Seat license sales pass goal
Bengals praise fans for coming through
BY ANNE MICHAUD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Bengals fans have committed to buy more than $20 million in seat licenses - nearly three months short of the April 30 deadline.
Seat license sales cleared the $20 million goal this week, which will keep the Bengals stadium deal moving forward.ZONES A and B are greatly overbooked, causing Tri-State Sports to move people to their second-, third- or fourth-choice seats.
ZONE C will be booked by the time the seat assignments are sorted.
Seat license sales will continue until the stadium opens in 2000, but new applicants should choose a zone besides A, B or C.
Fans who paid for seat licenses before Jan. 31 will receive their zone assignments in the mail by the end of March.
The $20 million goal had to be reached by that date or Hamilton County's deal to build the Bengals a new stadium could have been off.
The licenses - one-time charges of $300 to $1,500 for the right to buy season tickets - were calculated to be the hardest sell in the fifth-smallest NFL market in the nation.
''The one hurdle everybody was convinced we would never be able to overcome is something we have surpassed months before the deadline,'' said County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus. ''We're at the top of the roller coaster ride.''
Seat license proceeds will go to the county to defray the estimated $180 million cost of building the stadium.
This is the second big win for keeping pro football in Cincinnati. Less than a year ago, Hamilton County voters overwhelmingly raised their sales taxes a half-cent, largely to prevent a threatened departure by the Bengals.
''We have always had tremendous confidence in our fans,'' said Troy Blackburn, the team's stadium development director. ''We happen to believe Cincinnati is a tremendous football town, so the results seen today came as no surprise to us.''
Lawyer Tim Mara, who led the fight against the sales tax last year, was taken aback by the seat sales' success.
''I have to admit, I was concerned they wouldn't reach that goal, and the taxpayers would have to make up the difference,'' Mr. Mara said Thursday.
''It would be wonderful to be able to see the accuracy of those numbers,'' he added, noting that the records are in the hands of a private company, Tri-State Sports, which is running the campaign for the county.
Lori Gamble, who is working with Tri-State Sports, said she expects the records to be released when they are complete in about 10 days.
Sales figures for 104 luxury suites and 7,500 club seats remain a mystery. The team must sell 80 percent of them by April 30 to keep the new football stadium on track.
The club would not address those sales Thursday, but Mr. Bedinghaus said he heard the sales were going well.
Proceeds from club seats and luxury suites go to the Bengals.
The seat license sale here is said to be the first in the country tried in a market that already has a football team. The effort bodes well for Cleveland, which is expected to begin seat license sales later this month, and for other small markets.
Cincinnati fans actually added dramatic tension to the sale by waiting until an initial Jan. 31 deadline to send in their applications. Certain incentives expired on that date, though the sale will continue.
The office of Tri-State Sports was deluged with mail over the weekend.
Tri-State still has a three-day backlog to sort but was confident enough Thursday to announce the $20 million mark had been passed. The agency has $11 million cash in hand, said its director, Don Schumacher. Each payment is an initial deposit of one-third of the applicant's seat license, or Charter Ownership Agreement (COA).
But simply multiplying $11 million by 3 won't work. Since the best two zones (A and B) are hugely overbooked, many people will be bumped down to their second, third or fourth choice of zone. That means their COA will cost less, and they owe less to Tri-State, Mr. Schumacher said.
''New applicants hearing the results today can forget about Zones A, B and C,'' he said. Those zones are closest to the field and the 50-yard line.
Nearly 25,000 seats are spoken for, Ms. Gamble said. The agency plans to keep selling seat licenses through the stadium's first season in autumn 2000. With 68,000 to 70,000 seats planned for the stadium, Mr. Bedinghaus said, that's a potential total of $32 million.
''If the Bengals start out next year with seven wins in a row, we'll sell every COA we have, no question,'' he said.
Tri-State could not estimate how many seat license sales came from outside Hamilton County. The agency marketed seats in Dayton, Lexington, Louisville and Columbus.
Mr. Blackburn said roughly 20 percent of the club's 45,000 to 50,000 season ticket holders are from outside Greater Cincinnati.
About 19 percent of the seats sold so far were to people who did not hold a season ticket in 1996, Ms. Gamble said.
Many season ticket holders are buying club seats instead. Also, companies purchasing one of the luxury boxes are often forgoing blocks of regular seats in the stadium.
''We're losing some of our best season ticket holders to ourselves,'' Mr. Schumacher said.
He urged people who have applied for seats to check their canceled checks or credit card statements for proof of purchase, while Tri-State is still busily compiling sales over the next couple of weeks.Purchasers can expect their zone assignments and COAs in the mail by the end of March.
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