![\"First](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/00843819-4740-46fc-928c-08e4b42f7433.jpeg\" "\\"First")
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First to Eleven members include, from left, Sam Gilman, drummer; Ryan Krysiak, guiltar; Audra Miller, vocals; and Trevor Vogt, bassist.<\/p>\n
PROVIDED BY FIRST TO ELEVEN<\/p>\n
USA TODAY Network, Reuters<\/p>\n
Erie’s own First to Eleven has been named the house band for all eight Cleveland Browns home games for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
The Erie-based cover band, which opened for The Fray at the America250PA concert at Erie Insurance Arena on June 6, will play at Huntington Bank Stadium, home of the Cleveland Browns, starting with the Sept. 27 Browns home opener.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s cool that they reached across the border,” Ryan Krysiak, band manager and lead guitarist, said. “They could have gotten an Ohio band but they chose a band from Pennsylvania. I’ve been a Browns fan since I was a little kid. My dad and grandfather were Browns fans. It’s a character-building experience being a Browns fan. But it’s awesome to be a part of rather than just watching it on television.”<\/p>\n
The Browns had 520,859 fans attend their regular-season home games last season, for an average of 65,107 fans per game, according to statista.com.<\/p>\n
“It’s definitely the largest physical crowd we’ve ever been in front of,” Krysiak said. “We’re spoiled by YouTube where everyday hundreds of thousands of people watch our videos. But to see them and connect with them compared to the comments on YouTube is going to be awesome.”<\/p>\n
How First to Eleven became the Cleveland Browns house band<\/p>\n
So how does an Erie cover band become the house band for Cleveland Browns home games?<\/p>\n
Krysiak said it all began with an email.<\/p>\n
“We got an email one day and saw the Cleveland Browns as the attached website which was crazy,” he said. “When we opened it, they asked straight out if we would be interested in playing at some games and eventually becoming a house band.”<\/p>\n
Krysiak says that through a series of calls the band learned that one of the Browns production employees was a First to Eleven fan who pitched the idea to the organization.<\/p>\n
“He heard about us from our YouTube channel and saw some of the covers we did and thought that we’d be a good fit,” Krysiak said. “We’re close enough in proximity to make this work at all eight home games.”<\/p>\n
Being the house band for the Cleveland Browns means that First to Eleven will be performing live music during the games. This includes music during timeouts, postgame and pregame music and other breaks in play.<\/p>\n
“We’re part of the pregame intro, so we will play the (Browns) band out as they come on the field,” Krysiak said. “We have a song that is specifically for that game that we learned for this project, then for the rest of them they said ‘We love what you do, so we’ll pick through your set list and say, play this song, then this song, then that song.'”<\/p>\n
Krysiak continued, “They explained it to me as if we are The Roots to the Tonight Show. We are not the Cleveland Browns Band, we are still First to Eleven but we’re there as part of the in-game entertainment to hype up the crowd and have a live band playing rather than prerecorded music.”<\/p>\n
Krysiak did not reveal details of the performance contract, but he did say this gig has helped them financially and with exposure.<\/p>\n
“It’s a nice little boost,” he said. “Thankfully and luckily we get good show offers to play all over the country. This is definitely something that is worth doing. Since announcing this (Sept. 24) helped us locally with landing a few Erie events. It’s showing off in our inbox already.”<\/p>\n
First to Eleven rearranges tour schedule for Browns games<\/p>\n
Krysiak said that this opportunity came just as First to Eleven was releasing its new tour schedule.<\/p>\n
The Browns commitment required the band to reschedule some shows and tailor their tour around home games in Cleveland.<\/p>\n
“We will go on tour, hop off to do a Browns game and then hop back on tour,” Krysiak said.<\/p>\n
The band’s 17-date tour kicks off Oct. 8 in Lakewood, Ohio.<\/p>\n
When will First to Eleven play at Huntington Bank Stadium?<\/p>\n
First to Eleven will be playing at all home games for the Cleveland Browns during the 2026 season:<\/p>\n
Sept. 27 at 1 p.m. vs. Carolina PanthersOct. 1 at 8:15 p.m. vs. Pittsburgh SteelersOct. 18 at 1 p.m. vs. Baltimore RavensNov. 15 at 1 p.m. vs. Houston TexansNov. 29 at 1 p.m. vs. Las Vegas RaidersDec. 6 at 1 p.m. vs. Cincinnati BengalsDec. 13 at 1 p.m. vs. Atlanta FalconsJan. 3 at 1 p.m. vs. Indianapolis Colts<\/p>\n
Contact Nicholas Sorensen at Nsorensen@usatodayco.com.<\/p>\n
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: How Erie’s First to Eleven was chosen as Cleveland Browns’ house band<\/p>\n
Reporting by Nicholas Sorensen, Erie Times-News \/ Erie Times-News<\/p>\n
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
Copyright Reuters or USA Today via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
This story was originally published September 27, 2026 at 5:09 AM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First to Eleven members include, from left, Sam Gilman, drummer; Ryan Krysiak, guiltar; Audra Miller, vocals; and Trevor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137],"class_list":["post-294988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}