page_title: Greater Cleveland
section_title: Sports and recreation
hierarchical_section_title: Greater Cleveland / Sports and recreation
caption_attribution_description: English: Stitched panorama of Jacobs Field in Cleveland, Ohio
context_page_description: The Cleveland metropolitan area, or Greater Cleveland as it is more commonly known, is the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Cleveland in Northeast Ohio, United States. According to 2018 United States Census estimates, the five-county Cleveland–Elyria Metropolitan Statistical Area consists of Cuyahoga County, Geauga County, Lake County, Lorain County, and Medina County, and has a population of 2,057,009 making Greater Cleveland the 33rd most populous metropolitan area in the United States, the third largest metro area in Ohio, and the second largest metro area, behind Columbus, entirely in Ohio. Greater Cleveland is part of the larger Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area and its 3.5 million residents make it the largest Ohio metro in the 59 million giant Great Lakes Megalopolis.
  Changes in house prices for Greater Cleveland are publicly tracked on a regular basis using the Case–Shiller index; the statistic is published by Standard & Poor's and is also a component of S&P's 20-city composite index of the value of the U.S. residential real estate market.
  Northeast Ohio refers to a similar but substantially larger area.
context_section_description: Cleveland's professional sports teams include the Cleveland Indians (Major League Baseball), Cleveland Browns (National Football League), and Cleveland Cavaliers (National Basketball Association). The Lake County Captains, a Single-A minor league affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, play in Eastlake at Classic Park. Additionally, the Lake Erie Crushers of the Frontier League play at Sprenger Stadium in Avon.
  Minor league hockey is represented in the area by the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League. They began play in the 2007–08 AHL season at the Quicken Loans Arena. The team is the top minor league affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League.
  The Cleveland Metroparks are a system of nature preserves that encircle the city, and the Cuyahoga Valley National Park encompasses the Cuyahoga River valley between Cleveland and Akron. The region is home to Mentor Headlands Beach, the longest natural beach on the Great Lakes.
caption: Progressive Field, home of the Cleveland Indians
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