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Located along the banks of the Ohio
River and home of the Cincinnati Bengals, Paul Brown Stadium has been
the home of the Bengals since 2000. Prior to moving into Paul Brown
Stadium, the Bengals played at Riverfront Stadium, a multipurpose
stadium they shared with the Cincinnati Reds (MLB). As Riverfront
Stadium began to show its age during the 1990s and NFL teams shifted towards building football
only stadiums, the Bengals focused on getting a new stadium built.
In 1991, Bengals owner Mike Brown suggested that Riverfront Stadium
was becoming an obsolete NFL stadium because it lacked an adequate
amount of
luxury suites and other amenities. Over the next several years, Brown
struggled to gain support for a new stadium for the Bengals. Rumors
began to swirl that the team might move to either Baltimore, Cleveland,
Los Angeles or Lexington, KY. However, in 1996 Hamilton County voters
approved a referendum allowing a new stadium to be built. Constructed just blocks away from Riverfront Stadium,
groundbreaking ceremonies occurred on April 25, 1998. Contrary to
most other teams in the NFL, the Bengals decided not to sell the
naming rights to the stadium. Instead they decided to honor their team
founder, Paul Brown, and name the stadium, Paul Brown Stadium.
The
Bengals inaugural first game at Paul Brown Stadium was on
September 10, 2000. The stadium's exterior has a sleek futuristic
architectural design. Over 65,000 green seats are located
throughout Paul Brown Stadium. The lower deck circles the entire
playing field. A club level and upper deck are also located on
both sides of the field. An additional second deck of seats is
located beyond the north end zone. There are video/scoreboards
located above the seats in the south and north end zones. Paul
Brown Stadium has several amenities including 144 luxury suites,
over 7,000 club seats, two club restaurants and a Bengals team
store. Fans attending games at Paul Brown Stadium can see
beautiful views of the Cincinnati skyline and the Ohio River. As a
result of the ongoing turf problems with the grass at Paul Brown
Stadium, the Bengals decided to replace the surface with FieldTurf
after the 2003 season. Although for many years the Bengals were a
terrible team, that drew poorly; fan support has increased as the
team continues to build a winning franchise.
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