (team) benefits and animosity is often directed towards unbelievers. The brand of the team is perhaps the most important ideological figure in the stadium; the team members come and go, but the idea of a club remains. This runs parallel to the gospel message, although ’the team’ is much more vague and fails to promise any sort of divine reward or effect the more general thoughts and actions of the supporter. Interestingly, many churchgoers I know seem to be primarily interested in the benefits of being part of the church community, rather than religion itself. Perhaps in our present day current-life rewards and concerns are often worth more than the eternal ones, even within Christianity.

Stadiums can also compete with the spiritual-architectural power of a cathedral. Take, for example, the Chinese bird’s nest stadium for the Olympics. Not only is it an immense physical construction, but it is positively soaking in ideological significance. A united China, a powerful competent nation, a celebration of sport and unity, a political statement; all these are valid depending on your point of view. Club stadiums flaunt the wealth and prestige of the team, the bigger the stadium the greater the club, the stronger the community (or, more cynically, the richer the chairman). Cathedrals were made magnificent with the clear aim of bringing glory to God, stadiums on the other hand are much more diverse in their ideological aims.

Stadiums provide a location for communal celebration, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that sport fans already outnumber religious people worldwide. Hence the stadium seems to be where at least a portion of our new religious pursuits lie.