Paul Brown Stadium - Cincinnati Bengals Stadium Guide

Featuring a dominant lower bowl with stacked decks on each sideline and two in the end zones, Paul Brown Stadium stacked design similar to the old home of the San Diego Chargers. Designed by NBBJ, with Glaser Associates, Moody/Nolan Ltd., and Stallworth Architecture, the stadium features multiple curved exterior surfaces and open sightlines to both the nearby Ohio River and the Cincinnati skyline. This facet was celebrated in the stadium’s logo through a fan contest in 2005.

Like many of the stadiums built at the turn of the millennium, Cincinnati’s multivenue arena in Riverfront Stadium was split in favor of two separate stadiums. The Bengals built Paul Brown Stadium and the Cincinnati Reds of Major League Baseball took the Great American Ball Park to the east, but both stadiums are on the geographic footprint of the old Riverfront Stadium.

When Paul Brown Stadium opened, it was critically revered. Paul Brown Stadium was the first NFL facility to win an American Institute of Architects award and the only football stadium to be listed as one of America’s favorite 150 buildings and structures in 2007.

Seats in Paul Brown are green with the stadium’s moniker of “The Jungle”. Between the Bengals nickname and the heavy use of Guns N’Roses “Welcome to the Jungle” in fan events and promotions, the stadium tries to build the home field advantage through the aesthetics.

The city has grown to appreciate the jungle motif as well, even naming one of the metro system’s bus lines the Jungle-to-Jungle express, as it goes back and forth from Paul Brown to the Jungle Jim’s International Market in the suburbs. The theme is also used in one of the unique events to be consistently held at an NFL stadium: the annual Queen City Chess Championship.

The future of Paul Brown is more uncertain than other stadiums. It is the only NFL stadium to not host any international soccer, as most of the games go to Cleveland or Columbus. FC Cincinnati in Major League Soccer is building a new soccer-specific stadium. As other concert tours are going to Columbus or Louisville — or smaller venues in the area — the amount of music performances are dropping and may not come back after the COVID-19 pandemic. Even the jungle thought process is starting to lose its touch in favor of a more white look for cold-climate tigers.

Being one of the older stadiums in the NFL is not helpful either. Few upgrades have been made since opening, mostly regarding poor natural turf condition replaced for UltraLoc synthetic turf. Ribbon display boards were added in 2008 and upgraded again in 2014 for larger HD displays.

Below is a seating plan of Cincinnati Bengals's Paul Brown Stadium: