In addition, natural expansion has occurred with companies with Western Pennsylvania roots with Vocelli Pizza and Altoona-based Sheetz making successful expansions into the Cleveland market.Ĭonversely, Cleveland-based Sherwin-Williams has locations throughout Pittsburgh and nationally is one of the top competitors to Pittsburgh-based PPG Industries. PNC and Giant Eagle are official team sponsors for both teams. Among other reasons, some Clevelanders didn't like the idea of a Pittsburgh-based bank buying National City because of the rivalry between the Browns and Steelers. In recent times, Pittsburgh-area businesses have entered the Cleveland market by buying out local Cleveland-area competitors such as Giant Eagle, Dollar Bank, Howard Hanna Realty, and PNC Financial Services acquisition of National City Corp. The Youngstown area fan base remains roughly split 50/50 between the Steelers and Browns. Both teams have such strong fan bases that neither typically has blackout issues since the current rules were implemented in 1973, although the final two games of the 1995 season were blacked out in Cleveland (the last two prior to the Art Modell's move to Baltimore) one of these games was against their in-state rivals the Cincinnati Bengals. The Youngstown television market has dual rights to both teams. Also, the city of Youngstown, Ohio is roughly located at the halfway mark between the two cities and is within the 75-mile blackout radius for both teams. Many fans make the two hour drive by car to road games. The rivalry was primarily fueled by the close proximity between the two cities, as Cleveland and Pittsburgh are roughly 135 miles apart. It is sometimes called the Turnpike Rivalry because the majority of the driving route between the two cities is via the Pennsylvania and Ohio Turnpikes. The two divisional foes have a natural rivalry due to the commonalities between the cities, their proximity, etc.
With 118 meetings and counting, it is the oldest rivalry and the most storied in the American Football Conference (AFC), surpassing any other rivalry in the conference by at least 5 contests. The Browns– Steelers rivalry is one of the most storied rivalries in the NFL.
0 kommentar(er)
