Cleveland Stadium

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Cleveland Stadium
Lakefront Stadium
Municipal Stadium
ClevelandMunicipalStadium1993Interior.jpg
Final baseball season, September 1993
Location 1085 West 3rd Street
Cleveland, Ohio 44114
Owner City of Cleveland
Operator Cleveland Stadium Corporation
Capacity Baseball: 74,438 (1993)
 originally 78,000 (1932)
Football: 81,000 (1995)
Field size Left Field - 322 ft (98 m)
Left-Center - 385 ft (117 m)
Center Field - 400 ft (122 m)
Right-Center - 385 ft (117 m)
Right Field - 322 ft (98 m)
Backstop - 360 ft (110 m)
Cleveland Municipal Stadium
Located in Ohio
Located in Ohio
Coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
NRHP Reference # 87002287
Added to NRHP November 13, 1987
Surface Natural grass
Construction
Broke ground June 24, 1930
Opened July 1, 1931
Renovated 1947 (inner fence installed)
1967 (new seats)
1974 (new scoreboard, suites)
Closed December 17, 1995
Demolished November 4, 1996
Construction cost $3,000,000
($46.7 million in 2024 dollars[1])
Architect Walker & Weeks
Osborn Engineering Company
General contractor Biltmore Construction[2]
Tenants
Cleveland Indians (MLB) (1932–33, 1936*–93)
Cleveland Browns (AAFC/NFL) (1946–95)
Cleveland Rams (AFL/NFL) (1936–37, 1939–41)
Cleveland Indians (NFL) (1931)
Cleveland Stokers (NASL) (1967–68)
Great Lakes Bowl (NCAA) (1947)
The Cleveland Indians played weekend and holiday games at Cleveland Stadium from 1936–46.

Cleveland Stadium, commonly known as Lakefront Stadium or Municipal Stadium, was a multi-purpose stadium located in Cleveland, Ohio. It was one of the early multi-purpose stadiums, built to accommodate both baseball and football. The stadium opened in 1931 and is best known as the long-time home of the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball, from 1932 to 1993, and the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL), from 1946 to 1995, in addition to hosting other teams, sports, and being a regular concert venue. The stadium was also a four-time host of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, one of the host venues of the 1948 and 1954 World Series, and the site of the original Dawg Pound, Red Right 88, and The Drive.

Through most of its tenure as a baseball facility, the stadium was the largest in Major League Baseball by seating capacity, seating over 78,000 initially and over 74,000 in its final years. It was superseded only by the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum from 1958 to 1961, while it was the temporary home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and by Mile High Stadium in 1993, the temporary home of the expansion Colorado Rockies. For football, the stadium seated approximately 80,000 people, ranking as one of the larger seating capacities in the NFL.

Former Browns owner Art Modell took over control of the stadium from the city in the 1970s and while his organization made improvements to the facility, it continued to decline. The Indians left for Progressive Field after the 1993 season. Although plans were announced to renovate the stadium for use by the Browns, in 1995 Modell announced his intentions to move the team to Baltimore citing the state of Cleveland Stadium as a major factor. The Browns played their final game at the stadium in December 1995. As part of an agreement between Modell, the city of Cleveland, and the NFL, the Browns were officially deactivated for three seasons and the city was required to construct a new stadium on the Cleveland Stadium site. Cleveland Stadium was demolished in 1996 to make way for FirstEnergy Stadium, which opened in 1999. Much of the debris from the demolition was placed in Lake Erie to create an artificial reef.

History

The impetus for Cleveland Municipal Stadium came from city manager William R. Hopkins, Cleveland Indians' president Ernest Barnard, real estate magnate and future Indians' president Alva Bradley, and the Van Sweringen brothers, who thought that the attraction of a stadium would benefit area commerce in general and their own commercial interests in downtown Cleveland in particular.[3] However, some have incorrectly stated that it was built in a failed bid to attract the 1932 Summer Olympics, which had been awarded to Los Angeles in 1923,[4] long before ground was broken on the stadium.[5] Another common misconception is that Cleveland Municipal Stadium was a Works Progress Administration project; in fact, the WPA was not created until 1935, four years after the stadium was built.[6]

In November 1928, Cleveland voters passed by 112,448 to 76,975, a 59% passage rate, with 55% needed to pass, "a $2.5 million levy for a fireproof stadium on the Lakefront." Actual construction costs overran that amount by $500,000.[7]

Construction

Built during the administrations of city managers William R. Hopkins and Daniel E. Morgan, it was designed by the architectural firms of Walker and Weeks and by Osborn Engineering Company. It featured an early use of structural aluminum. The stadium was dedicated on July 1, 1931. On July 3, 1931, it hosted a boxing match for the National Boxing Association World Heavyweight Championship between Max Schmeling and Young Stribling, with 37,000 fans in attendance. Schmeling retained his title by a technical knockout (t.k.o)-victory in the 15th round.

