Mike Samet bought a seat license for the 35-yard line and got a seat on the 15. He wants his money back. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

        Hamilton County construction managers and Bengals officials knew in 1997 that hundreds of fans were paying for seats in sections of Paul Brown Stadium that they would never sit in.

        But no one ever told the people selling seat licenses to the fans, who found out only after they had paid hundreds — in some cases thousands — of dollars for the right to buy season tickets.

        This picture emerges from interviews with people involved and a review of thousands of pages of documents relating to the seat license program, examined by The Cincinnati Enquirer after a public records request.

        The critical lack of communication could now cost county taxpayers $1.5 million or more in partial or full refunds to disgruntled fans who are suing the county and team.

        The suit claims that fans paid for seat licenses in specific sections of the stadium, but then were assigned seats in less desirable areas. The trial is set for June 18.

        The problem started in 1996 when Hamilton County and the Bengals agreed to sell seat licenses as a way of raising at least $20 million to start building the stadium, which opened last August. The county was put in charge of the sales campaign.

        Each license, which cost between $150 and $1,500, allowed the purchaser to buy one season ticket in a specific section of the stadium. Fans bought licenses based on a drawing of the stadium showing 49 seating zones. The closer the zone was to the 50-yard line, the more expensive the license.

        But as the money started rolling in, architects hired by the county were busy redesigning the seating bowl to improve handicap seating and to make the stadium work better.

        The stadium ended up with 40 zones instead of 49, and some seats shown in the original stadium rendering ended up in less-expensive zones.

        Don Schumacher Associates was hired by the county to run the seat license program. But Don Schumacher says he wasn't told of the design changes and calls the lack of communication inexcusable.

        “If there were material changes to the stadium seating area, I can't imagine not telling the people selling the product,” Mr. Schumacher says.

        “Everyone — underline everyone — involved in the campaign agreed in late fall of 1996 that once we established the zones, we needed to hold to those zones,” he says.

        That didn't happen.

        So the sales team kept selling, in some cases peddling licenses in sections of the stadium that would never be built.

        Dozens of people were involved in the seating design and later changes. Bengals officials, such as Troy Blackburn, director of business development, were aware of every minute change made to the stadium design. Likewise, the county's construction manager, project manager and architects were aware of the changes, and relayed them to county administrators.

        Documents reviewed by the Enquirer do not make clear why none of them told Mr. Schumacher's sales group about the design changes, or whether anyone was responsible for doing so.

        Bengals' lawyer W. Stuart Dornette says team officials were busy selecting a site for the stadium and worrying about thousands of other design changes — from restrooms to concession stands.

        “Whether somebody should or shouldn't have connected the dots is easy to say in hindsight,” Mr. Dornette says. “But there were a lot of things going on at the time.”

        Carl Stich, an assistant county prosecutor who is defending the county against the lawsuit, says the marketing arm of the new stadium didn't know what the construction arm was doing.

        Everyone, he says, was busy with various other details and trying to meet very tough deadlines.

        “The design changed, and that affected everything,” Mr. Stich says. “But the people in the (seat license) program were not tuned in to the significance of those design changes.

        “I don't think anyone ever really did focus on that.”

        Except some fans, when the stadium finally opened last year and they found their seats to be in less desirable areas than they had paid for.

        Six fans filed a lawsuit in September against the Bengals and the county, alleging they paid to sit in specific sections of the stadium only to be placed in less-expensive zones.

        That suit is working its way through the county's Common Pleas Court. If the fans are granted their request for class-action status, the case could grow to include more than 400 of the Bengals' most loyal fans — people who helped make Paul Brown Stadium a reality by purchasing the seat licenses.

        Mike Samet could be one of the fans involved in the class-action, unless the county gives him what he wants — a full refund.

        Mr. Samet, 44, of Montgomery, bought a license for Section B in the stadium and feels he is actually sitting in Section C — close to the 15-yard line.

        “I regret voting for the stadium. I regret buying the seat license, and I just wish there was a painless way out of this,” Mr. Samet said. “I'm so fed up with the whole thing, I just want my money back.”

        The Bengals say they warned the county last fall that a lawsuit was being prepared and asked the county to give unhappy fans a refund.

        County officials have said that conversation never happened. Mr. Blackburn won't say which county officials he spoke with.

        Either way, the Bengals and the county do agree that it is necessary to remember the situation in 1996 to have a full understanding of the disagreements today.

        In March 1996, after an intensive campaign, Hamilton County residents agreed to raise their sales tax by a half-penny on the dollar to build new stadiums for the Bengals and Reds.

        But even with the new tax, it was still uncertain if Paul Brown Stadium would ever be built.

        That's because the county said it needed more than $20 million from the Bengals before it would allow the first shovel to break ground. At the same time, the team wanted to make sure it had sufficient club seat and luxury box sales before committing to the stadium.

        The county and team agreed on the seat license plan, which was becoming a popular new way to raise money for new stadium construction across the country.

        Cash from seat license sales would go to the county, but would count as a Bengals' contribution toward the project. The campaign would be wildly successful, bringing in more than $26 million before expenses.

        By December 1996, architect NBBJ had prepared a drawing of the new stadium's seating bowl, showing stadium sections and the price of buying licenses in each zone.

        The Bengals and county both say this was a “preliminary” drawing that was subject to change, although nothing in the brochures used to sell the licenses indicated that.

        Mr. Blackburn says the small diagram wasn't drawn to scale. He believes it is unfair for fans to make conclusions about their seats based on a 4-inch picture of a 1.9 million-square-foot building.

        Many of the seat disputes involve Section C.

        The sales brochure shows that seats in that section, where licenses sold for $900 each, were between the 20-yard line and the goal line. Section D, where licenses sold for $420 less, extended from the goal line to the back of the end zone.

        But as built, Section C actually extends deep into the end zone. Fans who bought a license for Section C, but who now sit in the end zone, want a partial refund.

        “Each section grew by 4 feet, so when you get down to either end zone, people are further down the field than they thought,” Mr. Blackburn says.

        Mr. Schumacher says fans made decisions to spend large sums on money based on that 4-inch drawing, so it should have been accurate.

        “It was with complete understanding that we could not change the rules after we started selling,” Mr. Schumacher says. “We were certain that there was room for everyone who bought into a section.

        “The numbers worked, and we shared them with everyone concerned.”

        Project Manager Dan Streyle says designs of seating bowls almost always change when stadiums are constructed.

        “You make changes so the stadium will work better, balancing things like sight lines, how many seats (are) in each section and the pricing of those seats,” Mr. Streyle says.

        It would be three years after fans purchased their seat licenses before they received their tickets and took their seats in the new stadium. It was only then that some began to complain about not getting what they paid for.

        Just last week, fans' attorney Janet Abaray received 11 volumes of documents from the county about the seat license program.

        The sharing of information could be the first step toward a settlement that would avoid trial, she says. County and Bengals officials had hoped for a case-by-case arbitration process.

        “The design change could well be the crux of the issue when it comes to the seating zones,” Ms. Abaray says. “But at this point we're just trying to get all of the facts.

        “Everyone seems to have changed their positioning on this so that now it appears all the parties seem dedicated to see what happened and how it can be resolved.”

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