Stadium gaining ground?
Latest design irks city
BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati EnquirerThe city of Cincinnati is preparing to do battle with Hamilton County over the latest design for the new Bengals football stadium, which consumes more land than the city says it expected.
At issue: Council members say they agreed that a new stadium for the Bengals would be located between Central Avenue and Elm Street on the riverfront.
But the latest design that Hamilton County and the team have been working with shows a stadium ''footprint'' that consumes Elm Street.
A map that city officials provided The Enquirer shows that a pedestrian plaza for the new stadium reaches almost to Race Street.
City Councilman Dwight Tillery, a member of the city-county steering committee that has been working on stadium issues, said that extension would eliminate the possibility for other kinds of development on the riverfront between Elm and Race streets.
''This investment of two stadiums, part of the public purpose is the economic development aspect of it,'' Mr. Tillery said. ''That aspect may be in jeopardy if the stadium is allowed to extend.''
Ultimately, the city could refuse to deed over land it owns that the county needs to make the football stadium project work, said city Councilman Todd Portune.
''One clear option is, 'You either work with us, or you don't get the land,''' Mr. Portune said.
Mr. Portune said he couldn't say whether city council is frustrated enough to take such a step.
''Despite the fact that we've allowed the county to get the publicity on the stadium issue, the fact of the matter is they can't make any decisions without us and we can't without them,'' Mr. Portune said.
Cincinnati Mayor Roxanne Qualls sent a letter to Hamilton County Commission President Bob Bedinghaus expressing the city's concerns about the stadium. She declined to comment publicly on the issue Tuesday.
Hamilton County Commissioner Tom Neyer said he appreciates the city's observations and concerns, but he would like to hear some solutions.
''The larger the building it is, the more expensive it is,'' Mr. Neyer said. ''Therefore, the county has every interest in keeping the size as small as we reasonably can.''
County Commissioner John Dowlin said the latest design could cost as much as $40 million more than the $185 million the county originally estimated.
He said the stadium's design meets all the principles the city and county agreed to in June, which included making sure that other kinds of development could happen between Race Street and the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge.
Mr. Dowlin said the county and Bengals have been working to make the stadium smaller and to make the pedestrian plaza smaller.
For example, the county and team agreed that no vehicles would be allowed on the plaza. That allows architects to design a smaller plaza, he said.
At this point, Mr. Dowlin said, he doesn't know how the county could possibly meet all the city's demands.
''The stadium has to hold 67,000 seats, so it's a big sucker,'' he said. ''It all seems to me that you're trying to put three pounds of something in a two-pound sack.''
The Bengals have said that extending the stadium and plaza beyond Elm Street is necessary to make the project work.
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