University of Wyoming Building New Vomitories At War Memorial Stadium

In their renovation plans for War Memorial Stadium, it may sound like the University of Wyoming is installing areas for football fans to barf after drinking too many beers, but a "vomitory" is actually an architectural term for exit.

Clair McFarland
November 09, 2023 • 3 min read



War Memorial Stadium on the University of Wyoming campus in Laramie. (Google)

A Wyoming wordsmith thought he’d seen it all until the University of Wyoming announced a plan to build vomitories at War Memorial Stadium in Laramie. ... “Having been to UW games since 1967 – and seen it all there – I assumed the writer was jokingly referring to restrooms and what some fans do at the game,” Kevin Bohnenblust, a longtime communications expert who lives outside Cheyenne, joked Wednesday in a Facebook post.

Bohnenblust told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that he’d been casually scrolling through a KGAB news story about UW’s plan to update the UW football stadium when the incongruous architectural term caught his eye.

“Turns out that ‘vomitory’ is a correct word for a passage ‘where masses of people are disgorged,’” Bohnenblust said, adding, “That by itself sounds gross.” ... Bohnenblust noted that for years, people spread rumors about the “vomitoria” of ancient Rome being areas used to barf out food so the Romans could continue eating. But that’s a myth, he said.

History.com agrees, noting that the zones did exist, but they were for “vomiting” — or expelling — people, not venison sacrificed to the gods. ... The vomitoria at the Colosseum in Rome were so efficiently designed, the site says, they could spew 50,000 people into the arena in just 15 minutes.

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Clair McFarland can be reached at Clair@CowboyStateDaily.com.