Paycor Stadium

Paycor Stadium, previously known as Paul Brown Stadium, is an outdoor football stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the home venue of the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL) and opened on August 19, 2000.

Originally named after the Bengals' founder, Paul Brown, the stadium is currently sponsored by Paycor. It is located on approximately 22 acres of land and has a seating capacity of 65,515 people. The stadium is nicknamed "The Jungle," and the Guns N' Roses song "Welcome to the Jungle" is the team's unofficial anthem because of this nickname.

The construction of the stadium used a lot of public money—$555 million—which was the largest public support for an NFL stadium at that time. The team had said they would leave Cincinnati if the city did not help pay for the stadium.

History

In 1996, people in Hamilton County voted to raise a small part of their sales tax to help pay for building new homes for the Bengals and the Cincinnati Reds. Both teams used to share a big old stadium called Riverfront Stadium, later known as Cinergy Field, but it was too old and didn’t have the things teams needed.

Construction began in 1998, and the new stadium, first called Paul Brown Stadium, opened in August 2000 for the start of the NFL season. The old stadium was partly torn down and later completely destroyed in 2002 to make way for a new baseball park.

The field inside the stadium started with real grass, but it had problems and was hard to take care of. In 2004, they changed it to a special artificial turf called FieldTurf, which looks and feels like real grass but needs less work to keep it looking good. Over the years, the turf was updated a few more times to keep it safe and comfortable for players.

The stadium also has big screens at each end to show the game, and long strips of displays around the top to show scores and other information. In 2022, the stadium got a new name, Paycor Stadium, after a local company that agreed to pay for the naming rights for many years to come.

Notable events

The University of Cincinnati Bearcats and the Ohio State Buckeyes played their first college football game at the stadium on September 21, 2002, with many fans watching. Other college teams like the Kentucky Wildcats, Miami Redhawks, and Oklahoma have also played there.

Besides football, the stadium holds the Cincinnati Music Festival each year, which used to be called the Cincinnati Jazz Festival.

The stadium is also a special place for the Queen City Classic Chess Tournament every spring.

Features

Paycor Stadium has offices and training areas for the Cincinnati Bengals. The playing field uses special artificial grass made by Show Sports Turf, and there are three smaller practice fields close by. Two of these have real grass, and one has AstroTurf.

Some bus companies help fans get to and from the stadium from different places in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. For example, the Cincinnati Metro runs a bus called the Jungle-to-Jungle Express from Jungle Jim's International Market in Fairfield, which is near Cincinnati.

Fans can choose to sit in special private rooms called suites or in club seats, where they can get food and drinks and visit club lounges. The stadium also has a shop where fans can buy team merchandise, along with many places to buy food and drinks during games.

Architecture

The stadium was designed by the architectural firm NBBJ, led by Dan Meis. It was the first NFL facility to win an award for design, and one of only two sports venues to receive this honor. The open corners of the stadium let fans see into it, and they can also enjoy views of the downtown skyline and bridges over the Ohio River.

Paycor Stadium is the only football stadium to be included in a list of "America's favorite 150 buildings and structures." It ranked 101st on this list, which included many types of important structures. No other football stadium was voted among the top 150. Among all sports venues, only Wrigley Field and Yankee Stadium ranked higher.