Remember how, after offering up $7.4 million in additional rent to help out Hamilton County’s empty stadium fund, the Cincinnati Bengals demanded $30 million in lease breaks and a new scoreboard? Well, now it turns out they also want a total of $43.6 million in stadium upgrades, according to records obtained by the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Hamilton County officials say they can’t afford it; the Bengals retort that this is just normal maintenance. Though their arguments don’t exactly back up that contention:
Dornette added the scoreboard isn’t a team want — it’s a need. The Bengals scoreboard, for example, is not high definition. The Bengals are stuck with the equivalent of an analog TV in a digital age, they say.
Other stadiums, including the rival Steelers, for example, feature high definition scoreboards.
The Bengals are, of course, the team that famously included “holographic replay systems” among the items that the state-of-the-art clause in their lease requires them to get once other teams have them. So at least they can argue that they’ve established “Because all the other kids have them!” as a precedent.
Amazing. A notorious cheap franchise has no problem spending other people’s money.
The Bengals want money from Cincy?
lol