The owners of the Cincinnati Bengals have announced they’re spending (or “investing,” in corporate development speak) between $100 million and $120 million on upgrades to their stadium, which will include new audio and video systems, renovated suites and lounges, and improved concession facilities. This wouldn’t normally be news — “Area Business Spends Money on Own Business” — but for the fact that the Bengals are famously recipients of a state-of-the-art clause that requires Hamilton County to provide anything other new stadiums have up to and including “holographic replay systems,” so Bengals owner Mike Brown dipping into his own pocket for upgrades is noteworthy.
And, as you’ve probably expected, there are caveats:
In a post on the team’s website, the Bengals said the league’s finance committee unanimously approved the team’s application to use funds from the NFL’s G-5 loan program.
The G-5 program, successor to the earlier G-3 and G-4 programs, is a loan in name only: Team owners can “repay” the league via money that they would normally have to give to the league anyway as part of revenue sharing, so it’s really just a grant. Owners have to provide their own matching funds, meaning Brown is likely getting only $50-60 million in NFL cash, and, crucially, there must be some public money involved — “purely private projects are not eligible.”
And while Bengals execs didn’t mention public money in their press release about their own spending, that’s the clear subtext here. The team owners and Hamilton County have been engaged in longstanding negotiations over an extension of the team’s lease, which expires in 2026 but can be renewed until 2036, with the county most recently spending $39 million on publicly funded improvements including a new field, refurbished club seating, and an expanded entry plaza. County commissioner Alicia Reece said last month that she wanted to see at least $100 million in NFL funding, and this appears to be an attempt by the team and league to match that number.
While it might seem weird for first the county, then the NFL, to shell out cash as part of lease negotiations in exchange for no actual lease agreement, all of this seems to be a way for the Bengals to zhuzh up their digs while building good will for future upgrades that will likely cost half a billion dollars or more. (The county hasn’t ruled out an entirely new stadium either, though team officials are so far talking just about “investing in the future of the stadium,” implying that it has one.) Last August the Bengals front office proposed that the county commit to spending $300 million on stadium upgrades over the next two years, while the team would put in $50 million, in exchange for a five-year lease extension. County commissioners said that seemed awfully steep — at $60 million per year, it would be the priciest per-year lease extension in stadium history — but don’t appear to have made a counterproposal. It’s all very murky and behind-closed-doors, as most lease talks are, so we’re going to have to wait until word leaks of county commissioners’ response to this latest round of Bengals spending to see if the NFL money can unlock an even bigger amount of subsidies from taxpayers.
How much, if anything, do the Bengals pay in rent?
It keeps changing – I believe they’re back to zero rent right now, but haven’t confirmed that. Given how much they get from the county for upgrades and game-day expenses, though, I’d be amazed if they’re not at negative rent.
Are “improved concession facilities” just a line item to justify even greater inflated prices for the same low quality food?
Yet another reason to just stay home if I even bother to watch a sporting event. The cost and inconvenience of going to games is just not worth it most of the time. By staying home I can watch the end of early NFL games and not have to give up my entire day driving to the game and getting stuck in a parking lot traffic jam on the way home. The food and beer is much cheaper at home too.
$100 for two tickets to an NFL game in the upper deck
$25 in “Ticket Fees”
$5.00 SmartTicket Convenience Fee. We require the use of your Smart Phone or Smart Device for entry. We save money on paper tix but still need to make moaar by adding another fee!
The smart phone ticket application will heavily prompt the use of NFC Technology, however most of the time this will not actually work to read the tickets. Then when attempting to display the barcodes for scanning, the app will popup a reminder message prior to showing each ticket about using NFC next time instead.
$20 for parking
$13 Beer
$9 Soda
$9 Pretzel
$14 for Frozen Chicken Tenders and Fries
Recommended 25% tip ($11) on the card reader for for the above goods
Total: $206 to watch the AZ Cardinals get blown out by a Divisional opponent.
Alright, sorry everyone for the tangent.
I’m fortunate that my preferred sports (baseball and soccer) still mostly allow bringing outside food. I pretty much stopped going to Knicks games when it was no longer possible to bring in a quart of fried rice from the Chinese restaurant across 8th Avenue.
It’s not a tangent at all, Roman, and thanks for the ‘real world’ experience. I have mostly stopped going to major pro sports also. I will still sometimes frequent minor league games, but even there you find the cost is disappointingly high (though at least they can claim they ‘need’ them money to survive, pro sports clearly do not…)
$40-50 for a single ticket, a couple of beers and a burger or hot dog w side is still pretty high in my book.
Since I began my TicketBastard boycott, I have found there aren’t that many sporting or concert options I can even consider. So I don’t.
Ohio cities and counties loooooove them some stadium subsidies. Geez.
I guess that’s because Ohio cities and counties seem to have an abundance of politicians who don’t have any qualms about freely giving taxpayers’ money to wealthy team owners.
Or for that matter, soliciting bribes from electric utilities in exchange for a taxpayer-funded bailout of a nuclear power plant.
Cincinnati and Salt Lake City officials are running a contest, who can make a half billion dollar giveaway to a billionaire with the least return to the city. Last night’s Salt Lake City Council meeting was a joke. Mayor Mendenhall is a joke. The council has already fixed it, on July 2nd they will eagerly approve the half cent sales tax to line Ryan Smith’s pocket. Just ignore the West Side and throw money into gold plating the Delta Center, goof around with the concert hall, $200 million to renovate a concert hall? And pour hundreds of millions more into a 3rd rate convention center? The comments were absurd, all 3 venues exist on the west end of Downtown, and what could throwing a billion or more into that 3 block area accomplish? Las Vegas is laughing, who wants to go to Vegas when 24 hour excitement is available in Salt Lake City, along with a renovated Delta Center. Might as well shut down the MSG Sphere now. But the Salt Palace is the economic engine of Downtown Salt Lake City. The Hockey News got it right, Utah has already caught Arizona Coyotes Syndrome. Maybe it won’t work because, like Kansas City in the 70s, Salt Lake City is just too small to support NBA and NHL.
Arizona Coyotes Syndrome:
“But what should be worrying us fans is the “close to the vest” strategy didn’t work in Arizona — and it appears Utah is following the same playbook”
https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/arizona-coyotes/latest-news/whats-going-on-behind-the-scenes-in-the-utah-front-office