Sunday, November 14, 1999
ENQUIRER EDITORIAL
Bengals owe public changes in management
Last Sunday afternoon, while his team was taking its weekly drubbing in Seattle, the unblinking camera's eye focused briefly on Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown.
He may not have known what the broadcasters were saying — it was not unkind — but he must have imagined the worst. He looked grim and his face appeared to redden. This bleak season has been an agony for him, as well as for the rest of Cincinnati.
Those who say Mr. Brown is heartless, that he cares only about money, are wrong. He cares deeply about winning and fielding a professional team. He cares about Cincinnati, or he could have sold out and moved the team long ago.
Nobody wants to be the laughing stock of their profession. But that describes the Bengals and Mr. Brown: the Dan Quayle of the NFL, a handy punch-line for a cheap laugh.
And it couldn't come at a worse time.
Mr. Brown and the Bengals are not just another team right now. They are on the receiving end of a generous gift from the public: a $400 million football palace that will be the envy of the NFL when it is finished.
And that means Mr. Brown and his team have a special obligation to Cincinnati. They cannot go on conducting bad business as usual, humiliating Cincinnati and discouraging fans.
The problem is increasingly obvious: The consistent variable in the Bengals' failure is bad management. Coaches and players come and go while Mr. Brown stays in control of a franchise that gets worse every year.
It's not money. More revenue from a new stadium can make the Bengals better, but they are far from the bottom of the salary heap.
The buck stops with Mr. Brown. His poor judge of talent and bad decisions have been well documented on our sports pages.
This year, his coach Bruce Coslet has been embarrasingly undermined. Mr. Coslet is now sharing game-planning with a second-string quarterback and is forced to coach a player who openly insulted and defied Mr. Coslet.
There is no legal obligation for Mr. Brown to improve his team, juggle management, hire qualified scouts, recruit a better coach, relinquish his control to a general manager, or even give up his stubborn opposition to letting the Reds install natural turf at Cinergy Field.
The contract between Hamilton County and the Bengals is very generous. There is no “performance clause” similar to the kind Mr. Brown often insists on when signing a player. Win or lose, the Bengals make money.
County voters are obligated to guarantee sellouts at the stadium for the first 20 games. “For example,” the lease says, “if 7,000 total general admission tickets are not sold for a given game and the aggregate amount that would have been charged to the public for all of such unsold tickets is $245,000 ... (then the) County shall pay the amounts due Team hereunder within five (5) business days...”
According to the lease, the estimated cost of each unsold ticket is $35 — paid by taxpayers.
And each humiliating loss means fewer tickets will be sold — gouging taxpayers deeper — no matter how beautiful the new stadium looks.
Mr. Brown has no legal obligation (although the likelihood of some kind of lawsuit is not far-fetched).
But he has a moral and ethical obligation. He owes Hamilton County taxpayers better than this.
To whom much is given, much is expected.
Much has been given to Mr. Brown and his team. If he wants to win as badly as it appears he does, he needs to make changes. Angry taxpayers and discouraged fans need a gesture, a reason to hope, some visible sign of a better future.
Please, Mr. Brown: Cincinnati is tired of blushing.
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