Cleveland Municipal Stadium and the Lake

Cleveland Municipal Stadium was built on the shore of Lake Erie beginning in 1930 and completed in 1931. The city had proposed hosting the 1932 Summer Olympics, but Los Angeles was awarded the Games in 1923, years before construction began. The stadium was built anyway, a civic project on the lakefront, and opened with 78,000 seats and almost nothing to fill them.

The Cleveland Indians played their first game there on July 31, 1932, but used it only for weekend and holiday games, preferring the smaller League Park for most of their schedule. The arrangement lasted until 1947, when the Indians moved to Municipal Stadium full-time. In 1948, behind player-manager Lou Boudreau and pitchers Bob Feller and Bob Lemon, the Indians won the World Series and drew 2.62 million fans, a major league record that stood for fourteen years.

Then the crowds disappeared. Through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, the Indians were one of the worst teams in baseball, and Municipal Stadium, which had been built for spectacles, became a monument to emptiness. The 78,000-seat stadium regularly drew 5,000 fans for weeknight games. The upper deck was closed for most games. The wind off Lake Erie made night games in April and September brutal. The stadium was cold, cavernous, and depressing.

It was also the site of one of baseball's most infamous events. On June 4, 1974, the Indians held Ten Cent Beer Night against the Texas Rangers. Over 25,000 fans showed up, consumed an estimated 60,000 cups of beer, and eventually rioted so badly that both teams had to fight their way off the field. The game was forfeited.

The Indians' fortunes changed in the early 1990s. The team began developing young talent and building toward competitiveness, but the front office made it clear that the future required a new stadium. Jacobs Field (later Progressive Field) opened in 1994 as part of the Gateway development in downtown Cleveland. The Indians moved in and immediately began selling out every game, a streak of 455 consecutive sellouts that lasted from June 1995 to April 2001.

Municipal Stadium hosted its last baseball game on October 3, 1993. It was demolished in 1996. The site is now a parking lot adjacent to FirstEnergy Stadium, home of the NFL's Cleveland Browns.