The Donald Gray Gardens were installed on the stadium's north side in 1936 as part of the Great Lakes Exposition.[8] They remained until the construction of Cleveland Browns Stadium.

Seating capacity

Baseball

  • 78,811 (1932–1948)
  • 73,811 (1950–1966)
  • 74,056 (1967-1968)
  • 76,966 (1969–1975)
  • 76,713 (1976–1980)
  • 76,685 (1981)
  • 74,208 (1982–1988)
  • 74,483 (1989–1993)
Cleveland Municipal Stadium under construction in 1931

Football

  • 83,000 (1932–1967)
  • 79,282 (1968–1974)
  • 80,385 (1975–1983)
  • 80,098 (1984–1991)
  • 78,512 (1992–1995)[9]

Tenants

Indians

The stadium was built for football as well as for the Cleveland Indians, who played their first game there on July 31, 1932, losing to the Philadelphia Athletics' great pitcher Lefty Grove 1-0 while attracting a then-major-league-record crowd of 80,184.[10] The Indians played all of their games at the stadium from the middle of the 1932 season through 1933. However, the players and fans complained about the huge outfield, which reduced the number of home runs. Moreover, as the Great Depression worsened, attendance plummeted.[11] In 1934 the Indians moved most of their games back to their smaller previous home, League Park.

In 1936, the Indians began playing Sunday and holiday games at Cleveland Municipal Stadium during the summer. Beginning in 1938, they also played selected important games there. Starting in 1939, they played night games there as well because League Park didn't have lights. By 1940, the Indians played most of their home slate at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, abandoning League Park entirely after the 1946 season. They played there until the end of the 1993 season, after which they moved to Jacobs Field (which was later named Progressive Field).[12]

View of center field in 1993. Lake Erie can be seen just outside the stadium. Visible beyond the outfield wall is a portion the original (larger) outfield area.

The stadium anticipated problems that would emerge 40 years later when cookie-cutter stadiums were in vogue. Due to the fundamentally different sizes and shapes of baseball and football fields, the baseball sight lines generally left much to be desired. The original baseball playing field was so large that an inner fence was constructed in 1947 to cut down the size of the spacious outfield. Even after it was put in, the distance markers on the bleacher walls remained visible for many years; it was 470 feet from home plate to the bleachers in straightaway center field. No player ever hit a home run into the center field bleachers. According to his own autobiography, Veeck - As in Wreck, Indians owner Bill Veeck would move the fence in or out, varying by as much as 15 feet, depending on how it would favor the Indians, a practice that ended when the American League specifically legislated against moving fences during the course of a given season.

Like some other facilities built before warning tracks became standard, the stadium had an earthen berm in front of the center field wall. After the inner fence was installed, the berm was still visible during football season.

The facility, located just south of Lake Erie, was known for the biting cold winds that would blow into the stadium in winter, as well as during much of the spring and fall. Because of its proximity to the lake during hot summer nights, its lights attracted swarms of midges and mayflies. Game 2 of the 2007 American League Division Series, in Jacobs Field (now known as Progressive Field) on October 5, 2007, brought back memories of the old stadium, when swarms of midges (misidentified by the television announcers as mayflies) infested the field, particularly the pitcher's mound.

In 1948, when the Indians won the American League pennant and World Series behind pitcher Bob Feller and shortstop/player-manager Lou Boudreau, the Indians set three Major League attendance records: they had the highest single season attendance, 2,620,627, which was not eclipsed until the 1962 Los Angeles Dodgers,[13] largest regular season night game attendance of 72,434 for the first major league start of Satchel Paige,[14] and biggest World Series game attendance of 86,288 for game 5 on October 10, 1948.[15] However, during the Indians' lean years from the 1960s through the 1990s, they rarely attracted more than 30,000 people, and even crowds of 40,000 looked sparse in the cavernous environment.

In 1949, after the Indians were eliminated from the pennant race, as a black humor-themed promotion they held a mock funeral procession on the field and buried their 1948 pennant behind the center field fence. On four separate occasions, it hosted the All-Star Game: 1935, 1954, 1963, and 1981. The 1981 All-Star Game was notable for two reasons: it was the first game after the conclusion of the players' strike of that year, and it was held the day after a Cleveland Browns exhibition football game. On May 15, 1981 it was the site of Len Barker's perfect game. On its last day as home of the Indians on October 3, 1993, the team's fans, led by comedian Bob Hope, who grew up an Indians fan and was once a part-owner, sang a version of his signature song "Thanks for the Memory" with special lyrics for the occasion.

Football Indians, Rams & Browns

File:Browns Old.JPG
During the last Browns game played in the stadium, December 17, 1995, against the Cincinnati Bengals.

