Coliseum at Richfield

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Coliseum at Richfield
Location	2923 Streetsboro Road Richfield, OH 44286
Opened	1974
Closed	1994
Demolished	1999
Owner
Tenants
Cleveland Baron (NHL) (1976-1978) Cleveland Crusaders (WHA) (1974-1976) Cleveland Cavaliers (NBA) (1974-1994) Cleveland Force (MISL) (1978-1992)
Capacity
20,273 Basketball

The Coliseum at Richfield was an arena formerly located in Richfield Township in Summit County, Ohio. It was home to the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers, WHA's Cleveland Crusaders, NHL's Cleveland Barons, MISL's Cleveland Force, NPSL's Cleveland Crunch, the IHL's Cleveland Lumberjacks, and the AFL's Cleveland Thunderbolts. It hosted the 1981 NBA All-Star Game and three WWF Survivor Series - 1987, 1988, and 1992.

The arena, which opened in 1974, replaced the then-decrepit Cleveland Arena. The new arena sat 20,000, and was one of the first indoor arenas to contain luxury boxes. Though a fairly large arena at the time of construction, it had only one main concourse for the grandstands, which became overcrowded during games at which the attendance was anywhere close to capacity. The coliseum was built in Richfield to draw fans from Cleveland and Akron, as nearly 5 million Ohioans lived within less than an hour's drive (in good weather) from the Coliseum. However the distance from both population centers proved to be problematic over the years, especially in winter, when traveling the country roads of Richfield was particularly difficult. A projected population boom in Northeast Ohio fell short of expectations, and the arena's remote location turned out to be one of its biggest flaws. Gund Arena (now Quicken Loans Arena) was built in downtown Cleveland in 1994 and rendered the Coliseum obsolete.

After lying vacant for five years, the arena was torn down in 1999, and the arena and surrounding parking areas were allowed to be returned to woodland - which worked quite well given that the arena had been built off Interstate 271, which cuts through Cuyahoga Valley National Park.