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Latest on Cincinnati Bengals Stadium Lease Talks With Hamilton County
Cincinnati Bengals On SI
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5/24/2025
Latest on Cincinnati Bengals Stadium Lease Talks With Hamilton County
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Sports
Transcript
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00:00
Let's get to stadium talks. Basically, the Bengals have until June 30th to make a decision
00:06
on whether or not they're going to pick up their two-year option. They have rolling two-year
00:12
options. The stadium lease is up June 30th, 2026, but they have to make that decision June 30th,
00:20
2025 or sooner than that. It felt like last month, they reached this memorandum of understanding
00:27
that everything was going to get done, that everything was going to be smooth.
00:32
Then, well, things have gone the other way. Local 12 has been all over this. James Pilcher,
00:38
I certainly suggest if you're into the finite legality element of it, following him on social
00:45
media, certainly checking out his work for Local 12. What's really interesting, and you can check
00:52
out this letter, but calling Connie Pilich's recent statements, the Bengals issued this letter on
01:01
Wednesday, calling Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pilich's statement, basically about negotiations
01:08
and different things that have gone on. I'm not going to try to get into too much detail,
01:14
but the Bengals are calling out the count and saying that Connie, since being elected in January,
01:19
has not participated in negotiations. It's worth noting that Hamilton County moved on from the
01:25
attorneys that have represented them for decades last week by a three, nothing vote. And so that
01:33
is concerning. There's no doubt about it. We're talking about five weeks now until the deadline.
01:40
And I think I've been asked this a ton, like, oh, well, could the Bengals move? I don't think the
01:45
Bengals are moving out of this area. But I think if we get to that June 30th deadline, and there's
01:52
no long-term fix, then moving in general is very real. And so getting into the minutiae, you can read
02:00
the entire letter I posted at banglestalk.com. But I'll just read a quote here. The Bengals wrote
02:07
to, quote, express our serious objection to your public comments and urge you to withdraw such
02:12
comments, which are plainly false. And it was basically, Connie Pilich made comments about the
02:19
stadium lease negotiations with the team and how difficult it was to negotiate with them. And I
02:25
think a lot of fans are going to be like, well, yeah, that's what happens. On the other side,
02:30
this is really, this is a lot of public posturing. And what's interesting to me is they had this
02:35
memorandum of understanding last month, which basically said, hey, we have an agreement in place.
02:39
We're close. And it feels like it's going to get done. And then the county starts making all these
02:45
moves, makes all these shifts. And I was worried about this. I've talked about this a few times.
02:51
I was just a kid in the 90s, but I remember when these talks were going on and how big of a deal it
02:58
was and reading the papers about it and the political back and forth. I remember that then,
03:03
and I was like five. And I just remember hearing little things about it. It's not like I understood the
03:08
minutia and everything that was involved. Obviously, Jeff Blake, a lot of people say that
03:13
pay course that Paul Brown Stadium at the time was the house that Jeff Blake built because he made
03:17
them relevant when things were really, really struggling. And it felt like at one point,
03:21
the Bengals were going to move as in move cities and completely out of town. I don't think that's
03:29
going to happen here. Obviously, anything is possible. I don't think that's going to happen.
03:32
But what I do think is Hamilton County lost that negotiation. And politically,
03:40
certainly County Pillage, they want to win this one and to be declared the winner.
03:47
And meanwhile, the Bengals on the other side are probably understanding like,
03:51
yeah, we're not going to get the same deal. We know that because we won that last deal,
03:54
but can't give it all up. And we can't do the reverse thing now, 25 years later, 30 years later,
04:03
geez, 30 years later, because we're talking like 95, 96 when this was going on.
04:09
So yeah, that's where you're at. And I think it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out.
04:14
I'm not going to cover it a ton on here unless there's a lot, because it's a lot of, to be quite
04:20
frank, it's a lot of political BS. And the Bengals want to stay where they are. And I think Hamilton
04:26
County wants the Bengals where they are. So for me, get in a room and figure out what works for
04:31
everybody. And I get it. It's complicated. And there's layers and layers and layers to this deal.
04:38
We've known this date was coming up. I don't need the political posturing. I don't need the public
04:42
outcry. And by the way, I don't think the Bengals sent that letter to do that. I think when Connie
04:49
goes public with stuff, well, then the Bengals feel like they need to respond. Here's what I need.
04:54
I don't care if it's the Hamilton County prosecutor. I don't care if it's the attorneys that represent
04:59
the County. Now the attorneys that represent the Bengals work out a deal, work out a deal. Now,
05:06
if the sides want to be difficult, fine, but understand Hamilton County, you risk
05:12
losing the Bengals. And Bengals, if you want to be difficult, realize you risk having to move,
05:19
which sounds awful. They want to stay right there. They've invested a lot of money in the stadium.
05:24
So risking that is annoying. So all this back and forth, just get in a room and get it done.
05:29
Yeah. The only loser here would be the Bengals and the County if they have to split. There's the loser
05:40
because then the Bengals have to go through that whole headache and the County has to go through
05:44
that whole headache. It's much less of a headache if you just get a deal done.
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