The first waves of government subsidization for the purpose of stadiums dates to between 97 and 926, which created the first boom in stadium construction. In 926, an article entitled The Playground said the goal was for the stadium to have as broad a use as possible. (Coates, 294). The rationale for the facility was to serve the broad public interest by hosting events such as pageants, parades, and festivals, as well as sporting contests of all sorts from track and field too football and baseball. Stadium subsidization today focuses on a single use, hosting professional sports franchises, which usually have substantial control over the facilities availability for any alternative other events. The article notes that, Not only universities but cities and high schools and private agencies are also joining the stadium ranks and building large structures to accommodate the crowds who attend the athletic activities, festivals, pageants and other large community events (Coates, 295). A building boom was in progress at the time as the number of stadiums rose from in 97 to 70 in 926. By contrast 65 new facilities have opened since 990 and in the five years from 92 u
ntil 926, 56 stadiums had been built. Construction of the 70 stadiums built between 97 and 926 cost in total about $295.65 million in todays dollars (Coates, 294). The Playground article refers to shape and size as the most important characteristics of stadiums that communities should consider before construction. The modern day focus on sport-specific stadiums places far less value on stadium adaptability than in the early 2st century. The transition from public provision of venues available for a wide array of events to public subsidization of privately controlled facilities is fairly recent. The change occurred gradually and it may have begun to occur with baseball-franchise relocations such as the Braves relocation in 953 from Boston to Milwaukee, the Browns in 954 from St. Louis to Baltimore, or the Athletics in 955 from Philadelphia to Kansas City. In these cases the new or recently renovated publicly owned facilities were made available to the baseball franchises on quite generous terms. For example, The New York Times reported on March 5, 953 that the Braves were offered a flat rental of $,000 for the first two years on the new County Stadium in Milwaukee.