Riverfront Stadium
Cincinnati, Ohio
Tenants: Cincinnati Reds (NL 1970-2002); Cincinnati Bengals (NFL 1970-99)
Groundbreaking: February 1, 1968
First National League Game: June 30, 1970
Last National League game: September 22, 2002
Demolished by implosion: December 29, 2002

Playing surface: AstroTurf (1970-2000), Grass (2001-02)
Architect: Finch, Alexander, Barnes, Rothschild and Paschal (FABRAP)
Cost: $45 million
Owner: City of Cincinnati
Seating capacity: 52,962 (Baseball 1970-2000); 39,000 (Baseball 2001); 59,754 (Football)

Dimensions:
LF foul line: 330 ft (1970); 325 ft (2001)
LF alley: 375 ft (1970); 370 ft (2001)
Center field: 404 ft (1970); 393 ft (2001)
RF alley: 375 ft (1970); 373 ft (2001)
RF foul line: 330 ft (1970); 325 ft (2001)

Outfield wall height:
1970: uniform 12 ft.
1984: uniform 8 ft.
2001: LF and RF 8 ft; alleys 14 ft; CF 40 ft

Hosted World Series: 1970, 1972, 1975, 1976, 1990
Hosted All-Star Game: 1970, 1988
Riverfront Stadium, later known as Cinergy Field, was the home of the Cincinnati Reds National League baseball team and the Cincinnati Bengals
National Football League team. Located on the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati, the stadium was best known as the home of "The Big Red
Machine," as the Reds were often called in the 1970s. Construction began on February 1, 1968 and was completed at a cost of less than $50 million.
On June 30, 1970, the Reds hosted the Atlanta Braves in their grand opening, with Hank Aaron hitting the first ever home run at Riverfront. Two
weeks later on July 14, Riverfront hosted the 1970 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. This game is best remembered for the often-replayed
collision at home plate between the home-grown Pete Rose and catcher Ray Fosse of the Cleveland Indians.

In September 1996, Riverfront Stadium was renamed "Cinergy Field" in a sponsorship deal with Greater Cincinnati's energy company, Cinergy
Corporation. In 2001, to make room for Great American Ball Park, the seating capacity at Cinergy Field was reduced to 39,000. There was a huge
wall in Center Field visible after the renovations. The stadium was demolished by implosion on December 29, 2002. Video clips of its demolition
were featured in the music video for the song MakeDamnSure by Taking Back Sunday.
Notes:

Baseball

  * First stadium to have its entire field covered by AstroTurf, except
for the cutouts around the bases and pitcher’s mound.
 * First hit: Félix Millán, June 30, 1970.
 * First home run: Hank Aaron, June 30, 1970.
 * First Presidential Visit: Richard Nixon, July 14, 1970.
 * First upper deck home run: Tony Perez, August 11, 1970.
 * First World Series game ever played on artificial turf: October 10,
1970 (Reds vs. Baltimore Orioles).
 * First no-hitter: Ken Holtzman, June 3, 1971.
 * First pitcher ever to pitch a No-hitter and hit two Home runs in
the same game: Rick Wise, June 23, 1971.
 * Hank Aaron ties the all-time home run record with number 714:
April 4, 1974.
 * First stadium to display Metric distances on the outfield walls
(100.58 meters down the lines, 114.30 to the alleys, 123.13 to
center): 1976.
 * Highest season attendance, 2,629,708: 1976.
 * First rain checks issued: August 30, 1978.
 * First player to Hit for the Cycle: Mike Easler, June 12, 1980.
 * Pete Rose breaks the all-time hit record with number 4,192:
September 11, 1985.
 * First player ever to be caught stealing four times in one game:
Robby Thompson, June 27, 1986.
 * Perfect Game: Tom Browning, September 16, 1988.
 * Umpire John McSherry collapsed and died on April 1, 1996.
 * Longest home run, 473': Mark McGwire, May 5, 2000.

