Cleveland Browns Stadium



Cleveland Browns Stadium is a stadium in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, and is the home of the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League. It is located at North Coast Harbor, near the Great Lakes Science Center and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The stadium sits on 31 acre of land between Lake Erie and Cleveland Memorial Shoreway (Ohio State Route 2). It has a capacity of over 73,200. The stadium hosts other events, such as college and high school football games, soccer games, and concerts.

History
Cleveland Browns Stadium sits on the former site of Cleveland Municipal Stadium, which was the team's home for 49 years. Ironically, Browns owner Art Modell moved the franchise to Baltimore (and ultimately became the Baltimore Ravens) because he said the city would not refurbish Cleveland Municipal Stadium, which caused the city to build the new stadium. As part of the deal with the National Football League to reactivate the Browns, the city of Cleveland tore down Cleveland Stadium after the 1996 season to make room for the new facility. Debris from the former stadium was submerged in Lake Erie and now serves as an artificial reef.

Ground was broken on May 15, 1997, the stadium opened in July 1999. The first Browns game at the stadium was played on September 12, 1999, a 43-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Facility
The stadium was designed by the Sport Division of Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum (HOK), which is now known as Populous. Dallas-based Huber, Hunt & Nichols was the construction manager. The stadium is a concrete and glass structure, using precast concrete and cast in-place for the upper concourse. Natural stone accents were used at the base of the stadium. The construction of the concrete superstructure took more than 6000 truckloads of concrete, or the equivalent of 60000 cuyd, with a weight of approximately 235000000 lbs.

The playing surface is a Kentucky Bluegrass irrigated field, with a sand-soil root zone and an underground heating system that involves nine boilers and 40 miles of underground piping. The heating system prevents the field from freezing and extends the growing season of the turf. Although it was designed for football, the playing surface was built large enough to accommodate international soccer matches.

The eastern seating section is the home of the Dawg Pound, a section of 10,644 bleacher seats whose occupants are commonly regarded as some of the most passionate in football. It is similar to the original Dawg Pound in Cleveland Municipal Stadium, although the new iteration contains two levels of bleachers instead of one.

Stadium naming
The city chose not to sell the naming rights to the stadium itself, which is unorthodox for major American stadiums built in recent years. However, it sold the naming rights to each of the facility's four entrance gates. Originally, the gates were named for National City Bank, Steris Corp., CoreComm Inc., and the Cleveland Clinic Sports Health. Since the acquisition of National City by PNC Financial Services, Cleveland Browns Stadium does not today have naming rights to any of the gates. The gates names are now intermediate directions where the stadium's gates are located.

Services
The stadium does not have public parking facilities. However, there are several adjacent parking facilities: the Port Authority visitors lot, the West 3rd Street parking lot, and the Great Lakes Science Center parking garage. Additionally, the West 3rd Street station of Cleveland's Waterfront light rail line serves the stadium.

Non-Browns events
The stadium hosts other events. The Ohio Classic college football game was held there in both 2004 and 2005. In September 2006, it hosted the Bowling Green Falcons-Wisconsin Badgers game. In 2007 it began hosting the Patriot Bowl, a season-opening game between Army and Akron. Boston College defeated Kent State in the second Patriot Bowl on August 30, 2008. In 2009, it hosted the Ohio State-Toledo game.

It has hosted numerous high school football games. The stadium has hosted playoff games of the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) tournament. In June 2010, the Browns announced that four area powerhouses would play in doubleheader named the High School Football Charity Game. The games were played on August 28, 2010. The stadium also hosted a game between the United States and Venezuela in the run-up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup. It also hosted a women's soccer friendly game between the United States and Germany. It was chosen as the site of the opening and closing ceremonies in the 2014 Gay Games.