They don’t call Boston the City of Champions for nothing. It is the home base for some of the most successful professional franchises in history; and, unsurprisingly, within its limits rest some of the most sacred sites in sports.
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Boston’s 7 must-visit sports venues, mapped
These include Harvard Stadium and Fenway Park as well as the Boston Marathon Finish Line

Alumni Stadium
Boston College’s football stadium dates from 1957, when it opened to replace an Alumni Field woefully under-capacity for the growing popularity of the game at the school.
It seats a maximum of 44,500 after two expansions, the last one in 1995.
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Harvard Stadium
Harvard’s home field dates from 1903, and was the first freestanding concrete stadium in the United States.
That feat was ground-breaking enough, but the arena’s design also inspired the development of the forward pass in football, a move that revolutionized the game (to say the least).
It holds around 60,000 spectators, max, with temporary seating around the horse shoe’s open end.
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Nickerson Field
Born out of the former Braves Field used by the MLB franchise that decamped to Milwaukee in 1953, Boston University’s stadium was one of the first in the nation to adopt AstroTurf, beginning in the late 1960s (FieldTurf, another kind of fake grass, has since supplanted it).
The arena seats only about 10,500.
Fun fact: From 1960 to 1962, it was the first home of what were then called the Boston Patriots, well before the advent of the NFL and the construction of Gillette.
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Agganis Arena
Boston University’s men’s hockey arena (among other uses) is the youngest and the smallest number on this map of Boston’s most significant sports sites.
It opened in 2005, and seats between roughly 6,100 and 7,200, depending on the event. (It’s pictured here just before that opening.)
Agganis replaced the Commonwealth Armory, which started life as a military depot in the early 20th century and then ended its run as a concert venue.
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Fenway Park
Any tour of the city’s most significant sports sites would have to include the home of the Red Sox.
Fenway is the oldest major-league ballpark in the U.S., dating from 1912. It seats about 37,000, give or take and depending on whether it’s a night or a day game.
Fun fact: Fenway is also one of the tiniest MLB parks, with (among other diminutives) the shallowest outfield and shortest distance to center field.
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Boston Marathon Finish line
This end point, of course, took on immense symbolism after the terrorist bombing there five years ago that injured dozens and killed three at the site, and less than three days later led to the death of an M.I.T. police officer.
The 121-year-old marathon’s finish line remains justly recognized worldwide as the terminus of America’s most famous footrace, although it will always be bound up in the tragic events of April 2013.
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TD Garden
The successor of the Boston Garden opened in 1995, and holds between 18,000 and 20,000, depending on the event.
The arena, which has been majorly renovated three times and which is surrounded by major development, is home to the NHL’s Bruins and the NBA’s Celtics.
There is also a museum inside dedicated to New England sports.
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