The Cincinnati Bengals are known to be run by one of the cheapest owners in the NFL, Mike Brown. In 1996, local leaders were not prepared to competently negotiate against the team of lawyers brought in by the Bengals.
Everyone was shocked when they found out that the county had agreed to pay for “nearly all operating and capital improvement costs”. It gets worse though, as the county also agreed to pay for all sorts of new high-tech gear, some of which wasn’t even invented at the time of these negotiations. Not to worry though, as the Bengals paid for a study that revealed how this stadium deal would bring in “$300 million in economic benefits”. Sadly, some people actually believed that lie.
This led many people to wonder if this was the worst stadium deal ever created. Vice summarized it as the “most fiscally disastrous stadium deal in American history”. Neil deMause, from FieldOfSchemes.com, wonders aloud whether “Bengals stadium: Worst. Deal. Ever?” While the Wall Street Journal lays down the boom by calling this agreement “one of the worst professional sports deals ever struck by a local government—soaking up unprecedented tax dollars and county resources while returning little economic benefit”.
Thanks to this disastrous lease agreement, the Hamilton County continues to suffer from stadium costs that have doubled what the initial projections provided. When auditors were brought in to figure out how the budget got so bloated, the auditors cited both sides for “blurred accountability”. When the auditors would go to the team or city, each side “suggested that (the auditors) speak to other parties about details”. This would be funny if not so pathetic.
Furthermore, the new stadium has brought virtually nothing economically back into the city and therefore the stadium debt continues to more and more of Hamilton County’s yearly budget. Did I mention that the lease agreement says that the stadium must be in a state-of-the-art condition? This means that every few years, Mike Brown will demand any number of new toys for his stadium, like a new scoreboard, and taxpayers are legally required to pay for them. Whenever this subject gets brought up, the team blames the county for trying “to hold somebody else responsible” for the agreement. Classy.
This is the same classy organization that signed an updated lease agreement with Hamilton County in 2018 and then refused to allow the public to see what was in this update. As Deadspin wrote at the time, the public still did not know how much taxpayer dollars were going to land purchases near the stadium or an indoor practice facility. Therefore, Deadspin requested a copy of this public document and received the agreement with almost every single thing blacked out. No really, every single word, except for the date, subject line and names of email recipients were blacked out. Again, Classy.
“And so it would not be anywhere near exaggeration to say that it’s very important for citizens to know what’s in this new lease, and how much they’re paying, and that there’s absolutely no reason to trust their county commissioners’ words on the deal without seeing for themselves” — Deadspin, 07/10/2019
Over the last few months, the Bengals, and Hamilton County have been talking about either building a new stadium or upgrading the current one. But the county and its taxpayers seem hell-bent on forcing the team to pay for it this time. As the Cincinnati Enquirer wrote, “It’s time to reverse the worst sports stadium deal in the country as it comes up for renewal”.
Thankfully, it appears that Hamilton County has people in power with the right idea heading into negotiations with the Bengals. The President of the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners reminded everyone that “there will be no new taxes with any renovations” and that the funding source for any new or upgraded stadium was voted on by taxpayers and that is all the money available to give to the team.
Yet even with this terrible stadium lease still hurting Cincinnati today, I read a story this week about an Ohio lawmaker slipping in language to state bills at 1 a.m., thus at the last moment, that would save the Bengals “from paying millions in sales taxes on a planned $120 million stadium renovation”. Specifically, this revision would allow the Bengals to “exempt themselves from having to pay about $9.3 million in sales taxes” from their upcoming stadium upgrades.
The politician who put this into the bill, House Majority Floor Leader Bill Seitz, claims that he did it because he wanted “to take away a proposed bargaining chip from Hamilton County commissioners” since they are currently negotiating with the Bengals over a new stadium. Wait, what? Earlier this year, Hamilton County was trying to give this sales-tax exemption to the Bengals, but the team turned it down because the County put in rules about “prevailing-wage and competitive-bidding laws”. How lame of the county to want decent wages and an actual bidding process for the upgrades.
According to Seitz, Hamilton County did not grant the Bengals the exemption. Therefore, Hamilton County is trying to “game the system” and “win leverage over the team in lease negotiations”. Wait, so is this politician saying that taxpayers should never use any leverage that they have in stadium negotiations? That gaming the system is only allowed for the teams?
Setting aside the fact that Seitz didn’t even know that the County did not turn down the Bengals request for an exemption, I still struggle to see why this was done. Is he just trying to screw over the taxpayers of Hamilton County? Is he admitting that he puts the team well ahead of state residents?
The bar is set so low for the Bengals when it comes to spending their money. Several local Cincinnati media members are giving praise to the current Hamilton Commissioners for trying to get the team to pay just 40% of their stadium costs. Although this would be a massive improvement over the previous Bengals agreement, it still should not be considered a win for the county. Make them pay for as close to 100% as possible.