CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Bengals and Hamilton County are asking Ohio lawmakers to spend $350 million on renovations to Paycor Stadium.
Their surprise request comes one day after the Ohio House passed a budget that included $600 million in state bonds to help build a new domed stadium for the Cleveland Browns.
The joint request asks the state for roughly 42% of an $830 million Paycor Stadium renovation predicted to trigger $500 million in new investments at The Banks entertainment district, which has acres of empty lots.
But Senate Finance Chair Jerry Cirino said that no one from the Bengals or Hamilton County had reached out to him about this new request.
Gov. Mike DeWine also seemed to be surprised at the request. He met with then-Hamilton County Commission President Alicia Reece last summer about stadium funding but said he never heard anything further or any specifics of a proposal.
"I've not seen anybody in the state legislature put this forward. Their discussion with me was a general discussion. I got the impression that they and the Bengals ... had not reached any kind of agreement," DeWine said in an interview with WCPO.
We break down what DeWine and other lawmakers said here:
DeWine also renewed his call for state lawmakers to pay for stadium projects with a 20% increase in Ohio's sports-betting tax, which he said will create a funding pool of up to $180 million a year to pay for stadiums and other cultural assets.
"We're seeing the cost of these stadiums go up and up," DeWine said. "We don't have the money out of the general fund to take money out any more."
Before Thursday's announcement, University of Cincinnati political science professor David Niven had predicted the Bengals were “probably kicking themselves” over the Browns' recent success in Columbus.
The Ohio House passed a two-year budget on Wednesday that earmarked $600 million for a new Browns stadium. It specifically excluded the Bengals by limiting bond issues to a “transformational major sports facility mixed-use project” in a county with at least 1 million people. Cuyahoga County meets that threshold. Hamilton County does not.
“It’s not an accident,” House Finance Committee Chairman Brian Stewart told reporters on April 1. “This amendment is designed to refer to the (Cleveland Browns) proposal only.”
The Ashville Republican said the Bengals never asked to be written into the bill.
“We've not received an ask about any other proposal, OK? That may be coming, but it was not on my desk at the time this budget is done,” he said.
Niven said the Browns were successful with a lobbying strategy that emphasized what a new stadium would mean for Northeast Ohio: A domed stadium and entertainment district capable of hosting major concerts and a Super Bowl.
While the Bengals had historically focused their public comments on the inadequacies of their taxpayer-funded stadium.
“I think the Bengals need to do more of what the Browns are doing, which is tell the story of what this would mean for the community, for the region," Niven said.
The Bengals and Hamilton County appear to embrace that new strategy in their 13-page request for state funding for new Paycor elevators and escalators, lounge and suite renovations and concourse and plaza improvements that would bring a boom to the adjacent entertainment district.
Learn more about the plan here:
"As the state assesses sound strategies for retaining Ohio's professional sports franchises, it should prioritize support for communities that have demonstrated a successful integration of stadium development with a combination of projects resulting in true urban renewal with significant economic development intact," according to the request.
In an interview last week, Hamilton County Commission President Denise Driehaus said she was talking directly to state lawmakers.
“We're kicking around different options to make sure that whatever we get is Hamilton County specific and not necessarily some kind of knee-jerk reaction to what's going on in Cuyahoga,” Driehaus said.
Driehaus said Hamilton County might not benefit from the bond deal that the Browns received because it relies on tax revenue from new construction to pay off the debt. Hamilton County is focused on a stadium renovation next to an existing entertainment district at The Banks.
“We've got a little bit to go, but we've already generated the revenue that they are hoping to generate with the activity around their stadium,” Driehaus said last week. “We're generating $40 million a year to the state right now from The Banks. So, we've already done the work and we are saying to the legislature, we don't want to be penalized because we're way out ahead of Cuyahoga.”
The Bengals don’t have a state lobbyist at present, while the Browns have five, according to the Ohio Lobbying Activity Center. Forms submitted by the Bengals last September show George Glover and Frank Strigari represented the team. Strigari now works for American Electric Power. Glover has joined DSD Advisors, a lobbying firm affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds law firm, Dinsmore & Shohl. He has a dozen clients, including Cincinnati Public Schools and three local townships.
The Bengals also lost a key ally in the Ohio House this year when Republican Bill Seitz retired. In one of his last official acts, Seitz secured passage of a sales-tax exemption in December for a $120 million investment the team proposed at Paycor Stadium. That investment was later withdrawn by the Bengals when talks between the team and county hit an impasse.
Seitz is now a lobbyist at DSD Advisors. He lists the marijuana dispensary, Can Ascend Ohio Processing LLC, as his only client.
As the Browns bond deal heads to the Ohio Senate, one Cincinnati Democrat called on Ohio Governor Mike DeWine to veto the House budget. Rep. Dani Isaacsohn, whose district includes Downtown, Over-the-Rhine, Price Hill and Westwood, supports DeWine’s plan to fund stadiums with increased taxes on sports betting.
“Even though I don't necessarily love the source of the tax, I thought it was reasonable,” Isaacsohn said in an interview last week. “It’s user fee, and it can be applied equitably across the state for all sorts of sports stadiums. I thought that made sense. And I don't know why there's such a focus on, you know, having a Cleveland Browns-specific carve out from the legislature.”
The governor wouldn't say whether he would veto portions of the House budget if it isn't altered by the Senate.
"I just want to make it very clear we do not have this money," DeWine said. "If you just bond the money that the Browns want, that's a billion dollars over a period of 25 years. It's abou $42 to $45 million every year out of the budget. We do not have that money. We can't take it away from education. There's a pathway, but that's not the pathway."
Niven said that’s a tougher sell in Columbus, where he worked as a speech writer for Gov. Ted Strickland and Ohio State University President Gordon Gee.
“In terms of the politics of it, it’s certainly much easier to sell that we need something actually serves a purpose that we can’t serve right now versus we need to just keep spending more and more money on the thing we already have,” Niven said.
That’s why he thinks the Bengals should embrace a lobbying strategy that explains how its stadium project can help Hamilton County finish nine empty blocks at The Banks or join forces with arena advocates to propose a new domed stadium that can bring NCAA Final Four events to the Cincinnati riverfront.
“Here’s the bottom line,” Niven said. “Most people look at stadium spending for the Bengals as just this endless money pit. You just keep shoveling money in, and there’s no endpoint. They have to turn that story into, ‘Here’s where that investment is improving your life. If they can’t do that, it’s going to be a much harder sell.”
Niven also thinks the Bengals should “get some players out there talking about how much they love the city,” as part of a public-relations campaign to remind Cincinnati taxpayers what it means to have an NFL franchise.
“Here’s the irony,” said Niven. “Sports teams are beloved. They love the players, they love the team, they love the concept, they love being a major league city. People feel better about a city that has a team.”
You can read the full proposal below:
