Abandoned - Rubber Bowl Stadium

The bizarrely pristine astroturf just accentuates the steadily increasing decay around it.

Man that looks like a really cool venue for sports and concerts. Such a shame it was left abandoned and left in disrepair.

When I was 14 my older brother took me to the Rubber Bowl on a sweltering summer day to see the Monsters of Rock tour. He was there for Van Halen and I was there for Metallica. What a day.

I find it bizarre that they haven’t utilised the hill as some form of amphitheater, that’s perfect for concerts or a festival, low running costs if they were to bring in temporary staging and amenities. It’s perfect for that

I saw the Monsters of Rock concert there sometime around 1991. The lineup was Kingdom Come, Metallica, Dokken, Scorpions, and Van Halen (in that order).

Akronite here. And fan of the channel. I was there many times. I marched in the north Akron high-school band. Akron high-schools played games there. Notably homecoming games as we didn't have a home field for our school.

Ohio seems to have some of the best-known abandoned places.

I love the satellite imagery showing what the location used to look like, compared to what it looks like now. It's a shame it never got rehabbed. Great video!

This is such a niche topic to cover for an abandoned place, but I am always glad you cover these type of niche places. Makes me excited to see a random abandoned place I looked up months/years ago getting covered and making me want to search it up again

Honestly never thought I’d see another video about Akron since the Rolling Acres video. Such a shame that this stadium went to waste, especially considering its history.

I was there back in 2021. So cool from an exploration standpoint. I'm happy I brought my camera because I had no clue how close the full demolition greenlight was at that time.

I live 5 minutes away from the site and like many people from Akron, the rubber bowl holds tons of memories! I went to a lot of high school football games there in the 90's and I even got to work with the officiating crew holding the first down markers for a few games. Winter games were the worst! the way the wind whipped around in that bowl, every bit of that chill hit you to the bone!! Thanks so much for this video!!

I miss playing high school football playoff games on that field

I grew up right down the road from that stadium. That would be a crazy prospect of having 30,000 people down in the derby downs. thanks for covering this. I enjoyed it and learn more about that iconic stadium.

I drive past the hill where this once stood every day.

My grandfather used to coach at Akron before they left the Rubber bowl, I remember going to a few games there as a kid but what I remember most about it is that it was a very popular albeit creepy place to go explore in high school

Saw the Rolling Stones there in 1973! Saw many, many concerts that summer...Alice Cooper, Humble Pie, Stevie Wonder with the Rolling Stones, J Geils band :-)

warms my heart to see a youtuber whose art i enjoy, talking about a place so close to my hometown. i grew up in mogadore, a little town about a mile from the rubber bowl, and it was always the spot to go if you wanted to feel like a real urban explorer. tons of history and memories on those grounds

Nice video! BTW, on the theme of sports, can you make a video of Abandoned about the Winter Olympics of Sarajevo 1984? It's incredibbly eerie to see the Bobsled track, the Ski Jump Slope, and vacant stadium, all because of the Bosnian War. I totally recommend to check those Olympics.

The last NFL game played in the Rubber Bowl was on Thanksgiving Day 1952. The hapless Dallas Texans in their only season, became nomads after they got booted from the Cotton Bowl. George Halas decided to sit his starters, even though his Bears team didn't have a good record. The Texans in their only Rubber Bowl game beat the Bears for their one and only win in franchise history. The assets of the Texans were sold, and would be reorganized as the Baltimore Colts in 1953. Colts legends Art Donovan and Gino Marchetti were members of the 1952 Texans.