Sunday, June 18, 2000
Bengals dropping late-fee demand
Sides confident of completion date, ticket sales
By Dan Klepal
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Taxpayers will not have to ante up multimillion-dollar late fees for Paul Brown Stadium because construction managers have guaranteed team and county officials that it will be ready on time.
The Bengals' 1997 lease with Hamilton County stated that taxpayers were on the hook for penalties of $2 million for each preseason game and $4 million for regular season games not played in the new stadium this year.
In addition, the county and team are negotiating to remove another aspect of the Bengals' lease that threatened to hit taxpayers — the guarantee of at least 50,000 ticket sales for each home game this year and next.
If the ticket guarantee is removed from the lease, it could go a long way toward resolving two lawsuits challenging the county's right to make such promises.
Hamilton County Commission President Bob Beding-
haus said Saturday the developments are good news for taxpayers and fans.
“As fans walk into the stadium on Aug. 19, they will see a completed, modern football stadium,” Mr. Bed-
inghaus said. “If we're working for another month or so on some back-room issues, that's to be expected.”
The announcements also are good news for Mr. Bed-
inghaus, who in large part has staked his political career on stadium construction.
The two issues could have been used against Mr. Bed-
inghaus in what will be a hotly contested commission race against Democrat Todd Portune this fall.
“This is legitimate good
news for citizens that neither of these two clauses will ever be implemented,” Mr. Bedinghaus said. “It's been our position that they never would be.
“But to the extent people were concerned, these two actions will put that to bed. And, yes, politically it's a plus for my campaign.”
Bengals owner Mike Brown has been a big financial supporter of Mr. Bedinghaus. The Brown family and Bengals attorney Stuart Dornette have contributed $13,500 for his campaign as of Feb. 1, the last reporting deadline.
Mr. Portune, a member of Cincinnati City Council, was unavailable for comment Saturday.
Construction managers and officials with the Bengals have spent the past two months determining which parts of the stadium will be ready for the first preseason game Aug. 19.
The lease states construction managers must sign off on a legal agreement by June 1, stating the facility either would or would not be “game ready” in time for the Chicago Bears.
That date came and went with the two sides still discussing what “game ready” means, as millions of dollars hung in the balance.
On Saturday, county and team officials announced that all parties are confident the stadium will be open for business in 62 days.
“That component of the lease is unimportant now, because the building will open on time,” Troy Blackburn, the team's director of stadium development, said.
Mr. Blackburn said all restrooms, concession stands, luxury suites, seats and life safety equipment will be ready for that first game. Also, everything necessary to play the game — scoreboard, sound system, field and locker rooms — will be finished.
Some auxiliary locker rooms may need paint or finish work, as will vendor commissaries, some of the private team space and rooms that house some of the building's mechanical systems.
And Mr. Bedinghaus said ticket sales have gone so well that he is confident the guarantee will not be necessary.
The team has sold more than 35,000 general admission Personal Seat Licenses. But that's only part of the equation.
Single-game tickets, group ticket sales and ticket packages will be added to the PSLs and must total 50,000. The Bengals do not release those numbers until games are sold out, as is the case with the first regular-season game against Cleveland.
“Now is the time for the team to show the community that it can perform on the field and at the ticket counter,” Mr. Bedinghaus said.
Completing the stadium on time is important for another reason, too — to keep momentum of other riverfront projects humming along.
Fort Washington Way, the Reds' new ballpark and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center all have time lines that are dependent, at one level or another, on Paul Brown Stadium construction being out of the way.
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