The final incarnation of the Cleveland Indians football team played at Cleveland Municipal Stadium in 1931. The team, a member of the National Football League, only played two home games there that season, with a 6-0 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers and a 14-0 loss to the Chicago Cardinals.[16] the team drew only a crowd of 2,000 spectators for the September 26th game against Brooklyn[17] and 10,000 for the loss to the Cardinals on November 8.[18]

The stadium was later the first home of the Cleveland Rams, which became a charter member of the second American Football League in 1936. After finishing second in the AFL, the Rams left the league for the National Football League in 1937, but stayed in their original home for one more year before moving to Shaw Stadium. After only one year at Shaw, which was primarily a high school stadium, the Rams returned for three years before taking 1943 off due to player shortages during World War II. They would only play one more game at the stadium - the 1945 NFL Championship Game, when the Rams won their only title in Cleveland. Less than a month after that game, the Rams would move to Los Angeles. The vacancy, however, would be short lived.

The NFL's Cleveland Browns began playing at the facility in 1946, and played there until 1995. The stadium was the site of the AAFC Championship game in 1946, 1948 and 1949, and of the NFL Championship Game in 1945 (Washington Redskins v. Cleveland Rams), 1950 (L.A. Rams vs Browns), 1952 (Detroit vs. Browns), 1954 (Detroit vs. Browns), 1964 (Baltimore Colts vs. Browns) and 1968 (Baltimore Colts vs. Browns). It was also the site of the Denver Broncos and John Elway's famous Drive in the January 11, 1987 AFC Championship Game It was also the site of the 1980-81 AFC Divisional Playoff game where Mike Davis of the Oakland Raiders intercepted Brian Sipe in the endzone as Cleveland was driving for a go-ahead score to secure a 14-12 victory and give the Raiders the first of their three playoff victories that year en route to their win in Super Bowl XV.

Dawg Pound

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Main article: Dawg Pound

The center field bleachers at the east end of the stadium were home to many of the club's most avid fans and became known during the 1980s as the Dawg Pound after the barks that fans made to disrupt opposing teams' offensive plays. The fans were copying Browns players Hanford Dixon and Frank Minnifield, who frequently appeared to bark to each other and to the opposition. Some of the fans even wore dog masks and threw dog biscuits at opposing players.

Records and milestones

  • July 1, 1931 - Dedication
  • July 3, 1931 - Opening event: World Heavyweight Championship boxing match between Max Schmeling and Young Stribling, with 37,000 fans in attendance.
  • July 31, 1932 - First Cleveland Indians game, vs. Philadelphia Athletics (loss, 1-0); pitched by Mel Harder[19]
  • September 12, 1954 - A league record 84,587 people attended a Yankees-Indians game.
  • April 19, 1960 - The Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians played 15 innings on Opening Day, tying the record for the longest Opening-Day game.
  • June 17, 1960 - Ted Williams hits his 500th career home run.
  • August 14, 1966 - The Beatles perform at the stadium.
  • June 21, 1970 - Detroit's Cesar Guitierrez got seven hits in seven at bats in 12 innings.
  • June 4, 1974 - Ten Cent Beer Night: The Indians host the Texas Rangers while promoting unlimited beer for $.10/cup for the fans in order to attract fans to the stadium. Due to the rowdiness of the intoxicated fans, the Indians were forced to forfeit the game.
  • June 25, 1977 – 83,199 people attend a concert by the British rock group Pink Floyd.
  • August 21, 1986 - Boston's Spike Owen tied a Major League record by scoring six runs.
  • January 11, 1987 - The Drive: In one of Cleveland's many sports disappointments, John Elway leads the Denver Broncos 98 yards down the field for the tying score late in the AFC Championship Game. Denver wins in overtime, 23-20, earning the right to play in Super Bowl XXI.
  • October 3, 1993 - Last Cleveland Indians game, vs. Chicago White Sox (loss, 4-0)
  • December 17, 1995 - Last Cleveland Browns game, vs. Cincinnati Bengals (win, 26–10)

Other events

College football

The only Great Lakes Bowl was held there in 1947.

