Yankee "Stadium" myth?

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

The New York Yankees have won approval for a plan for a new Yankee Stadium
to be built next to the old one.
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8 April 2006, New York Post, pg. 23, col. 1:
Yankee Stadium was the first ballpark to be called a "Stadium" rather than  a
"Field," a "Park" or a "Grounds."
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Is that true? (ProQuest is down until 10 a.m.)
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(OED)
stadium
   2. A  race-course for foot-racing, originally a stadium in length; hence
occas.  foot-racing as an exercise. In mod. use often in extended sense, a
place for  athletic exercises; spec. an enclosed area for sporting events equipped
 with tiers of seats for spectators. (The pl. stadiums is usual in this
sense.)
1603  _HOLLAND_ (http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-h3.html#holland)
Plutarch Explan. Words,  Stadium, a race or space of ground, conteining 625.
foote. 1676  H. VERNON in Phil. Trans. XI. 579 There is  the stadium yet to be
seen. 1749  _G.  WEST_ (http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-w2.html#g-west)
Pindar's Odes, Diss. Olympic Games i. (1753)  II. 10 Homer..introduces his
greatest Heroes contending in the  very same kind of Exercises, with those
practised in the Stadium of Olympia. Ibid. vii.  61 The simple Foot-Race, named the
Stadium, from the Length of  the Course. 1833  _SIR H.  ELLIS_
(http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-e.html#sir-h-ellis)  Elgin Marbles I. 26 One of the
 greatest of the public works of Athens was the stadium of Herodes Atticus.
1834  BARON  BERENGER (title) Particulars and Recommendations of the Stadium,
or British  National Arena for Manly and Defensive Exercises, Equestrian,
Chivalric and  Aquatic Games..at the Residence of the late Lord Cremorne. 1847
_GROTE_ (http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-g2.html#grote)  Greece II.
xxviii. IV. 96  Kylon..had gained the prize in the Olympic stadium. 1866  _ALGER_
(http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-a.html#alger)  Solit. Nat. & Man  II.
51 We always think of the oracles of the gods as dropping in grove  and
grotto, not in street and stadium. 1901  Westm. Gaz. 27 Feb. 8/2 The  stadium for
sports, covering ten acres, is one of the chief features of the  [Pan-American]
Exposition [at Buffalo]. 1928  Times 20 Apr. 6/6 It would be  difficult to
imagine a more impressive enclosure than the Stadium [sc.  Wembley Stadium] for
the holding of the greatest football festival of the year. 1938  _L. MACNEICE_
(http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-m.html#l-macneice)   Earth Compels 59
It's no go the  picture palace, it's no go the stadium. 1972  G. GREEN  Great
Moments in Sport: Soccer iii. 44 As for Lenin Stadium itself, it was very
much like Wembley before  the cover went on, an elliptical concrete monster,
liberally dotted with exits  and entrances, and steeply tiered.

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