Joe Robbie, founder of the Miami Dolphins, commissioned the stadium in 1976 after the city of Miami proposed quadrupling the rent on the Orange Bowl. It was the first multipurpose stadium in the United States financed entirely with private money. The facility was designed with a wide rectangular field to accommodate both American football and baseball, and opened in August 1987 with a Dolphins preseason game against the Chicago Bears. The first regular-season NFL game was a 42–0 Dolphins victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on October 11, 1987.
At opening the site was in unincorporated Miami-Dade County; it is now within the city of Miami Gardens, incorporated on May 13, 2003.
The stadium has been known successively as Joe Robbie Stadium, Pro Player Park, Pro Player Stadium, Dolphins Stadium, Dolphin Stadium, Land Shark Stadium, Sun Life Stadium, and New Miami Stadium before adopting the Hard Rock name in August 2016. For the 2026 FIFA World Cup it will be temporarily renamed Miami Stadium in accordance with FIFA policy on corporate-sponsored venues.
Wayne Huizenga purchased a 50 percent stake in 1990 and led the successful campaign to bring MLB to South Florida. The Florida Marlins began play at the stadium in 1993 and won two World Series titles while playing there — defeating the Cleveland Indians in 1997 and the New York Yankees in 2003. Capacity was reduced to as few as 38,560 for regular-season baseball while postseason crowds exceeded 67,000. The stadium was widely criticized as a baseball venue for poor sightlines, oppressive summer heat, lights not oriented for baseball, and field conditions made difficult by shared NFL and NCAA football use. The Marlins moved to their own ballpark for the 2012 season.
On April 18, 2021, Formula 1 announced a 10-year deal to host the Miami Grand Prix at the stadium complex. The Miami International Autodrome is a temporary circuit created from the stadium's surface roads and parking areas. Racing began in 2022, adding a major annual motorsport event to a venue otherwise dedicated to football, tennis, and soccer.
The stadium has hosted six Super Bowls: XXIII, XXIX, XXXIII, XLI, XLIV, and LIV. The Miami Dolphins have played eight playoff games at the venue. Since 2008 the Miami Hurricanes college football team has used the stadium as their home field under a 25-year agreement through 2033. The facility has also hosted the Orange Bowl game since 1996 and multiple College Football Playoff National Championship games, including in 2021 and 2026.
A $350 million privately funded renovation beginning in January 2015 added an open-air canopy over the seating areas, corner video boards, additional suites, and reduced capacity from 75,000 to 65,326 seats. The renovation was completed for the 2016 NFL season.
The Miami Open tennis tournament relocated from Crandon Park in Key Biscayne to Hard Rock Stadium in 2019. Twenty-nine courts, including 11 tournament courts, were built on the stadium's south parking lots. The stadium proper serves as center court in a 13,800-seat tennis configuration. A gondola system called the SkyView opened on the south side of the complex in January 2020.
The stadium hosted WrestleMania XXVIII on April 1, 2012, drawing 78,363 attendees and generating an estimated $103 million in economic impact for Miami. It hosted the 2024 Copa América final and multiple matches at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, and is scheduled to host seven matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup including a quarterfinal and the third-place match.
Since 2019, the playing surface has been sourced from the South Florida Sod Farm in Loxahatchee Groves, Florida, a 96-acre property owned by the Miami Dolphins organization — the only sod farm owned by a professional sports franchise in the United States. The farm can grow 20 full-size fields simultaneously, enabling regular surface replacement.