The stadium hosted the annual Notre Dame/Navy college football game 11 times: in 1932, 1934, 1939, 1942, 1943, 1945, 1947, 1950, 1952, 1976 and 1978. The games were well attended, with an average attendance of 69,730 and a high of 84,090 fans for the 1947 game, which was won by Notre Dame 27-0. Local colleges Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University used the field from time to time as well. The Illinois Fighting Illini played the Penn State Nittany Lions there in 1959. The Ohio State Buckeyes played in the stadium four times. The first was in a 1942 win over Illinois before 68,656, the second a 1943 loss to Purdue, and the third a 1944 victory over Illinois. The final college football contest played there was on October 19, 1991, when the Northwestern Wildcats played a "home" game against the Buckeyes. While Northwestern received the home team's share of the gate receipts, the crowd was mostly Ohio State fans.[20]

Concerts

In addition to sporting events, the stadium hosted a number of other events including concerts. The first concert held at the stadium, featuring the Beatles, took place in 1966. From 1974 to 1980, the World Series of Rock concerts were held each summer featuring acts such as the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, the Beach Boys and Aerosmith. The Rolling Stones' July 1, 1978 concert of 82,238 attendees was reportedly the first concert to gross over $1 million.[21]

In the 1980s and 1990s, the stadium hosted concerts by the Jacksons, Bruce Springsteen, U2, the Who and Paul McCartney, plus more concerts by Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones.

On September 2, 1995, the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was celebrated with an all-star concert which featured Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Jerry Lee Lewis and others.[22]

The stadium hosts a 1994 Billy Graham crusade

Religious events

The stadium also hosted numerous religious services. Its most heavily attended event was the Roman Catholic Church's Seventh Eucharistic Congress, hosted by the Diocese of Cleveland in 1935, which attracted 75,000 to a midnight mass on September 24, 1935 and an estimated 125,000 to Eucharistic service the following day.[23] One of the stadium's last events was a Billy Graham crusade, held in 1994.

Hollywood

Several scenes for the motion picture, The Fortune Cookie, were filmed during the game between the Browns and the visiting Minnesota Vikings on October 31, 1965. Much of the 1949 movie The Kid From Cleveland, in which Bob Feller, Lou Boudreau, Bill Veeck and Satchel Paige played themselves, was filmed there. Despite being set in the stadium, the 1989 motion picture Major League was not filmed in the stadium. While aerial distance shots of the stadium were used, Milwaukee County Stadium, whose grandstand interior looked similar to that of Municipal Stadium, was used for filming.[24] Some scenes in the 1991 made-for-TV Babe Ruth biopic, starring Stephen Lang as the Babe and with a cameo by Pete Rose as Ty Cobb, were filmed there.[25]

Demise

The stadium was an economic drain on the City of Cleveland, which owned it and originally operated it. In 1973, then-Browns owner Art Modell signed a 25-year lease to operate Cleveland Municipal Stadium.[26] Modell's newly formed company, Stadium Corporation, assumed the expenses of operations from the city, freeing up tax dollars for other purposes.[27] Also, Modell would pay an annual rent of $150,000 for the first five years and $200,000 afterwards to the city. In exchange, Modell would receive all revenue generated by the stadium. Stadium Corp invested in improvements, including new electronic scoreboards and luxury suites.[26] However, the stadium's inadequacy was becoming apparent in any event; chunks of concrete were falling off and the pilings were starting to petrify.[28]

Modell, mistakenly believing that his revenues were not endangered, refused to participate in the Gateway Project that built Progressive Field for the Indians and Quicken Loans Arena for the Cavaliers.[29] Modell's assumptions proved incorrect, and Stadium Corp.'s suite revenues declined sharply when the Indians moved from the stadium to Jacobs Field in 1994.[27] The following year, Modell decided to move the football team to Baltimore, Maryland after the 1995 season.

Modell's move of the Browns breached the team's lease, and the City of Cleveland sued. After the suit was settled, the stadium was demolished the next year and the pieces were dumped into Lake Erie to create an artificial reef for fishermen and divers.[30]

References

  1. ↑ 1634 to 1699: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. 1700-1799: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. 1800–present: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Cormack, op.cit. p.17.
  11. ↑ Clem's Baseball ~ League Park (IV)
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Cormack, op.cit. p.59.
  15. ↑ Cormack, op.cit. p.58.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Toman, op.cit. pp.59-65.
  22. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0321753/
  23. ↑ Toman, op.cit. pp.45-46.
  24. ↑ A partial list of films in Greater Cleaveland
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Henkel 2005, p. 102
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Leventhal, Josh.(2000) Take me out to the ballpark: an illustrated tour of baseball parks past and present. New York, NY: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc. p. 59.

External links

Preceded by Home of the Cleveland Indians
1932 –1933
1936 – 1993 (shared with League Park until 1946)		 Succeeded by
League Park
Jacobs Field
Preceded by
first stadium
 Home of the Cleveland Browns
1946 – 1995		 Succeeded by
Cleveland Browns Stadium
Preceded by Home of the Cleveland Rams
1936 – 1937
1939 – 1941
1945		 Succeeded by
Shaw Stadium
League Park
Last Stadium
Preceded by Host of the All-Star Game
1935
1954
1963
1981		 Succeeded by
Braves Field
County Stadium
Shea Stadium
Olympic Stadium
Preceded by Host of AFC Championship Game
1987		 Succeeded by
Mile High Stadium
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