GARRETTSVILLE, Ohio — For Rich Stark, a front-row seat in the Dawg Pound feels like a family heirloom.

His mother bought Cleveland Browns season tickets for his father in 1981, the year Stark was born. The family started out in the bleachers at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

In 1999, when the new lakefront stadium opened, they landed in the first row, near the goalposts – in seats Stark and his sister have kept through many tough seasons.

“I’ve lived on hope for 25 years. And I’ve had tiny little glimpses of it,” said Stark, a 44-year-old machinist who lives in Garrettsville, in Portage County.

“It’s not fun, being a Browns fan,” he said, with a laugh.

But one acronym could spell the end of Stark’s fall Sunday ritual: PSL.

“PSLs in the Dawg Pound? I’m out. 100%,” he said.

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