Ohio lawmakers for years have snubbed their nose at the State of Cincinnati, favoring Cleveland and Columbus on projects.
But their latest rebuff of Southwest Ohio is a good thing for taxpayers.
Republican leaders in Columbus continue to speak out against a requested $350 million handout to the Cincinnati Bengals for upgrades to Paycor Stadium.
The Bengals and Hamilton County surprisingly made the amateur-hour request of the legislature merely hours after the Ohio House had already passed its budget. This random request came with no messaging about how the money would benefit the community, making it easy for Republicans to send a message to the Bengals:
Get it together. This isn’t business as usual.
This may have gotten lost in the headlines, especially because no vote has been taken. But this is nonetheless a significant point in the nearly 30-year, often rough, one-way football stadium journey in Hamilton County.
Finally, elected officials collectively are taking a stand against the Bengals’ demands for a handout.
It’s particularly noteworthy that these are Republicans who are pushing back, including House Speaker Matt Huffman and the GOP candidates for governor. Gov. Mike DeWine also doesn’t favor massive handouts for stadiums out of the operating budget and instead wants to raise taxes on sports gambling.
Republicans have long been the Bengals’ buddies. But the Bengals are finding out the good ol’ boy network that helped them strike what’s widely regarded as one of the worst stadium deals for taxpayers in American professional sports history has dried up.
It dried up years ago at the county, now controlled by Democrats. And now the Bengals don’t have long-time pal Bill Seitz doing their bidding on Capitol Square. The West Sider retired last year after a long career as one of the most influential figures in the legislature. Seitz’s parting gift was quietly orchestrating a sales-tax exemption for the Bengals on $120 million in stadium improvements.
Bill Cunningham of 700 WLW asked me a great question when I was a guest on his show this week: What happens if the state doesn’t come through with the money?
Let’s find out.
Make the Bengals sweat. Let them threaten to leave. It’s the job of state lawmakers and county commissioners to hold the line and get a better deal for taxpayers this time around. And not just a better deal, but a much better deal.
The Bengals will get some state money. It should come out of the capital budget, though, not the state’s operating budget, as they’ve requested. The county’s sales-tax spigot will remain on forever.
Deep down, county politicians are worried the Bengals are going to leave. No elected official wants that to happen on his or her watch. It won’t. The Bengals aren’t going anywhere as long as the family of the late, great Paul Brown owns the team.
Some fans freaked out after Bengals executive Katie Blackburn recently told reporters: “We could, I guess, go wherever we wanted after this year if we didn’t pick the option up.” The panic was unnecessary. That’s simply a smart lawyer stating things by the book.
Because guess what?
The Bengals would find out no other city outside would give them the kind of heavily one-sided deal they want. It’s not 1999 anymore. These NFL stadium deals call for teams/private sector to pony up a much higher percentage for construction and renovations today.
The Bengals have money. They have the ability to bring in private equity funds to buy minority stakes in the franchise if they want more money, though last year they were the only NFL team to vote against allowing that to happen. Owner Mike Brown and family last fall were new additions to Forbes’ annual list of richest people in America.
The current stadium lease expires in summer 2026. The Bengals face a deadline in two months on whether to exercise a two-year extension on the current lease.
The Bengals have a lot of work to do. Well, elected officials have a lot of work to do putting the Bengals on the spot. Let’s hear exactly how much money the Bengals plan to spend on the stadium. Let’s hear how all this money they want from the county and state would benefit the community. Let’s hear a proposal that would allow the public to have more control over a publicly owned stadium.
That the Bengals aren’t good at public relations can no longer be brushed off as an excuse. And that they don’t change should no longer be acceptable to the public.
Contact columnist Jason Williams at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio Republicans stand up to Cincinnati Bengals on stadium handouts
Ohio lawmakers for years have snubbed their nose at the State of Cincinnati, favoring Cleveland and Columbus on projects.
But their latest rebuff of Southwest Ohio is a good thing for taxpayers.
Republican leaders in Columbus continue to speak out against a requested $350 million handout to the Cincinnati Bengals for upgrades to Paycor Stadium.
The Bengals and Hamilton County surprisingly made the amateur-hour request of the legislature merely hours after the Ohio House had already passed its budget. This random request came with no messaging about how the money would benefit the community, making it easy for Republicans to send a message to the Bengals:
Get it together. This isn’t business as usual.
This may have gotten lost in the headlines, especially because no vote has been taken. But this is nonetheless a significant point in the nearly 30-year, often rough, one-way football stadium journey in Hamilton County.
Finally, elected officials collectively are taking a stand against the Bengals’ demands for a handout.
It’s particularly noteworthy that these are Republicans who are pushing back, including House Speaker Matt Huffman and the GOP candidates for governor. Gov. Mike DeWine also doesn’t favor massive handouts for stadiums out of the operating budget and instead wants to raise taxes on sports gambling.
Republicans have long been the Bengals’ buddies. But the Bengals are finding out the good ol’ boy network that helped them strike what’s widely regarded as one of the worst stadium deals for taxpayers in American professional sports history has dried up.
It dried up years ago at the county, now controlled by Democrats. And now the Bengals don’t have long-time pal Bill Seitz doing their bidding on Capitol Square. The West Sider retired last year after a long career as one of the most influential figures in the legislature. Seitz’s parting gift was quietly orchestrating a sales-tax exemption for the Bengals on $120 million in stadium improvements.
Bill Cunningham of 700 WLW asked me a great question when I was a guest on his show this week: What happens if the state doesn’t come through with the money?
Let’s find out.
Make the Bengals sweat. Let them threaten to leave. It’s the job of state lawmakers and county commissioners to hold the line and get a better deal for taxpayers this time around. And not just a better deal, but a much better deal.
The Bengals will get some state money. It should come out of the capital budget, though, not the state’s operating budget, as they’ve requested. The county’s sales-tax spigot will remain on forever.
Deep down, county politicians are worried the Bengals are going to leave. No elected official wants that to happen on his or her watch. It won’t. The Bengals aren’t going anywhere as long as the family of the late, great Paul Brown owns the team.
Some fans freaked out after Bengals executive Katie Blackburn recently told reporters: “We could, I guess, go wherever we wanted after this year if we didn’t pick the option up.” The panic was unnecessary. That’s simply a smart lawyer stating things by the book.
Because guess what?
The Bengals would find out no other city outside would give them the kind of heavily one-sided deal they want. It’s not 1999 anymore. These NFL stadium deals call for teams/private sector to pony up a much higher percentage for construction and renovations today.
The Bengals have money. They have the ability to bring in private equity funds to buy minority stakes in the franchise if they want more money, though last year they were the only NFL team to vote against allowing that to happen. Owner Mike Brown and family last fall were new additions to Forbes’ annual list of richest people in America.
The current stadium lease expires in summer 2026. The Bengals face a deadline in two months on whether to exercise a two-year extension on the current lease.
The Bengals have a lot of work to do. Well, elected officials have a lot of work to do putting the Bengals on the spot. Let’s hear exactly how much money the Bengals plan to spend on the stadium. Let’s hear how all this money they want from the county and state would benefit the community. Let’s hear a proposal that would allow the public to have more control over a publicly owned stadium.
That the Bengals aren’t good at public relations can no longer be brushed off as an excuse. And that they don’t change should no longer be acceptable to the public.
Contact columnist Jason Williams at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio Republicans stand up to Cincinnati Bengals on stadium handouts
