{{No footnotes, date=October 2020
Octorad is a term coined to describe a style of
stadium
A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...
architecture in the late 1960s. The term suggests eight radiuses, the design incorporating four arcs of a large circle to comprise most of the structure, and four arcs of a smaller circle to round out the corners. It was a variant on the archetypal
multi-purpose stadiums
Multi-purpose may refer to:
Buildings
* Arena
* Auditorium
* Civic center
* Coliseum
* Convention center
* Facility
* Gymnasium, also called "Multi-Purpose Room" (MPR)
* Multi-purpose stadium
* Music venue
* Sports venue
Vehicles
* Multi- ...
of the time, many of which were either conventionally circular or oval, and were often criticized for poor sight line angles for many spectators at
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
and
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
games.
The most prominent examples of the octorad style were
San Diego Stadium
San Diego Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in San Diego, California, United States. Opened in 1967 as San Diego Stadium; it was renamed Jack Murphy Stadium for sportswriter Jack Murphy (sportswriter), Jack Murphy from 1981 to 1997. From 1997 t ...
in
San Diego
San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
, which opened in 1967 and was demolished in 2021; and
Veterans Stadium
Veterans Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, at the northeast corner of Broad Street (Philadelphia), Broad Street and Pattison Avenue, part of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. The seating ca ...
in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
, which opened in 1971 and was demolished in 2004.
Both stadiums accomplished the goal of providing better sight lines for spectators. However, the architecture of those two stadiums still put a large majority of the fans far away from the action.
Other terms sometimes used for this design were " super circle" and "square circle".
File:Superellipse rounded diamond.svg
File:Qualcomm Stadium-baseball.jpg
File:Veterans stade.png