Paul Brown Stadium

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 stadium for the NFL because it lacked enough 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 that allowed a new stadium to be built. The stadium was constructed just blocks away from Riverfront Stadium. Ground breaking ceremonies took place 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 architecture 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.