Huntington Bank Field

• 1. Introduction

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  The evening of the 12th of September, 1999 saw the Cleveland Browns play their first regular-season game at Huntington Bank Field. They lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers 43 to 0. The score felt like a prophecy.

  Huntington Bank Field stands in Cleveland's North Coast Harbor on 31 acres of lakeside land. Its neighbors include the Great Lakes Science Center and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On that same site, an older facility called Cleveland Stadium had stood since 1931. Through the end of the 2023 season, Huntington Bank Field was the only venue in the NFL that had never hosted any kind of postseason game.

  In 2011, a local comedian named Mike Polk recorded a video outside the stadium and called it the "factory of sadness." The phrase stuck. The origins of this stadium reach back to 1995, when team owner Art Modell announced he was moving the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore.

• 2. Birth From Controversy

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  The day after Modell's announcement, voters in Cuyahoga County approved an extension of the 1990 sin tax on alcohol and tobacco products. The extension was intended to fund renovations to Cleveland Stadium. Meanwhile, the city of Cleveland and Browns season ticket holders had initiated legal action.

  The city of Cleveland, Modell, and the NFL eventually reached a three-way agreement. The city agreed to demolish Cleveland Stadium and build a replacement on the same site, financed by the sin tax funds. Modell agreed to leave the Browns name, colors, and history in Cleveland. His franchise moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens. The NFL promised to restore a Browns team to Cleveland by 1999, through expansion or the relocation of another franchise.

  Demolition of Cleveland Stadium began in November 1996 and finished in early 1997. Rather than haul the debris away, workers submerged it in Lake Erie, where it now serves as an artificial reef. Ground was broken for the new building on the 15th of May, 1997. The finished stadium hosted its first event on the 21st of August, 1999: a preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings.

• 3. Design and Construction

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  Populous designed the stadium, working at the time as the Sport Venue Event Division of Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum. Indianapolis-based Huber, Hunt and Nichols served as construction manager. The structure is built of concrete and glass, with natural stone accents at the base.

  More than 6,000 truckloads of concrete went into the superstructure alone, equivalent to roughly 60,000 cubic yards and weighing approximately 235 million pounds. The playing surface is Kentucky Bluegrass, grown in a sand-soil root zone over an underground heating system. Nine boilers and 40 miles of piping keep the turf from freezing and extend its growing season. The field was sized to accommodate international soccer matches.

  The east end zone is home to the Dawg Pound. The bleacher section was designed as a successor to the Dawg Pound at the original Cleveland Stadium. At opening in 1999, it occupied a double-deck space seating 10,644 people.

  Browns owner Jimmy Haslam announced a modernization program in 2013. Work took place during the offseasons of 2014 and 2015. The 2014 phase installed scoreboards three times the size of the originals. At the time, those screens ranked fourth largest among NFL venues. The upper level of the Dawg Pound was reduced to make room for the new screen, and those bleacher seats were replaced with chairbacks. Phase two brought concession improvements, technology upgrades, and enhancements to the premium suites. The estimated cost of the full program was $120 million; the city of Cleveland covered $30 million of that, paid over 15 years. Seating capacity fell from the original 73,200 to the current 67,431.

• 4. The Name Game

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  National City Bank, Steris Corporation, CoreComm Incorporated, and the Cleveland Clinic Sports Health were the original sponsors of the stadium's four main entrance gates. Cleveland had chosen to sell naming rights to those gates rather than to the building itself. This was highly uncommon for a major American stadium of that era.

  Randy Lerner sold the Browns to Jimmy Haslam, CEO of truck stop chain Pilot Flying J, in August 2012. Before the transaction closed that October, Haslam announced he would sell the stadium's naming rights. He ruled out his own family business as a buyer. None of the offers he had received came from companies based in his home state of Tennessee.

  On the 14th of January, 2013, it was reported that FirstEnergy Corporation had purchased the naming rights. The company was an Akron-based electric utility serving most of northeastern Ohio. The stadium was formally renamed "FirstEnergy Stadium, Home of the Cleveland Browns" the following day. Cleveland City Council gave its official approval on the 15th of February, 2013. The arrangement carried an irony. The stadium's power was actually generated and paid for by Cleveland Public Power, the city's own utility, not by FirstEnergy.

