The Cleveland Browns‘ home field will no longer be called FirstEnergy Stadium after the two sides announced “an amicable decision” to end their agreement.
“We’ve had a great association with FirstEnergy for more than two decades, and we appreciate this partnership and what it has created for our team and the broader northeast Ohio community,” Dave Jenkins, Haslam Sports Group COO said. “Our home stadium will return to its former name, Cleveland Browns Stadium.”
The decision ended a 10-year partnership that began when then-new Browns owner Jimmy Haslam sold the naming rights to FirstEnergy in 2013 for $107 million. The original agreement ran through 2029. Ironically, Cleveland Public Power, not FirstEnergy, supplied the stadium’s electricity.
Though neither side mentioned it in their announcement, the Cleveland City Council passed a resolution this past June that called for removing FirstEnergy’s name from the Browns’ stadium because of the company’s involvement in a political corruption scandal. FirstEnergy admitted it bribed Ohio Legislature officials to approve a $1 billion bailout for its local nuclear power plant and eventually reached a $230 million settlement to avoid prosecution.
Cleveland Browns Stadium was the original name of the team’s new stadium after it returned to the NFL as an expansion team in 1999. The Lerner family, the first owners of the relocated Browns, declined to sell the naming rights throughout their tenure until Haslam bought the team in 2012.
The Browns are now the third team in the NFL without a corporate sponsor for their stadium, joining the Chicago Bears‘ Soldier Field and the Green Bay Packers‘ Lambeau Field. They’re also the third team in their division to change names. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals changed their stadium names this past season to Acrisure Stadium and Paycor Stadium, respectively.
