The Bengals Have A BIG Decision Looming, With HUGE Implications...

AtoZ Sports

The clock is ticking in Cincinnati, and the Bengals have to make a decision ASAP!

Transcript

00:00The Bengals are coming up on a deadline that's more important than any player contract that

00:03they've negotiated in recent years and in this video I'll explain why the next six days are so

00:08very critical. Hi again Bengals fans, John Sheeran of A to Z Sports Cincinnati here and we're going

00:16to talk about something today that we haven't really addressed in really the history of this

00:20channel but it's timely now because in less than a week the Bengals in Hamilton County have to agree

00:26on an extension for the lease of Pacor Stadium. June 30th is the last day that the Bengals in

00:32the county can agree on an extension for the stadium's lease before it expires on June 30th

00:38of 2026. This has been known for the last damn near 30 years since the lease officially started in 2000

00:44when the stadium first opened when it was called Paul Brown Stadium but this whole thing has been

00:49negotiated going back to 30 years ago when I was born in the year 1996 and the details of everything

00:55that happened back then is why this remains a very contentious situation between the club and the

01:00county itself. In short Hamilton County which is where Cincinnati resides doesn't want to get screwed

01:06by another deal in which they have to subsidize the majority of the funding that goes into maintaining

01:12repairing and renovating the Bengals home stadium. Many have considered that original deal between the

01:16Bengals and Hamilton County as one of the worst from the perspective of the actual taxpayers of the

01:21county itself. And over the past few months all of those feelings or memories of what happened three

01:25decades ago that has come up. Like we talk all the time on this channel about how rigorous negotiators

01:31the Bengals are in terms of player contracts. How do you think they are dealing with county

01:35commissioners? And this is why there hasn't been an agreement yet. The Bengals and the county

01:39want different things regarding this new agreement. The Bengals according to a report from Cincinnati.com

01:44want a five-year extension of the current lease while the county wants a 15-year new lease.

01:48And because of that key difference right there a new lease being offered by the county they are

01:52proposing a lot more of an equal distribution of contributions coming from the team and then the

01:56county. The Bengals on the other hand and again this is just a report coming from Cincinnati.com

02:00want the county to still bring in the majority of contributions to the renovations and again

02:04the overall maintenance of the stadium itself. I feel like I've said the word itself like four times

02:09and that's probably not be the last time I say it. There are a lot of details here that kind of make

02:12your head hurt and it's pretty much why I haven't really talked about it on this channel. But I do think

02:15some things are worth bringing up and answering like are the Bengals actually going to leave

02:19Cincinnati if nothing happens within the next week? And the short answer is no probably not or at least

02:25not in the way that you're thinking. The Cleveland Browns moving to become the Baltimore Ravens

02:28coincidentally around the same time as this whole stadium lease started back in the mid-90s basically

02:32ended any chance of the Bengals moving out of Cincinnati or just out of Ohio in general. The

02:37Browns moving spurred the state of Ohio to create what is now called the Medell Law which is named

02:42after the late Art Modell who was the owner of the Browns and it requires the team if it so desires

02:46to move out of the state to give the city six months notice to see if anyone wants to purchase it.

02:52Obviously pretty drastic measures right? Very much of a last resort option for the community to keep

02:57its beloved football team in town and knowing who the Bengals are a team that prides itself on being

03:02this mom and pop shop in a modern NFL world. They don't want anyone else running their team

03:08except their family. They have no interest in ever ever selling their team. I don't think they want

03:13to jump through all those hoops and deal with all that legislation. And again even if the Bengals and

03:17Hamilton County don't come to an agreement it's not about moving the team away from Cincinnati

03:22entirely. They can still stay within the general area maybe just outside of Hamilton County for

03:26example. But even that in and of itself is a very unlikely scenario as there's still a way for the

03:31Bengals to basically kick this can down the road. If there is no grand agreement in place or signed by

03:35next Monday then in all likelihood the Bengals are going to exercise the first of a handful

03:39of two-year rolling extensions that they have at their disposal to basically just push this extension

03:44deadline down into the future. But there's no use to doing that unless the clock is about to strike

03:48midnight. So for the next handful of days the Bengals and the county will continue to hopefully

03:52communicate and work towards a more long-term agreement. But if not this will be a problem for

03:56basically two years down the road.

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