Much of the modern day NFL is played out in state-of-the-art stadiums fit for a sport that carries so much global appeal.
SoFi Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, and Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders, are just two examples of billion-dollar development projects that the rest of the league will no doubt follow.
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Both of those boast incredible amenities, from premium seats and luxury suites, to a range of bars, dining options and even a nightclub, that will draw fans back time and time again.
Of course, not every NFL team plays in a modern day ‘super stadium’ — but there’s no doubt football has come a long way from the lost NFL venues of yesteryear.
In just under 100 days, the Philadelphia Eagles will begin the 2025 season on September 4 at Lincoln Financial Field.
As reigning Super Bowl champions, they have the honor of hosting the annual Kickoff Game, which fans worry will be a bloodbath this year, to mark the official start of the regular season.
The first Kickoff Game, preceded by a concert and other ceremonies, and complete with a special broadcast and branding, was played in 2002.
But the concept of a curtain-raiser can be traced all the way back to 1950 — and the same site where Lincoln Financial Field now sits.
The Philadelphia Municipal Stadium, a classic open-air venue with a horseshoe seating design that surrounded a track and football field, proudly anchored the southern end of Broad Street for 66 years.
Built of concrete, stone and brick, each section of the main portion of the stadium contained its own entrance, which displayed the letters of each section above the entrance, in a nod to ancient Roman stadia.
Opened nearly a century ago in 1926, the first tenants were the Philadelphia Quakers of the first American Football League.
Their Saturday afternoon home games were popular, and the Quakers boast the honor of being the only team to win the league championship — because it folded after one year.
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While the AFL failed to take off, Philadelphia Municipal Stadium soon saw football again, when the NFL awarded another team to the city — the Eagles — in 1933.
They had a four-season stint as tenants of the stadium between 1936 and 1939, before moving to Shibe Park.
In 1950, the Eagles returned to Philadelphia Municipal Stadium for one day only, as a prelude to what would eventually become the NFL Kickoff Game.
On Saturday, September 16, the Cleveland Browns, playing their first season in the NFL after dominating the defunct All-America Football Conference and winning all four league titles, played their first game against the two-time defending NFL Champion Eagles.
Philly was the center of the professional football universe at the time — with not only the defending champions calling the city home, but the league offices were also in town.
NFL commissioner and Philadelphia native, Bert Bell, set the game up.
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To accommodate the anticipated ticket demand, it was moved from Shibe Park to Philadelphia Municipal Stadium.
That proved to be a wise decision, as the contest drew a then NFL-record attendance of 71,237 — nearly doubling the Eagles’ prior attendance record of 38,230.
Many thought Bell had scheduled the game against the defending league champions to teach the upstarts from the AAFC a lesson, but that’s not how it unfolded.
Instead, the Browns shredded the Eagles in a 35-10 rout and went on to win the NFL Championship in their first year.
Thus, 52 years before it was officially branded, the NFL Kickoff Game was born in Philadelphia.
It will return 75 years later, in September 2025.
Aside from hosting the first-ever ‘kickoff game’ between the Eagles and Browns, Philadelphia Municipal Stadium later became known as the ‘neutral’ venue for a total of 41 annual Army–Navy college football games.
The rivalry was played at the stadium between 1936 and 1979, with the exception of four years during the Second World War, when travel restrictions forced three games to be held on campus and one game to be played in Baltimore.
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Football, of course, was not the only sport hosted in the Philly venue.
In September 1926, a crowd of 120,557 packed into the stadium during a rainstorm to witness Gene Tunney capture the world heavyweight boxing title from Jack Dempsey.
A 150-lap NASCAR convertible race was also held there in 1957, which was won by Bob Welborn in a Chevrolet.
Seven years later, the Philadelphia Municipal Stadium was renamed the John F. Kennedy Stadium, in memory of the 35th President of the United States who had been assassinated in 1963.
While the venue was used for both sporting events and concerts throughout the 1970s and 80s, by that time, it was becoming archaic.
In 1989, Mayor Wilson Goode condemned the stadium due to multiple findings by city inspectors that it was structurally unsafe and a potential fire hazard.
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Hours ahead of the stadium’s last concert — performed by rock band Grateful Dead — inspectors discovered piles of combustible materials, electrical problems, and crumbling or falling concrete.
With 20,000 fans already inside, and thousands more waiting to get in, the show went ahead.
Soon after, renovations and repairs were discussed, but they were quickly rejected due to the high costs, and JFK Stadium was demolished on September 23, 1992.
The Eagles had long moved out to Veterans Stadium, and would later call the modern Lincoln Financial Field home, which now stands on the same site.
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