Cleveland Stadium
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| Missing image Clevelandstadium2.jpg Cleveland Stadium | |
| Location | Cleveland, Ohio |
| Opened | July 1, 1931 |
| Closed | December 16, 1995 |
| Capacity | 78,000 |
| Owned By | City of Cleveland |
| Architect: |
F.R. Walker of Walker & Weeks |
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Dimensions:
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Cleveland Stadium (also known as Municipal Stadium, Cleveland Municipal Stadium and The Mistake on the Lake) was a baseball and American football stadium located in Cleveland, Ohio. The stadium sat 78,000 for both football and baseball - though as many as 86,000 crowded in for some games.
The stadium was opened on July 1, 1931, and hosted a heavyweight boxing match between Max Schmeling and Young Stribling two days later. Local lore - apparently incorrect - states that the stadium was built in a failed bid to attract the 1932 Summer Olympics, which went to Los Angeles. Rather, it was apparently built to host high school and college football games and for the Cleveland Indians. The Indians played night and weekend games at the stadium from 1932 until 1947 - still playing weekday games at League Park, which lacked lights - and then all of their games from then until the beginning of the 1994 season, when the team moved to Jacobs Field. The stadium was so cavernous due to the dual setup for baseball and football that an inner fence was constructed in 1947 to cut down the size of the field. No player ever hit a home run into the center field bleachers, nearly 480 feet away. Over the years, the fence was repeatedly moved back and forth depending on how it would favor the Indians - sometimes, reputedly, in the middle of the night.
The facility, located just across the street from Lake Erie, was known for the biting cold winds that would blow into the stadium in winter and, for that matter, during much of the spring and fall. Hot summer nights would compensate by attracting large flying insects.
The NFL's Cleveland Browns began playing at the facility in 1946, and played there until 1995. Team owner Art Modell, having paid for substantial improvements to the stadium in the late 1970s and having decided to forgo joining in the Gateway Project that built Jacobs Field for the Indians and Gund Arena for the Cavs, decided to move the team to Baltimore, Maryland after the 1995 season, though the NFL decided to award an expansion franchise, which began operation in 1999. It was clear that the old stadium was no longer financially attractive, and the NFL ensured that Cleveland would build a new stadium for the reborn Browns. The stadium was demolished the next year - and the pieces were literally taken across the street and dumped in the lake, so as to create an artificial reef for fisherman and divers.
Cleveland Browns Stadium now stands on the site.