The Yale Sun Bowl Concert Incident provides one of
the greatest examples of all time on how the environment can affect
participants in a leisure/sports/entertainment facility. The Yale Bowl
was an old large stadium that was built during the times when Ivy League
football drew extremely large crowds. Concert promoters decided to rent
it out for a summer concert with the Beach Boys. The day of the concert
was extremely hot, with temperatures in the Bowl reaching more than 100
degrees Fahrenheit. In the disturbance that occurred at this event most
of the underground sprinkler system was torn up, urinals were torn from
the walls in rest rooms, and lots of other damage occurred. First Aid
stations were overloaded beyond belief.
What about this facility caused the university and promoters not
to realize that they would have problems if this was a hot day?
What could have been done to prevent the problems?