The Hamilton County Commission issued a $1.2 billion plan to renovate the Cincinnati Bengals stadium yesterday, with the money to come from
Okay, yup, those sure are some big video boards, but anyway, the $1.2 billion would be raised by
County officials say under the comprehensive renovation process the 24-year-old stadium would be:
- An engaging multi-purpose setting
- Modernized, expanded and updated
- An enhanced and varied fan experience
- A sustainable home for the Bengals
- Enhanced public utilization and team venue.
Um, sure, okay, some of those words don’t actually mean anything, but
This is going to cost $1.2 billion, seriously? There are also some renderings of new party decks and food courts and such, but it still seems like a crazy amount of money.
Anyway, sneak past the Cincinnati Enquirer’s paywall and we have our answer, of sorts:
The plan doesn’t lay out the financing. Nor have the Bengals weighed in on it publicly. Administration and commissioners have said they don’t plan on raising new taxes to pay for the stadium upgrades. That means the existing half-cent sales tax that paid for the original construction of the stadium would also pay for whatever the county’s portion of the renovations are.
The county portion of the 7.8% regional sales tax is currently 2.05%, of which 0.5% goes to the Bengals and Reds stadium fund. The county’s tax reporting website hasn’t been updated with figures since 2017, but it’s been reported elsewhere that sales tax revenues were $135 million in 2021, which would make the stadium tax surcharge share $33 million a year. If we project that out for 30 years, depending on how fast taxable spending in the county rises, that could be enough to cover anywhere from around $700 million to $1 billion in stadium renovation bonds.
Of course, the county doesn’t have to spend all that tax money on the Bengals stadium, and may want to set aside some money for when the Reds owners inevitable come calling (or, you know, for things that regular people who don’t own sports teams might need, including lowering that sales tax rate). The Bengals’ current lease expires in 2026, and county officials want to hold out this renovation plan as a carrot for the team signing a new one — though owner Mike Brown has the option to extend the current lease twice for five-year periods, which would guarantee him county spending on holographic replay systems.
The last we heard from Bengals execs, they were proposing $300 million in county spending on renovations while Brown would put in $50 million, in exchange for a five-year lease extension. The county is clearly upping the ante significantly, though whether it would be better or worse for taxpayers depends on how the spending shares and the lease work out, and so far that’s all TBD. In the meantime: pretty pictures! Good thing no one falls for that gimmick anymore
$1.2 billion in proposed Paycor Stadium renovations would transform the riverfront
Sigh.
I’m just speculating. Maybe the Hamilton county is going to try and get the state to pick up most of the tab since the Browns are also angling for state funding for their stadium. So they get Mike Dewine and the legislators to allocate $1 billion to each the Browns and Bengals (maybe through some sort of marijuana tax or pull tabs like Minnesota)
Exactly this. Once Dee and Jimmy hinted that they’d be open to state money for their taxpayer palace, it was just a matter of time before Cincitucky decided they’d better get in line as well. DeRino is term limited, and the GOP in the legislature is divided between the RINO faction and a more conservative wing. The RINO faction has no problem getting in bed with Ohio Dems to spend money, so I expect both projects will get funded by the entire state. Yay….
Haslams brother was Governor of Tennessee so they were probably friends with DeWine already. DeWine can’t give the Browns $1 billion and give Cinci nothing. Add to that Northeast Ohio is a Democratic area while the rest of the state is Republican (Columbus is 50-50 depending on the year) so he also wouldn’t be able to pass a bill giving money to the Democratic part of the state only. So Hamilton County is probably sitting there saying “hey if he’s thinking of giving a billion to the Browns lets get a billion ourselves and it looks balanced”
Oh look. Its turning out exactly this way: https://www.daytondailynews.com/sports/new-images-of-13-billion-makeover-proposed-for-bengals-stadium/26L6P5NE7JCEXLUOH2Y2UWAHUM/
Maybe to transform the riverfront, they should fill in the literal parking moats between the stadium and the rest of the Banks with multi-use buildings, but that would limit tailgating and we can’t make tailgating worse 9-10 times per year just to get 2 lowsy apartment buildings
The Bengals are probably the least valuable team in the league, but still worth more than $5 billion. If they can get a deal from St Louis or Oklahoma City, I could definitely see them leaving Cincinnati. I am not saying they should get public money, but this is actually a team (like the Bills) that could threaten to move and mean it.
And da Bears have no viable threat to move, even to Naperville, and yet they still demand billions.
And that is why many politicians are publicly saying they won’t give them money. They might cave in the future, but the reception the Bears are getting is far different than other teams.
According to Forbes, they are the least valuable, but least valuable NFL team is still $4.1bn.
