As mentioned on Friday, pretty much every pro sports team in Ohio is racing to grab a chunk of the state’s $1.7 billion unclaimed funds pool, which really everyone should have expected would happen as soon as the state made clear that it planned to use the money for sports projects instead of leaving it in place until the people whose money it really was could claim it. So far we have had the Cleveland Browns in for $600 million, the Guardians and Cavaliers seeking $105 million combined, and the Columbus Crew hoping for $100 million; now Hamilton County has put a price tag on its ask to the state for the Cincinnati Bengals, and it is $234 million:
In its application, the county estimated the cost of the project at $936.7 million. That’s different from the $830 million figure the county has floated as the cost of a complete renovation package. So far, the county is funding $350 million, while the Bengals are chipping in $120 million.
So that would be $350 million from the county, $234 million from the state, and $120 million from the team, which comes to $704 million — on a project costing $936.7 million. Huh. You’d think someone would notice a $232 million funding gap, but maybe they have big plans for a GoFundMe?
The most eyebrow-raising part of the county’s request to the state, meanwhile, is that the Bengals already signed an 11-year lease extension in exchange for the $350 million from the county. (The county also agreed to take on about $300 million in future stadium operating expenses, making it nearly $60 million per year that of the lease, which just might be the worst deal ever.) As the Cincinnati Business Journal deadpanned, “The county’s application to the state does not say anything about the Bengals extending their lease in exchange for an additional $234 million. … Typically, when the state makes a major outlay of taxpayer-funded incentives to companies that create jobs, it requires them to stay beyond the term of the incentive the firms will receive.” But not the Bengals, nuh-uh — which would make a state donation of $234 million in exchange for a zero-year lease extension be the single most expensive per-year stadium subsidy in history, at $∞/year.
Of course, if the state of Ohio doesn’t give the money to Bengals owner Mike Brown, the original owners might come claim it, so maybe they’ll just hand it over, no questions asked. (Using the money for some public use other than privately occupied sports venues doesn’t seem to have occurred to anyone.) Also of course, there’s still a lawsuit pending against the use of the fund for sports purposes, and if that succeeds, a whole lot of holes could get blown in a lot of stadium budgets, including the Browns stadium project that is set to break ground today. Many, many ways this can end, pretty much none of them good, which would make it the most 2026 story of 2026, except for all the others.
That’s the thing about “exceptions.” Once you give out one, everybody else feels entitled to one of their own.
It’s basic human behavior, just played out in this case to the tune of $1.7 billion among a relatively tiny cohort of entities.