About those enhancements to FirstEnergy Stadium…

Those scoreboards. My God, those scoreboards. Giant and angular and bright enough to illuminate the inside of FirstEnergy Stadium on their own, the first thing anyone will notice when they step into the Cleveland Browns’ newly renovated abode will undoubtedly be the new scoreboards. The Cleveland Browns ownership team and front office have gotten a bit in the way of verbal and emotional shrapnel thrown their way, doing everything shy of sending singing telegrams to broadcast word of the $120 million, multiple-phase upgrades that took place during the recent offseason. What with the team is coming of yet another 4-12 season, it was as if structural upgrades to the stadium and roster were mutually exclusive.

The team hasn’t won much. They’ve been awful. Brutal even. But much of the misguided petulance has come from the grunting mouths of those who don’t attend games in person. (Because what good do stadium upgrades do for those who prefer pants-free weekends? It’s all about wins, dammit.) In a world where controlling the controllable does wonders, Browns President Alec Scheiner and his team spearheaded an operation that saw vast improvements to the in-game experience for his paying customers, one which is independent of what the team wearing orange helmets does while said game is taking place.¹

I was fortunate to be one of the (alleged) million Clevelanders to be downtown on Saturday night, taking in the first Cleveland Browns home game of the 2014 season. After consuming a few beers at a few local establishments, we made the trek down Lakeside, busted a left on West 3rd St, proceeded down the hill and into the stadiums metal-detecting loading docs. Say what you wish about the NFL’s bag policy: It has immensely decreased the time spent in the security lines. There were a few fans who apparently forgot about a year-old rule and were forced to make a no-win decision, but those of us who had been to this rodeo knew to put our wallet and keys in one hand, our phone in the other and walk through the isle with our hands up. Roughly three minutes later, all five of us were in FirstEnergy Stadium, sucking in oxygen filled with 15 years of pigskin depression laced with some Johnny Manziel-filled hope.

First order of business was to get near our section—my old college roommate’s family has eight seats on the 50-yard line in the 500s. They have had these seats for generations, carrying their standing from the Municipal Stadium days, but have not wanted to move down as it would either take breaking up the seats into four-seat sets, or would not be far enough down to warrant the move as a whole as they’re the first row that stays dry in the event of any inclement weather. This voyage typically begins with a 90 degree turn to the right to head up the ramps. Not on this night, however as the escalator line was not only inviting, but consistently moving. Remember those escalators that drew a few laughs? No joke, people. The first set drops fans off on the third level where we were greeted by the brand new set of scoreboards that were erected in the west end zone. Not only do fans get the giant, angular board that has been featured in every local publication and news channel, but there is a sizable rectangular board just south that will house fantasy stats (replacing the black and white ribbon that attempted to update fans in years prior); on the north side is a longer, more rectangular board that will house the scores of other games currently being played.²

The lower board placement allows for some pretty slick views of Lake Erie, Lakewood and Cleveland’s near east side. Fans will also notice that the upper level of the Dawg Pound has been replaced by physical seats rather than the aluminum bleachers that had inhabited the same space since it’s construction in 1999.³ We didn’t venture behind the scoreboards, but the stadium now has an entire section of entertainment areas which reportedly house food options that once were only available to those with club-level seating—a Michael Symon B Spot, Whalen’s Great Lakes Cheesesteaks and Sawyer’s Sausage & Peppers are all now in the general concession area. We took in the view for a bit, chatted up an usher and then made our way up to the 500s on one of the new escalators. We were informed by some other fans that there were issues with the upstairs bathrooms, but these had been rectified by our arrival (roughly 25 minutes before kickoff). The concession lines weren’t bad, but my buddy was the victim of getting in the line of one of the worst beer pourers in the wide-spanning history of concession stands. Fear not: This was also rectified.

But just as the team was in the midst of their dress rehearsal, so was the FirstEnergy Stadium in-game operations. We were finally greeted by Swagger, the team’s new, living and breathing mascot. He ran onto the field before the team and was not utilized again—it’s not far-fetched (no pun intended) to see Swagger’s role go the way of last season’s now-defunct wiener dog races. The new scoreboards, while showing great clips of the fans and play during the game were frequently used for ad placement, with one-third of the screen being used for a royal blue and white FirstEnergy logo (among others). The down-and-distance marker was nearly illegible. It took us several minutes to even locate it, along with the game’s actual score, only to find that it was listed in just two places—the north-side and south-side ribbons that run along the club level—rendering it impossible to be seen in end zone seats. There were also some complaints of leg room issues in the lower level where new “premium” seating was added. In the area of technology, I had attempted to upload the image above to Instagram, but had nothing in the way of data signal.⁴. By all accounts, however, the team is reportedly aware of all feedback and appear to be doing what they can to improve upon their improvements heading into Week 2’s Home Opener against the New Orleans Saints.

As the pre-game entertainment (the drum line is back for another go’round) went on, one thing became fairly evident: The Browns are doing their best to replicate the very experience fans get when they step foot into Quicken Loans Arena for a Cavs game, the very organization that has been Teflon to losing seasons and awful weather 41 times per season for much of the last four years. The addition of higher end food options, providing a more-expensive-but-more-appetizing menu, is right in line with what Len Komorowski’s team has done at The Q. The O-H-I-O chant has been moved to pre-game rather than it’s standard placement in between the third and fourth quarters. There were t-shirt tosses and “Allllllright Browns fans!” moments during every timeout. The scoreboard displayed fan cams as much, if not more, than the actual game. The end zone signs—owned by Sherwin-Williams and University Hospitals glow with different colors at different moments⁵. The new sound system is a noticeable upgrade at first note—the in-house fireworks and several-second clips of songs by Drake, Ace Hood and others (all at jet engine levels) only serve to cement that NBA experience vibe. “Old school”⁶ fans will hike up their dad jeans and shun the inevitable transition, but the Browns—long gone is the played out classic rock in addition to last season’s timeout sing-along of The Lumineers’ “Ho Hey”—are taking it all in stride. And given the team’s top-down efforts at not focusing on the past while gearing up for the future, this may not be such a bad thing.

While the coming months for the Browns remain to be seen, when it comes to Scheiner and his team, the future is bright. Massive LEDs bright. Now if we can just fix the whole Wi-Fi issue…

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(Photo: Scott Sargent/WFNY)

1. Craig discussed this very topic here. [↩]
2. If you look at the image above, you can see these in the very middle of the screen. There are several sections of seats perched above them. [↩]
3. The lower Pound is still in working order. [↩]
4. The team was displaying fan uploads on the scoreboards during pregame, but there were no Wi-Fi networks available which is unacceptable at this stage of the game given where the competition is. [↩]
5. They’re red, white and blue during the National Anthem, for instance [↩]
6. Old. [↩]