They might move if another city *significantly* outstupids Hamilton County in terms of giving away way too much for a stadium, but that feels unlikely at this point. That could change.
Fwiw, I don’t think the Bills ever meant it when they were hanging the relocation “threat” over Buffalo’s head. There was no realistic place for them to move; the very brief Austin talk was Posturing 101.
It feels like we’ve already reached peak football — or at least peak NFL — in America, not just in terms of the number of new fans it can create/attract, but also in terms of the number of “unserved” markets that are interested in wooing an existing franchise to town. Now that the NFL has filled the two most lucrative markets remaining (LA and Las Vegas), there are no territories left for it to conquer.
Jacksonville committed to throwing something like ~$800 million toward its stadium project, and that barely covers *half* of the overall costs. The sticker price, and shock, stands to be even greater for any city with an interest in forming a concept of a plan to bring in an NFL team.
St. Louis has no desire for the NFL after its experience with the Rams. Oklahoma City is college football first, last, and always (Boomer Sooner!)
There is really no place for an NFL team other than Buffalo and New Orleans (small markets) to realistically threaten a move to in the US. I haven’t heard anything about markets looking to lure NFL teams.
Logic and realism has no place here.
If an NFL team can exist in Jacksonville, Buffalo or Green Bay, it can exist just about anywhere, provided that it has a publicly funded stadium and enough local rich people/corporations to buy sponsorships and luxury suites.
Because all the TV is national and there are so few games, the location of NFL stadiums does not matter very much.
The latest rumor is that Ed Rogers is strategizing to eventually put an NFL team in Toronto. He will soon control the biggest telecom in Canada and every pro sports team in Toronto except the new WNBA team and the NLL team (which actually plays in Hamilton).
Again, it does not make a lot of sense. It does not have to. But if anyone has the power to make that happen it is him.
But, for the money it would cost to build an NFL stadium in Toronto (probably coupled with a new Jays park), they could probably build a teleportation device to take people from Toronto directly to any NFL stadium of the fans’ choice.
I could certainly see Mike Brown children selling the team to someone outside of Cincinnati. They both do not seem to care much about the team like their dad does.
No, they care a lot. They just are not very good at it and they do not have another source of wealth, so they have tended to run the team on the cheap.
I think its nice that the Bengals are proposing to clean up the Ohio River. Taking it from its normal putrid brown to a nice fresh blue cannot be cheap. Gotta be what most of the 1.2 billion is going towards.
That seems like a better use of public funds, at least.
Rivers are supposed to be brown.
If a river is blue or clear, that means it is dead.
Or were you being ironic?
Well, if the state of New York is pouring $850 million into a $1.4 billion stadium that won’t even have a freaking dome on it despite being in western New York, then $1.2 billion for a vaguely defined “renovation” isn’t out of the works.
Seriously, at some point the stupidly inflated cost of major construction projects in the US compared to other developed countries has to come to a head at some point, right? It can’t keep increasing and they expect average folks and businesses to just accept that a billion dollars can’t even get you a basic football stadium, right?
Sadly, I know the answer to this one.
HI Neil,
You should cover how at the same time that owners are soaking tax payers for new stadiums or improvements, they are allowing for private equity to invest 10% into NFL teams, hence these benefits will be flowing to PE.
On top of that, I believe the NFL disallows cities to invest into teams (of course not letting cities to invest, allows teams to threaten to move).
Cities should now demand an ownership share for its investment, pointing to the PE groups who will be profiting from a cities generosity.
Is allowing PE investors that different from allowing other private investors to buy small shares? Either way, it’s public benefits flowing to rich owners.
Cities can demand equity all they want, and the NFL will continue to insist that they won’t allow it. If every city banded together and said they wouldn’t approve subsidies without an equity stake, the NFL might be forced to back down, but the history of cities collaborating with each other instead of competing with each other is not great.
Transformational is a curious description. It can mean almost anything.
If I won the lottery I could describe it as transformational.
If I developed a meth or compulsive gambling problem, it could (and probably would) also be transformational.
Even without holographic displays.
Cincinnati’s waterfront is a great example (or terrible example, depending on how you look at it) of the terrible ideas for urban development that wrecked so many US cities in the middle of the 20th century.
They built all those interstates that cut off downtown from the water and from the rest of the city. The interstates did not serve the city, but allowed traffic to just pass through it.
I think most people there would like to reverse that, but it is hard to do that now. The Reds stadium and the “village” they built around there probably helps somewhat, but a football stadium that gets fewer than 20 events a year (I’m just guessing) is not helping, especially with all that parking.
There are a number of projects to convert office buildings into residences downtown. That would be fantastic if it succeeds, but it is expensive so it may just attract speculators, or worse, failure and vacancy.