Football

  * First Touchdown: Sam Wyche, September 20, 1970
 * First Field goal: Horst Muhlmann, September 20, 1970
 * Corey Dillon breaks the single-game rookie rushing record with
246 yards on December 4, 1997
--------------------------------

Source Credits

MMIV www.ballparktour.com  MMX
"Cookie-Cutters"

Riverfront was a multi-purpose, circular "cookie-cutter" stadium,
one of many built in the United States in the late 1960s and early
1970s as communities sought to save money by having their
football and baseball teams share the same facility. Riverfront,
Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in
Atlanta, Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, Three Rivers Stadium in
Pittsburgh, Shea Stadium in New York, RFK Stadium in
Washington, D. C., and Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia all
opened within a few years and were largely indistinguishable
from one another; in particular, it was often confused with
fellow Ohio River cookie-cutter Three Rivers Stadium by
sportscasters because of the two stadium's similar names and
similar designs.

The site on which Riverfront Stadium sat originally included the
2nd Street tenement birthplace and boyhood home of cowboy
singer and actor Roy Rogers, who joked that he was born
"somewhere between second base and center field."
Big Red Machine

Riverfront Stadium quickly earned a place in Cincinnati's
century-long baseball tradition as the home of one of the best
teams in baseball history. The World Series had visited the Reds'
previous home, Crosley Field, just three times in its final 31 years,
(1939, 1940, 1961) but it came to Riverfront in its first year (1970)
and a total of four times in the stadium's first seven years, with
the Reds winning back-to-back championships in 1975 and 1976.
The World Series would return in 1990, with Cincinnati winning
the first two of a four-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics at
Riverfront.

Baseball purists disliked Riverfront's artificial turf, but Reds'
Manager Sparky Anderson and General Manager Bob Howsam took
advantage of it by encouraging speed and line drive hitting that
could produce doubles, triples and high-bouncing infield hits.
Players who combined power and speed like Joe Morgan, Pete
Rose and Ken Griffey, Sr. thrived there. On defense, the fast
surface and virtually dirtless infield rewarded range and quickness
by both outfielders and infielders, like shortstop Dave Concepción
who used the turf to bounce many of his long throws to first.
Catcher Johnny Bench and first baseman Tony Perez also played
here. The artificial turf covered not only the normal grass area of
the ballpark but also what is usually the "skinned" portion of the
infield. Only the pitcher's mound, the home plate area, and
cutouts around first, second and third bases had dirt surfaces.
This was the first stadium in the majors with this "sliding pit"
configuration. The new stadiums that would follow (Veterans
Stadium, Royals Stadium, Kingdome, Metrodome, Skydome) would
install sliding pits as the original layout, and the existing artificial
turf fields in San Francisco, Houston, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis
would change to the cut-out configuration within the next few
years.
Despite Cincinnati's love of baseball, it was the prospect of a
professional football team that finally moved the city to end twenty
years of discussion and build a new stadium on the downtown
riverfront. After playing for two seasons at Nippert Stadium on the
University of Cincinnati campus, the Bengals built on the Reds'
success in the stadium's first year when they recorded their first
winning season and first playoff appearance in 1970, just their third
year of existence.

Perhaps the most memorable football game at Riverfront was the
AFC Championship on January 10, 1982. The game became known as
the Freezer Bowl and was won by the Bengals over the San Diego
Chargers, 27-7. The air temperature during the game was −9 °F (−22.
8 °C) and the wind chill was −59 °F (−50.6 °C), the coldest in NFL
history. The win earned the Bengals their first of two trips to the
Super Bowl (XVI) while playing at Riverfront.

Riverfront Stadium also hosted the 1988 AFC Championship, as the
Bengals beat the Buffalo Bills 21–10 to advance to their second
Super Bowl appearance.

During the Bengals' tenure, they posted a 5-1 record in playoff
games played in Riverfront Stadium, with victories over the Buffalo
Bills (twice), San Diego Chargers, Seattle Seahawks, and Houston
Oilers. Their only home playoff loss came to the New York Jets.

Baseball-only

When the Bengals moved to Paul Brown Stadium in 2000, the Reds
were left as Cinergy Field's only tenant. Prior to the 2001 baseball
season, the stadium was remodeled into a baseball-only
configuration, and the artificial surface was replaced with grass. To
allow room for the construction of Great American Ball Park (which
was being built largely over the grounds the stadium already sat
on), a large section of the left and center field stands was removed
and the distance to the fences was shortened by five feet. The
new Great American Ballpark and old Riverfront Stadium were 26
inches apart at its closest point during this time. Consequently, in
its last years, the stadium achieved an openness and a degree of
aesthetic appeal that it had lacked for most of its existence. In the
Reds' final two seasons in the stadium, ongoing construction on
Great American was plainly visible just beyond the outfield walls
while the team played their games.