By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The legal opinion of Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen regarding the Bengals' Paul Brown Stadium lease will not be made public - for now.

Hamilton County commissioners invoked attorney-client privilege Monday during executive session not to release the finding of Mr. Allen's office.

Commissioner John Dowlin wanted to release the opinion to the public on Monday, but commissioners Todd Portune and Tom Neyer did not.

Commissioners might agree to release Mr. Allen's opinion today.

On Oct. 17, commissioners unanimously agreed to send the Bengals' stadium lease to the prosecutor's office. They wanted a legal opinion on whether the team has violated the agreement by failing to field a competitive team.

The Bengals were 0-6 at that time. They are now 1-13, having tied a franchise single-season record for losses with two games remaining.

They could become just the eighth team to finish 1-15 since the NFL expanded to a 16-game schedule in 1978.

Mr. Portune brought up the issue of renegotiating the Bengals lease during the Oct. 17 meeting at Finneytown High School.

He referred to a sentence in the lease that says the one-half percent increase in the county's sales tax was needed to "keep competitive and viable major league football and baseball teams in Cincinnati by construction of a new football stadium in Hamilton County."

The lease was sent to Mr. Allen's office for opinion because he is the commissioners' attorney.

The Bengals are 0-7 this season and 7-16 in three years at Paul Brown Stadium, which cost $450 million in land acquisition and construction. Their last two home games have had the smallest announced crowds of the 23 games there - 44,878 and 42,092.

The Bengals are 11-35 in all games - home and away - since moving into the stadium at the start of the 2000 season.

The Bengals are 54-136 since team president Mike Brown assumed control of the franchise in August 1991.

The Bengals have repeatedly had no comment about the situation.

Also on Monday, a survey of 500 adults in Hamilton County for a WCPO-TV news poll by SurveyUSA showed that 69 percent believe the Bengals have violated their lease agreement by failing to field a competitive team. The telephone survey, conducted Monday with a 4.3 percent margin of error, also showed that 28 percent believe the team's performance has nothing to do with their lease, and 3 percent are not sure.

E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com

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