Bud Light offering free beer for first win

Browns fans, get ready to start slowly — not by popping champagne corks but by opening the top on free beer from Bud Light the first time the Browns win a regular season game.

The beer giant plans to set up several 8-foot tall Bud Light Browns victory refrigerators inside FirstEnergy Stadium and elsewhere around the city and surrounding suburbs, according to Andy Goeler, vice president of marketing for Bud Light.

The fridges will have special locks on them that will be opened through smart technology the second the clock reads 0:00 time remaining and the Browns, 0-16 a year ago, are victorious.

“We’re always cheering for them,” Goeler told Cleveland.com. “Obviously, they haven’t won in a while. We’re putting victory fridges out there in the marketplace. When the Cleveland Browns win, at the end of the game, these refrigerators will send a wireless signal that will unlock them and give fans the opportunity to have a celebratory Bud Light.”

The fridges, each of which will hold 200 16-ounce aluminum cans, will be set up only in places where patrons must be 21 or older to enter. They will be opened whether the Browns’ first victory is at home or on the road. Bud Light, an NFL sponsor, is not saying exactly where the fridges outside FirstEnergy Stadium will be set up, nor how fans can access the beer in FirstEnergy Stadium if the Browns win on the road first.

The Browns open the season at home Sept. 9 in a game with the Pittsburgh Steelers and then play in New Orleans a week later. They will likely be underdogs in both games, but should be favored for a home Thursday night game against the Jets on Sept. 20.

“It got more interesting as we started to talk about the smart technology,” Goeler said. “It was a cool idea to send out a wireless signal. They win, people who are lucky enough to be around (a stocked fridge) can celebrate.”

The Browns have won just four of their last 53 games.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Former Browns running back Isaiah Crowell scores after rushing 8-yards as Chargers free safety Dwight Lowery misses a tackle in the Browns last victory Dec. 24, 2016. Bud Light is promising some free beer the next time the team wins a regular season game.