'Welcome to
Paul Brown Stadium'
Team, county sign lease
on $270 million showcase
BY LUCY MAY
and GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati EnquirerA futuristic $270 million Bengals stadium named for Paul Brown will rise on the riverfront by 2000, Hamilton County and team officials announced Thursday as they signed a lease to keep the team in Cincinnati until 2026.
Standing before a banner proclaiming "Welcome to Paul Brown Stadium," Bengals President Mike Brown called his team's new home the next generation of stadiums.
Mike Brown said naming the stadium after his father 'is one of the best things about all of this.'
(Saed Hindash photo)
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"His name on the stadium is one of the best things about all of this," Mike Brown said of his father, who founded the Bengals and is considered the father of modern football. "It honors our game and recognizes the heroes of our game."
Hamilton County Commission President Bob Bedinghaus said the county and team set out to design a state-of-the art stadium. "We didn't want to just march down the path everyone else did and do what everyone else did," he said during the announcement at what will be the stadium's 50-yard line.
Naming the stadium for Paul Brown is something the county and team agreed upon three months ago, Mr. Bedinghaus said. But they wanted it to be a surprise, he said.
Mr. Brown has argued since 1993 that his team needs a new stadium to make the kind of money it needs to compete with other NFL teams in larger markets. The new 66,965-seat stadium includes 104 luxury suites and 7,600 club seats. The team will no longer be co-tenants with the Reds in a smaller Cinergy Field, a relationship that has often been uneasy.
The Bengals complex will cover roughly 22 acres, including its three practice fields, parking areas and pedestrian plaza. The 11-story stadium will sit between Mehring Way and Fort Washington Way, and roughly between Central Avenue and Elm Street. It will be four stories higher than the Cincinnati Commercial Warehouse building that sits in its path.
The $270 million price tag does not include land acquisition, all design fees or $10 million for practice fields west of the stadium. And that $270 million could increase once the county's construction manager negotiates a "guaranteed maximum price."
That figure, which will be calculated down to the concrete, plumbing, seats and labor costs, won't be final until September or October, said Hamilton County Administrator David Krings, the county's lead negotiator.
"I'm a small-town fat boy from Wisconsin, and these are some pretty big numbers," Mr. Krings said. "But we're getting - for about what other people are paying - a better product."
The final design includes canopies - which Mr. Bedinghaus referred to as "that damn roof" - to protect fans from rain and snow and give the massive structure a more intimate setting, said Ron Turner of NBBJ Sports and Entertainment, the stadium architects from Los Angeles.
The lease generally mirrors the agreements made in the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the county and Bengals in September. The team contribution - consisting mostly of personal seat licenses, rent and a ticket surcharge - grew to $50 million from about $44 million because of the better-than-expected sales of seat licenses, Mr. Krings said.
The September agreement also said the county would receive the first $5 million in naming rights as part of the team's contribution. Since the naming rights now won't be for sale, the team gave up the equivalent of $5 million. By comparison, the county got $6 million for the sale of naming rights for Cinergy Field.
The team still gets lots of guaranteed revenue from the county. If the team doesn't sell 50,000 general admission tickets for each of the team's first 20 home games, the county must pay for the unsold tickets. The Bengals' average, per-game attendance figures were 47,790 last year, 48,134 in 1995 and 51,921 in 1994.
The team also gets all advertising, concession and broadcast revenues from games and half of all non-football revenue.
If the stadium isn't ready by Aug. 1, 2000, the county or its contractor must pay the team up to $4 million per game the team doesn't play in its new digs.
But Mr. Bedinghaus - the architect of the half-cent county sales tax increase passed last year to fund stadium construction - said county officials intend to make sure the project is completed on time and within budget.
After the television crews left and almost everyone had drifted from the tent where Thursday's announcement was made, a relieved Mr. Bedinghaus proclaimed:
"We're going to go have a beer at Flanagan's before we tear the place down."
NEXT GENERATION OF BROWNS MAKE THE DEAL
Previous stories
It's goal to go for stadium May 29, 1997
The stadium
Lease highlights