Paul Brown Stadium



Paul Brown Stadium is an American sports stadium located in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the home venue of the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League. It opened on August 19, 2000. The stadium was named after coaching legend Paul Brown, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame who founded not only the Bengals in 1966, but also the Cleveland Browns franchise in 1945. This was rare in an era where naming rights of the new sports venues were purchased by large corporations.

The Cincinnati Bengals were the last American Football League team enfranchised and was done so only after Paul Brown was assured that the team would merge with the National Football League when the merger of the two leagues was completed in 1970.

Paul Brown Stadium is nicknamed "The Jungle", an allusion not only to the namesake Bengal tiger's natural habitat, but the Guns N' Roses song "Welcome to the Jungle" from their 1987 Appetite for Destruction album. The song is played before games and the opening guitar riff is played during games as well as official local radio broadcasts. The nickname dates back to 1988 during the Cincinnati Bengals' tenancy at Riverfront Stadium/Cinergy Field. That year, the Cincinnati Bengals went to the Super Bowl, ultimately losing to the San Francisco 49ers 20-16. However, it was not until 2004 that the Bengals organization officially recognized the nickname. A jungle motif and orange and black tiger stripes were added to the stadium's interior walls. To exhort the fans, an animation of a Bengal tiger prowling through the jungle seeking out a flag bearing the logo of their opponent is shown before the opening kickoff. Once he sees the flag, he slashes at it with his claws.

Paul Brown Stadium is located on approximately 22 acre of land and has a listed capacity of 65,535. The Cincinnati Bengals are the sole tenant (although the stadium has hosted several Cincinnati Bearcats and other college games). They played their first regular season game in Paul Brown Stadium against their intrastate rivals, the Cleveland Browns; the very first game in the facility was a pre-season game against the Chicago Bears.

History
In 1996, Hamilton County voters passed a one-half percent sales tax increase to fund the building of two new home venues for both the Bengals and the Major League Baseball Cincinnati Reds. Previously, the Bengals and the Reds shared tenancy of Riverfront Stadium/Cinergy Field, but both teams complained that the aging multipurpose facility lacked modern amenities and other things necessary for small market teams to survive. Paul Brown Stadium was built first. After the Bengals moved into Paul Brown Stadium, Cinergy Field was partially demolished to allow construction of what became Great American Ball Park and the field was sodded with natural grass. On December 29, 2002, Cinergy Field was demolished.

For the first four years, the field was natural Kentucky Bluegrass, but problems arose in maintaining it. At one point, the field was rated as the third-worst field in the league. Hamilton County explored other options and chose the FieldTurf system. FieldTurf looks and feels like real grass, and since the field markings are actually sewn into the fabric, repainting between games is unnecessary. The reduced maintenance saves the county approximately $100,000 annually. Additionally, it opens Paul Brown Stadium to other uses without worry of damage to the turf. The FieldTurf was installed for the 2004 season. The field is one of only two stadiums in the NFL to have "five miles of piping running under the field to keep the rubber inlays heated.

Two light emitting diode (LED) video displays at either endzone, installed in 2000, ensure that every spectator has a good view of the on-field action. The displays were designed, manufactured and installed by Daktronics out of Brookings, South Dakota and measure more than 26 ft high by 27 ft wide. Over 200 feet of ribbon display was also installed along the fascia of the stadium.

The University of Cincinnati Bearcats and the eventual national champion Ohio State University Buckeyes played the first college football game at Paul Brown Stadium on September 21, 2002. On September 5, 2009, the University of Kentucky Kentucky Wildcats and the Miami University Miami Redhawks played their opening games there. On February 25, 2011, the University of Cincinnati announced that they would use the stadium as an alternate home site by playing two Big East Conference home games at the stadium for the 2011 football season.

Additionally, the Macy's Music Festival (formerly the Cincinnati Jazz Festival) is held there every year.

Unusual for a venue the size of Paul Brown Stadium, in the spring, it hosts the annual Queen City Classic Chess Tournament.

Paul Brown Stadium also houses the Bengals' administrative offices and training and practice facilities. There are three smaller practice fields nearby. Two are sodded with natural grass while the third is equipped with AstroTurf.

As a convenience for fans, for a nominal fee, several local busing companies offer round trip transportation to Paul Brown Stadium from designated locations throughout the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area. One such example is the Cincinnati Metro's Jungle-to-Jungle Express, which originates at Jungle Jim's International Market in Fairfield, a suburb of Cincinnati.

Fans enjoy premium seating options in the 114 private suites and thousands of club seats. Amenities include in-seat food and beverage service and access to the club lounges for fine dining options. There are also several CPR units located throughout the stadium.

On-site retail merchandise sales are available in the Bengals pro shop, located on the plaza level on the north end of the stadium. There are fifty-six concession stands and eight stores.

Paul Brown Stadium is the only football stadium to make a list of "America's favorite 150 buildings and structures," according to a Harris Interactive survey. Paul Brown Stadium ranked 101st on the list, whose range included all manner of major structures — skyscrapers, museums, churches, hotels, bridges, national memorials and more. No other football stadium was voted among the top 150, and among all sports venues, only Wrigley Field (31) and Yankee Stadium (84) ranked higher than Paul Brown Stadium. NBBJ designed Paul Brown Stadium.