Most off-season's at this time there is not much to talk about. However, there is some interesting news right now concerning the Cincinnati Bengals and Hamilton County Ohio. The Bengals have opened the door for the county to come back to the negotiating table to renegotiate a contract that was made between the county and the Bengals when Paul Brown Stadium was built. I was not sure about how I was going to comment on this situation until I read the latest post on the Bengals "fan" site WhoDeyRevolution.
I usually enjoy the articles this particular author writes, he obviously has great football knowledge and can usually drive a point about the Bengals that I may not have thought of. However, in his latest post it seems he is ripping apart a letter from Troy Blackburn of the Bengals front office to the County Administrator of Hamilton County. The very short version of the letter says that the Bengals are willing to make some concessions in order for the county to make some money but there will be some concessions the county must make in order to receive these changes to the current contract. The writer for WDR focuses on the introduction and attempts to discredit Troy Blackburn as being a totally evil human that will attempt to bully and manipulate the negotiations. It comes off as rather petty and lame.
Below I will detail the meat of the letter and show the concessions the Bengals are making and what is expected of Hamilton County: (quotes from the letter will be in BOLD)
Short-term Assistance
1. The Bengals would agree to annual rent for the 2010 through 2014 seasons of $1,000,000 (total $5 million) paid as currently set forth in the lease. If there is a labor stoppage during 2011 (or another season), then the unpaid rent obligations would be deferred until the next season when football was fully reinstated.
This is unchanged from the current deal I believe.
2. By the end of the 2011 season, the Bengals would agree to perform the following capital repairs on behalf of the County: (a) replace the existing point-of-sale system, (b) replace field level carpeting, (c) install an electronic ticketing system, and (d) contribute towards the stadium field replacement. These contributions would be capped at $2 million, which represents real savings for the stadium fund. The items would be accepted (when completed) by the County as additional rent above and beyond any other payments.
The current deal calls for the county to make these repairs as long as they are present in a percentage of the other 31 NFL stadiums. Here the Bengals are making a real monetary concession to the County.
Long-Term Assistance
3. Starting in 2017, the Bengals would relieve the County of the obligation to make "out year payments." This would generate savings to the stadium fund approximately $30 million. These years would instead become team option years on the terms set forth in section 5.5 of the lease; the current options for 2026-2035 would be unaffected with the Bengals receiving additional options through 2045. Throughout the term, we would appreciate clarification that, if our Club is selected to play an international game, there are no issues under the lease.
4. Commencing January 1, 2010, stadium management would proceed as set forth in Section 11.1 of the Lease, and the County would reduce its staff accordingly (we estimate that this staffing reduction would save roughly $2 million over the next 15 years). In addition, the Bengals would continue funding the staffing costs we cover today; which would save the stadium fund $3 million over the next 15 years.
I cannot claim to know the staffing needs and numbers at Paul Brown Stadium. However, you can take a look at other government run institutions and know that staffing numbers set by the government are rarely accurate. While the Bengals are not making concessions here, they are aiding the county by telling them they are wasting money on over staffing.
5. In consideration for the above financial commitments to Hamilton County, effective January 1, 2010 the County would grant the following to the Bengals (a) relinquish its suite to the team, (b) give the team the County's portion of "other event revenue”, and (c) surrender its small remainder interest in naming rights. On this last point, as you recognized when we met, even if naming rights were sold today, the County would not likely receive any revenues for a decade (if ever), and it is simply not practical to think that naming rights could be sold anytime soon in this economy.
6. The County would provide non-economic cooperation to the team – including procuring unused City billboard credits - to help the team build an indoor practice facility and to expand advertising opportunities at Paul Brown Stadium.
If I can no longer pay my bill to the Bengals they are going to take my seats too. It is no one else's fault and no matter how many people whine, it is the right thing to do. Here the Bengals are outlining what it is going to cost the county, their suite, their other event revenue and naming rights. The Bengals are also telling the county that they want to use the revenue from billboards the county has not used. Again, this is something the county would "give up" for this new deal.
9. As you suggested last week, we would also need assurance that the County is committed to a constructive long-term relationship with our organization. Naturally, public comments are an important part of that, and we would need assurances that the County will pursue a more positive route. While we would ask you to consider what form that can take, one element would be an agreement that future disputes would avoid public bickering and would instead be subject to binding private arbitration between the parties.
I am sure this last point is going to make some waves. This is the institution of the "Carl Pickens Clause" into the deal. I am not against this. The fact that the County did smear the Bengals in the court of public opinion when the Bengals were bound to the same deal that the County negotiated was not right. The Bengals have lost a lot of football games in recent history and the county jumped on the fact that fans were upset and used that to sway the public into blaming Mike Brown. It wasn't hard to do when the fans were disgruntled anyway. Some so called fans blame Mike Brown for them losing their job, keys girlfriend and the snow that may come this weekend. These people are morons.
Lastly Troy states:
The dollars are significant and total roughly $40 million. We have not included a new ticket tax as you requested because we do not think - in these economic times - it is appropriate to increase ticket prices for Bengals fans.
Take it for what it is worth. However, the bottom line is the Bengals are making concessions when they are not forced too. They are considering the fans in this last point and this flies in the face of the "Down with Brown" crowd. You will get no argument from me about the ownership performance of the last 19 years. However, I think this post is just another item in the growing list of the things that the front office for the Cincinnati Bengals has done in the last year + that is proving to me the organization is focused on winning.
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