Former Browns owner Art Modell took over control of the stadium from the city in the 1970s and while his organization made improvements to the facility, it continued to decline.

[4] However, some have incorrectly stated that it was built in a failed bid to attract the 1932 Summer Olympics, which had been awarded to Los Angeles in 1923,[5] long before ground was broken on the stadium.

[8] Built during the administrations of city managers William R. Hopkins and Daniel E. Morgan, it was designed by the architectural firms of Walker and Weeks and by Osborn Engineering Company.

The Donald Gray Gardens were installed on the stadium's north side in 1936 as part of the Great Lakes Exposition.

[9] The stadium was built for football as well as for the Cleveland Indians, who played their first game there on July 31, 1932, losing to the Philadelphia Athletics' great pitcher Lefty Grove 1–0 while attracting a then-major-league-record crowd of 80,184.

The original baseball playing field was so large that an inner fence was constructed in 1947 to cut down the size of the spacious outfield.

Like some other facilities built before warning tracks became standard, the stadium had an earthen berm in front of the center field wall.

"[13] The facility, located just south of Lake Erie, was known for the biting cold winds that would blow into the stadium in winter, as well as during much of the spring and fall.

[16] However, during the Indians' lean years from the 1960s through the 1990s, they rarely attracted more than 30,000 people, and even crowds of 40,000 looked sparse in the cavernous environment.

The final Indians home game at Cleveland Stadium was held October 3, 1993, a 4–0 loss to the Chicago White Sox in front of 72,390 fans.

The fans were copying Browns players Hanford Dixon and Frank Minnifield, who frequently appeared to bark to each other and to the opposition.

The football Indians played two home games in their 1931 season, a 6–0 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers and a 14–0 loss to the Chicago Cardinals.

The Rams returned to the stadium in 1939 and played home games there through the 1941 season before moving to League Park for the remainder of their time in Cleveland.

Local college teams, including Western Reserve Red Cats, Case Tech Rough Riders, John Carroll Blue Streaks,[27] and Baldwin Wallace Yellow Jackets often used the stadium for home games and local matchups, especially during the 1930s and 1940s when the city Big Four Conference was strong.

The Ohio State Buckeyes played in the stadium four times, the first three as the home team during World War II.

While Northwestern received the home team's share of the gate receipts, Buckeye fans made up the vast majority of the crowd.

From 1974 to 1980, the World Series of Rock concerts were held each summer featuring acts such as the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, the Beach Boys and Aerosmith.

On September 2, 1995, the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was celebrated with an all-star concert which featured Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Jerry Lee Lewis and others.

As the stadium aged and maintenance costs increased, the facility became an economic drain on the City of Cleveland, which owned and originally operated it.

In 1973, then-Browns owner Art Modell signed a 25-year lease to operate Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

[34] Modell's newly formed company, Stadium Corporation, assumed the expenses of operations from the city, freeing up tax revenue for other purposes.

[36] Modell, mistakenly believing that his revenues were not endangered, refused to participate in the Gateway Project that built a new ballpark for the Indians and a new arena for the Cavaliers.

15,000 short tons (14,000 t) of demolition debris was dumped into Lake Erie to create three artificial reefs for fishermen and divers, offshore of Cleveland and neighboring Lakewood.

[38][39] Several scenes for the motion picture, The Fortune Cookie, were filmed during the game between the Browns and the visiting Minnesota Vikings on October 31, 1965.

Much of the 1949 movie The Kid from Cleveland, in which Bob Feller, Lou Boudreau, Bill Veeck and Satchel Paige played themselves, was filmed there.