CLEVELAND, October 9 - Quicken Loans Arena, home of the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers, and the region's largest and most active year-round sports and entertainment showplace, announced today a change in its smoking policy. Effective immediately, no smoking will be permitted inside the facility. This includes all public and restricted areas. "This was something we looked at closely and decided was the right thing for us to do considering the feedback we've received from our customers," said Cavaliers and Quicken Loans Arena CEO Mark Stornes.

Prior to this move, the arena allowed smoking in Gordon's Sports Bar located on the main concourse of the arena. Gordon's has an entrance and exit door off the main concourse and was open to all event attendees. Bridges Restaurant located on the Huntington Bank Club Level of the arena also permitted smoking in its bar area. Bridges is also open to all event attendees. All other areas of the facility were already smoke-free.

Event attendees will still be able to smoke while attending events at The Q by utilizing the three designated smoking areas on the outside of the building. These areas are also equipped with televisions so fans can stay connected to the game or event they are attending. The designated outside smoking areas can be found at the following locations:

Near Section 121 on the main concourse level (exit to East 6th Street).

Near Section 103 on the main concourse level (exit to Ontario Street).

Outside Gordon’s Sports Bar – (enter near Section 100 on main concourse level with smoking area outside exit to Huron Road side of arena)

"We feel this policy will make the event experience more enjoyable for the vast majority of our customers. At the same time, we wanted to provide places for our customers that want to smoke, to still do that," Stornes added.