Field of Schemes
sports stadium news and analysis

  

This is an archived version of a Field of Schemes article. Comments on this page are closed. To find the current version of the article with updated comments, click here.

February 01, 2010

Bengals offer lease concessions — in exchange for lease concessions

Well, check this out: The Cincinnati Bengals have actually offered to cough up lease concessions in order to help bail Hamilton County's stadium fund out of its $13 million a year in losses. The offer by Bengals VP Troy Blackburn — which was actually made last October, but only released yesterday following a series of public-records requests — was estimated by the team to be worth $40 million, but the math is, shall we say, a bit funny:

  • The Bengals would pay $1 million in rent each year from 2010 to 2014. That's $5 million cumulative, though more like $4.3 million in present value, since some of the money wouldn't come until years down the road.
  • The team would pay for $2 million in stadium capital repairs by the end of the 2011 season.
  • Waiving a requirement that the county pay the team about $2.6 million a year to play at Paul Brown Stadium — that's right, according to their lease, the Bengals pay negative rent — from 2018 through 2026. That's $23.4 million in cumulative dollars, but since so much of the payments are far in the future, it's only worth about $12.5 million in 2010 dollars.
  • Staff reductions at the stadium, which the team controls but the county funds, estimated at $2 million in savings over 15 years.

Even as the Bengals count, that's only about $32 million, and in real numbers it's more like $21 million. Still, at least they're offering something, right?

However, the Bengals are also making demands in exchange: The county would have to give up its stadium luxury box, as well as revenue from non-NFL events, and — these are potentially biggies — hand over any naming-rights revenue and agree never to impose ticket taxes. Also, while the Bengals deny it, there are indications that the team might be granted an out clause in its lease ten years before they could otherwise leave. Little wonder, then, that county commissioner (and longtime Bengals nemesis) Todd Portune called it a lousy deal, saying, "If the offer didn't come with strings it would be a very generous offer. It's a start but there's a long way to go." That's what they said about the Treaty of Greenville.

Latest News Items

CONTACT US FOR AD RATES