The stadium was designed by HOK Sport. It was constructed on a filled-in section of the Erie Canal's original routing through Rochester. This was also once the route of the Rochester Subway, which was built in the old canal bed and ended operations in 1956. The facility was funded jointly by the state of New York, the city of Rochester, and the Rhinos. Infrastructure improvements will be paid for by the city of Rochester. The park hit some minor stumbling blocks even before the first shovel hit dirt: the original designs needed to be revised when it was revealed that the playing field was below the water table, and the environmental impact report revealed that the site had pockets of petroleum that needed to be treated. The groundbreaking took place on July 9, 2004, and the first phase of the construction was completed. The stadium had its grand opening on June 3, 2006, which featured the Rhinos' first home game of the season. The game was played in front of a capacity crowd of 13,768 fans and ended in a 2–2 draw against the Virginia Beach Mariners. On August 22, 2018, it was announced that the Rhinos, then on a 1-year hiatus from the United Soccer League, would be leaving Marina Auto Stadium to pursue building a new stadium in the suburbs of Rochester.
Naming rights
to the park were purchased by PAETEC Communications, a local telecommunications company, in 2004 for a reported total of $23 million over 12 years. However, when the club changed ownership, the agreement was voided at the end of the 2008 season. The stadium then became known as Rochester Rhinos Stadium. In mid-2009, the team had a raffle to determine the naming rights for the stadium. For each $1,000 an individual, group, company, or other entity paid to the Rhinos, they would be given one chance to win the right to name the stadium. On May 30, 2009, the night of the Rhinos' 2009 home opener, Marina Auto Group, a Webster-based automobile dealership group, won the raffle. The Marina Auto name was retained through 2010 under a traditional naming rights agreement. On February 10, 2011, it was announced that the new name of the stadium would be Sahlen's Stadium after the deal with Marina Auto expired. This was part of a five-year naming rights agreement with Sahlen's Packing Company, Inc. of Buffalo, New York, with an option to renew the agreement for another five years. The cost of the agreement was not released, but was estimated at about $2 million. In October 2015, the stadium operators announced that they would not exercise the option to continue the existing naming agreement with Sahlen's, but would instead seek a new agreement. In the interim, the stadium reverted to being known as Rochester Rhinos Stadium. On January 24, 2017, Capelli Sport entered a corporate partnership with the Rhinos and the stadium was renamed Capelli Sport Stadium. Marina Auto Group entered into a new naming rights deal in 2018, reverting the name of the stadium back to Marina Auto Stadium.
On July 19, 2009, the USWNT played an international friendly against Canada in front of 8,433, winning 1-0 on a goal scored by Rochester native Abby Wambach.
On September 1, 2012, the USWNT played international friendly against Costa Rica in front of 13,208 fans as part of their 2012 Olympic championship celebration, winning 8-0.
On September 18, 2014, the USWNT played an international friendly against Mexico in front of 5,680 fans, winning 4-0.
In July 2006, the Rochester Rhinos hosted Sheffield Wednesday for an international friendly in front of 6,289 fans, losing 0-2.
