Brown

        Bengals president Mike Brown says a list of 1995-99 NFL team revenues, revealed in the Oakland Raiders' lawsuit against the league, shows his team needed its new stadium to compete.

        But Tim Mara, the Cincinnati lawyer who led the opposition to the 1996 half-cent sales-tax increase that paid for Paul Brown Stadium, says the document shows the Bengals warranted less public money than they received.

        The document, published Sunday by the Los Angeles Times, was introduced in the Raiders' suit against the NFL that claims the league forced the team to move back to Oakland from Los Angeles.

        The document tracks revenues, expenses and operating profits for each of the 31 NFL teams. It shows the Bengals in 1999 had the NFL's lowest local revenue ($26.3 million) — thus its lowest total revenue — but compensated by having the lowest total operating expenses ($78.7 million).

        The Bengals had an operating profit of $8.6 million in 1999, 18th-highest in the league. That was the team's last year at Cinergy Field, where the Bengals had the NFL's worst ticket-sale revenue ($19.6 million) and no luxury-box revenue.

        “We were last in income in the National Football League. We also were the most frugal team in the National Football League,” Mr. Brown said Tuesday. “We had to be that out of necessity. We were operating in survival mode.”

        In 2000, the Bengals played their first season at Paul Brown Stadium, which cost $450 million, including about $70 million in county-mandated land-acquisition costs required to move the stadium to the western edge of the central riverfront.

        Cash streams produced by the new stadium vaulted the Bengals from last in the league in total revenues to “the second quartile,” Mr. Brown said.

        “We are more able to compete in the free-agent area than we have before,” he said.

Spending on players

        The Bengals signed Pro Bowl running back Corey Dillon on Friday to the richest contract in team history, estimated at more than $27 million for five years. The Bengals also signed five free agents from other teams in the offseason, each of whom is a probable starter.

        The document also shows that the Bengals had been in the top 10 in operating profits from 1995-97.

        “I look at it, in terms of profitability, they were in the middle of the league, and that's OK,” said Mr. Mara, who headed Citizens for Choice in Taxation. “They were good business people who, while they had lousy field management, had a good hand on their money.”

        Mr. Mara also said Tuesday that opponents of the sales-tax increase were not against helping the Bengals financially, just the extent they were subsidized — especially with the costs of building the stadium continually escalating from initial projections.

        Mr. Mara objected to the Bengals being allowed to play rent-free for the final 16 years of the 25-year lease, having veto power on future development around the stadium and getting a practice facility added to the deal.

        Former Hamilton County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus, who devised the sales-tax increase to pay for new Bengals and Reds stadiums, declined comment.

        Cincinnati Mayor Charles Luken and Hamilton County Commis sioner Todd Portune, the former Cincinnati City Council member who has said the county should renegotiate its stadium lease with the Bengals, did not return calls Tuesday.

Losses on horizon

               Mr. Brown, however, did want to talk because the numbers, he said, reflect what he had claimed during the sales-tax-increase campaign: The Bengals needed more local revenue to keep pace with rising operating costs in the NFL.

        “Were we profitable? Yes,” he said. “We made, before taxes, about 8 million bucks. After taxes, 4 million. What it meant was, if we had to stay at Cinergy Field — where we had no hope to significantly increase our income — as you went out in the future, it would have been only a matter of a short time where we'd be operating in the red.”

        At Cinergy, he said, the team had no income from luxury boxes, advertising, parking or premium seating.

        “When you add all those together, we were hopelessly outclassed,” Mr. Brown said.

        In spite of the Bengals' efforts to control costs and cope with stagnant local revenue, league revenue increased because of new stadiums and bigger national television contracts. Those factors combined to drive up the salary cap — the percentage of revenue that goes to player salaries as spelled out in the league's collective bargaining agreement.

        The Bengals ranked near the bottom in player salaries during the late 1990s and were 28th ($61.1 million) in 1999, the document showed.

        The NFL office sent a memo Monday to the 31 teams saying the document was inaccurate and oversimplified.

        “I know there's been a lot of criticism about the team and project, and I understand,” Mr. Brown said. “It sure would help if we won a few more football games.”

        The Bengals, in their first season in Paul Brown Stadium, were 4-12 for the second year in a row, following a 3-13 season in 1998.

        They also failed to set a season attendance record in 2000, in spite of the excitement generated by the new stadium.

        “If we would win more games, that would be the one thing we could do to help our situation the most,” Mr. Brown said.

Owners profited as Bengals lost Dillon reflects on 'blessing' New grass field arrives

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