WI: Great Toledo Fire?

For the Willard-Dempsey boxing match of July Fourth, 1919, a purpose-built, one-time stadium was constructed. To prevent gatecrashers, the arena had only one entrance/exit. 90,000 were in attendance. If a fire had broken out (perhaps if the management hadn't banned smoking), what would have been the broader effects of potentially tens of thousands of casualties at such an event? How would sports in general have been impacted?
 

Caspian

Banned
For the Willard-Dempsey boxing match of July Fourth, 1919, a purpose-built, one-time stadium was constructed. To prevent gatecrashers, the arena had only one entrance/exit. 90,000 were in attendance. If a fire had broken out (perhaps if the management hadn't banned smoking), what would have been the broader effects of potentially tens of thousands of casualties at such an event? How would sports in general have been impacted?

Steel and concrete baseball stadiums were already in vogue, and I dont believe any of those ever burned down (unlike the older, wooden stadiums they replaced - I believe the final Polo Grounds in New York was the forth stadium to occupy the site, if I remember correctly).

I can see such an event merely lending support for faster adoption of steel and concrete stadiums, without having too much of an architectural impact on sports in particular. I'm not qualified to speak on the effects on boxing or non-sport architecture.
 
For the Willard-Dempsey boxing match of July Fourth, 1919, a purpose-built, one-time stadium was constructed. To prevent gatecrashers, the arena had only one entrance/exit. 90,000 were in attendance. If a fire had broken out (perhaps if the management hadn't banned smoking), what would have been the broader effects of potentially tens of thousands of casualties at such an event? How would sports in general have been impacted?

Over the span of the next decade, some of the largest stadiums in the world were built. It is possible that overreaction might lead to a fear of them bring too large, which would have a huge effect on the development of sports both collegiate and professional. IIRC, Notre Dame, Michigan and Ohio State all built large stadiums in the 1920s. 1919 was also the year of the Black Sox scandal, so perhaps you get a backlash against large sporting events in general?

In any case, it would be a catastrophe of epic proportions which would be long-remembered with ten thousand or more people killed by fire or being trampled in the panic. It would truly be awful.
 
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