Cleveland Browns Stadium will now be known as FirstEnergy Stadium: Home of the Cleveland Browns, FirstEnergy President and CEO Tony Alexander announced this afternoon during a news conference at the stadium.
Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. purchased the naming rights for the stadium. The terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed.
Browns owner Jimmy Haslam reached an agreement Aug. 2 to buy the team from Randy Lerner for about $1 billion. The next day during his introductory news conference at the team’s headquarters in Berea, Haslam made it clear he was open to selling naming rights for the stadium -- something no other Browns owner had done before.
The Browns have played in the lakefront stadium, which seats more than 73,200, since their expansion era began in 1999. The stadium’s new name is expected to be just the beginning of the makeover it will undergo with Haslam in charge.
New scoreboards and even a roof are possible stadium enhancements Haslam has said the Browns would explore. During an interview with the Beacon Journal in November, Browns CEO Joe Banner said he hoped the stadium would be equipped with Wi-Fi this year.
FirstEnergy, which is headquartered in Akron, is one of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric systems. The electric utility is the parent company of Ohio Edison, The Illuminating Co. based in Cuyahoga County, and Toledo Edison.