The Bengals Just Gave Us GREAT News About Their Stadium Lease Situation...

AtoZ Sports

John Sheeran talks about the latest update involving the Bengals and their expiring lease for Paycor Stadium. We got great news on Thursday, and although the deal is not done yet, it's trending in the right direction.

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00:00The Bengals are on the verge of staying in Paycor Stadium for the foreseeable future with a new

00:04lease and in this video I'll explain how they got Hamilton County back on their side.

00:11Hi again Bengals fans, John Sheeran of A to Z Sports Cincinnati here and the big news that

00:16we've all been waiting for regarding the Bengals and Hamilton County and the lease of Paycor

00:20Stadium has finally arrived. The Bengals and the Hamilton County agreed on the framework of what's

00:24essentially a new 11-year lease that runs through 2036. Nothing is officially set in stone. There

00:30are some negotiations that still need to happen so this is a tentative agreement on the framework of

00:35what will be the new lease but two of the three Hamilton County commissioners have approved of

00:39this deal. The Bengals have approved of this deal. This deal is going to happen and that's big. That's

00:43undoubtedly important. We started this week saying the Bengals and Hamilton County had a week to

00:47negotiate an extension of the current lease or a new lease entirely before the June 30th deadline and

00:52if that didn't happen the Bengals were probably going to exercise the first of many two-year

00:56rolling extensions to essentially kick this can down the road and it seems like both sides here

01:00came to a compromise as it was reported the Bengals wanted a five-year extension of the current lease

01:04and the county wanted a 15-year brand new lease but the length of the lease was just one of many

01:08concerns that the county and its taxpayers had about this agreement and it seems like a lot of

01:13those concerns have been alleviated. For starters this is a big relative win for the county and its

01:18taxpayers relative to the previous lease that was signed back in 1997. Under that previous lease

01:23the county was on the hook for 88% of the total cost of what was formerly known as Paul Brown Stadium

01:28and whenever the Bengals requested improvements and enhancements relative to the rest of the league

01:33the county had to accept. Hamilton County will now be on the hook for 75% of the total 470 million that

01:38will go in to improving Paycore Stadium and more importantly that 350 million is capped. Under this

01:44new lease instead of 88% the county will be on the hook for 75% of the total cost and the total cost

01:49is going to be about 470 million in upgrades and renovations for Paycore Stadium so the county will

01:54be on the hook for 350 million of that but more importantly that 350 million is capped and this was

02:00a big win for the county according to County Commissioner President Denise Driehaus saying quote

02:04this is something that we've been worrying about because the old lease allowed the Bengals to come in

02:08and ask for enhancements relative to the market relative to what everybody else was doing to

02:12stadiums all over the country and so we always had this undefined liability that we might have

02:16to spend money we don't have that we can't afford if the Bengals ask for these enhancements. The

02:20Bengals are also hoping that the state of Ohio provides some additional funding as well just like

02:24they're funding the Cleveland Browns new stadium but again Hamilton County is just on the hook for

02:28that 350 million. Also the Bengals are going to start paying rent for the first time ever they're

02:32going to pay a million dollars in rent for the first three years and then two million in the eight

02:36years after that I live in Hamilton County I pay rent it's kind of nice that me and the team are on the

02:41same level playing field. All in all the people that run Hamilton County seem more satisfied of

02:45their control over the stadium in downtown Cincinnati. This stadium belongs to the taxpayers

02:49and finally the taxpayers are going to have access to their stadium and while a brand new 11-year lease

02:54is a lot better than just a two-year rolling extension of a lease that Hamilton County would

02:58have no part of anymore this is still not quite a true long-term solution yet. This ensures that

03:03Pacor Stadium will get the upgrades and renovations it needs for the next 10 to 11 years and that the

03:07relationship between the county and the Bengals will be solid for the next decade. The prospect

03:11of a brand new stadium and the future of the team in the city beyond that I guess that's the problem

03:15for the 2030s but even this right now was not a given. It required the Bengals to make concessions

03:20to the county to avoid the mistakes from 30 years ago and for a team that hasn't had a ton of positive

03:24press in the last few weeks with player contracts this is a pretty good win for them to have.

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