What sounds extremely wrong, but is actually correct?

shutterstock

All of the nation of Monaco can fit inside the Indy 500 sports stadium.

This….

is smaller than this…

Note that the first picture is taken at a much closer distance than the second one (the cars at 6 to 9 o’clock are clearly visible in the first shot, while you have to literally squint to see the car at 3 o’clock in the second which is barely a tiny white speck).

Monaco is an extremely tiny nation, with an area of a mere 500 acres.

The Indy 500 racing circuit is the largest sports stadium on the planet with an area of 560 acres.

Note here that the area of the Indy 500 circuit isn’t just the track and area within it but naturally includes the spectator stands.

Nevertheless as astounding as this may seem (fitting a nation within a stadium), it would be less surprising when you look at another comparative statistic.

Which is that the population of Monaco is 38,000 while the seating capacity of the Indy 500 stadium is some 235,000 (permanent seats) which can rise to a stunning 400,000 with infield seating (seats in front of the permanent stands).

Which of course now means that the entire population of Monaco can be seated inside the Indy 500 stadium with nine out of every ten places still empty.

Now 400,000 is comfortably the population of a medium sized U.S. metro area. Imagine getting all the people from not just a city but a whole mid-sized metro area in one stadium.

Here’s another very interesting fact now - the two places each host what are arguably the most high profile races on the international Formula 1 versus domestic American racing calendars.

Monaco is home to the shortest race on the Formula-1 Grand Prix annual circuit. The Monaco Grand Prix which is arguably the most tight and twisty of all of the nineteen circuits on the annual F-1 calendar has a per lap length which is 2 miles long. The Indy 500 race has a lap length of 2.5 miles running straight along the inner circumference. It is some testimony to how tiny the country of Monaco (in fact a city-state) is that a lot of rich spectators watch the race from yachts along the track or from the hotel windows because there is precious little space for spectator stands on the race sidelines.