  In June 2022, Cleveland City Council passed a resolution urging FirstEnergy to relinquish the naming rights. The council cited the company's involvement in the Ohio nuclear bribery scandal. At the time, neither the Browns nor FirstEnergy moved to revoke the deal. On the 13th of April, 2023, the two parties announced they had agreed to terminate the naming rights arrangement immediately. The original deal had been set to run until 2029.

  On the 3rd of September, 2024, Haslam Sports Group announced a 20-year naming rights partnership with Huntington Bank, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Under the terms of the deal, the Huntington Bank name would follow the team to whatever facility it moves into next.

• 5. Beyond the Gridiron

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  George Strait performed the first concert at the stadium in 2000. NSYNC followed the next year as part of their PopOdyssey Tour, along with a performance by The Three Tenors. U2 played on the 1st of July, 2017, as part of The Joshua Tree Tour 2017. Tickets went on sale on the 17th of January and sold out the following day. Taylor Swift performed on the 17th of July, 2018. Beyonce and Jay-Z followed on the 25th of July, 2018, as part of their On the Run II Tour. Machine Gun Kelly, a Cleveland-area native, played his Mainstream Sellout Tour's final U.S. stop on the 13th of August, 2022. He drew 42,086 fans.

  The Patriot Bowl, held from 2007 through 2009, was billed as a season-opening showcase for teams from the Mid-American Conference. The third and final edition matched Ohio State against Toledo. Though it was technically a Toledo home game, the crowd of 71,727 was mostly Ohio State fans.

  The U.S. women's national soccer team drew its largest Ohio crowd on record here in 2016. A total of 23,535 fans attended a 2-0 win over Japan. The U.S. men's national soccer team has also played at the stadium on multiple occasions. Results include a 2-0 win over Venezuela ahead of the 2006 World Cup and a 4-2 loss to Belgium in 2013. That Belgium match drew 27,720 fans. On the 19th of April, 2025, Columbus Crew hosted Inter Miami CF at the stadium, seeking to capitalize on the popularity of Lionel Messi. The match drew a club-record 60,614 spectators. Some Crew fans objected to the venue change, and supporters' group Nordecke organized a soft boycott.

  On the 18th of February, 2023, the stadium hosted a college hockey game between Ohio State and Michigan, titled Faceoff on the Lake. The crowd of 45,523 set an attendance record for an outdoor college hockey game at a neutral site. Ohio State won 4-2. The Cleveland Monsters Outdoor Classic followed on the 4th of March, 2023. Ice conditions forced a five-hour delay, but the Monsters defeated the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 3-2 in overtime before 22,875 fans.

  The 37th edition of WWE's SummerSlam took place at the stadium on the 3rd of August, 2024, with an attendance of 57,791.

• 6. The Move Question

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  The Browns' lease at the current stadium is set to expire at the end of the 2028 season. In October 2024, Cleveland mayor Justin Bibb and the Browns announced plans for a new indoor stadium. The proposed site is in Brook Park, adjacent to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. The team targeted the 2029 season for the move.

  Ohio's Modell Law was designed to prevent franchises from abandoning publicly funded facilities. The city of Cleveland argued that the Brook Park plan violated it. The team sued the city in October 2024, seeking clarification on the law's scope. The city countersued in January 2025 to enforce it.

  Dennis Kucinich served as mayor of Cleveland in the late 1970s. He was also one of the Modell Law's principal authors during his time in the Ohio Senate. In late August 2025, he filed a lawsuit against the Browns on behalf of taxpayers. The Ohio legislature approved public funding for the new stadium on the 30th of June, 2025. The Ohio Department of Transportation issued a construction permit on the 18th of September. The agency had determined the project would not interfere with airport operations.

  The Browns and the city announced a settlement on the 13th of October. Under its terms, the team agreed to pay the city $100 million, covering demolition costs for the current stadium among other items. The city agreed to drop its lawsuits and cooperate with infrastructure improvements near the airport. The team officially broke ground on the 2nd of March, 2026, with a ceremonial event following on the 30th of April. If the new stadium is not ready in time, the Browns have options to extend their lease through the 2029 or 2030 seasons.