Hi's Bryan Thomas, happy to welcome back to the fifty five KRSY Morning Show. I got to be honest, it's been too long. You know him if you read the Inquiry. He's a sports writer for the Cincinnion Enquirer, but he also used to be the writer of Politics Extra Jason Williams and I miss your politics Extra days. Jason. I thought you did a great job covering local politics, but this morning we get to kind of merge your two
passions politics and sports. What's going on with Hamilton County and the Cincinnati Bengals, which I understand are accusing each other of violating the terms of the lease agreement for pay Course Stadium.
You know you've mentioned politics, and thanks for having me on the kind words always great to be on with. You love the fifty five KRC listeners. There are more loyal audience in all of media local media than the fifty five KRC audience.
I got the best in the business. I am blessed, my friend. Thank you for acknowledging my awesome listeners.
I'm not I am not saying I remember Tony Bender telling me that early on, and kind of, you know, I do a little fill in down the hallway there and I remember him telling me that you know there, you won't find a more loyal listener. And then you know you and I have done those did those segments every Friday when I was covering politics, and the amount of feedback I would get to my inquiry email every week from listeners was it just blew me away. And
so I always appreciate being on your show. I'll tell you, yeah, right, it's right. It's uh that nexus of sports and politics, uh meet right at the Bengals stadium issue, and yeah,
the story broke. I believe it was the business curer that broke the story about they got some public records emails on Friday between the county and the and the Bengals and just the contentiousness of the back and forth of you know, what's going on on the stadium issue and one accusing the other of not upholding their endo the deal on on the lease, and it's it's it's kind of in the weed. But really the bigger picture
is that we're off to a very contentious start. I think in terms of this the future of the Bengals, you know, on the lease and the county and the Bengals and the Bengals, you know, doing a new lease with the county or extending their lease with the county, and the ultimate takeaway from it, Brian, is no big surprise there.
Well, you know I undertunately, Yeah, I know, I understand that. And obviously, you know, the voters are a little disappointed since the you know, the half of the deal that we were going to have our taxes ultimately lowered, it really never came to fruition. They got their stadium, and now they are have built into that one sided agreement, which I think everybody who has looked at that agreement realizes how one side it is. Of course, that side
of nears to the Bengals benefit. We've got all these obligations for upgrades and improvements and what the what was it two hundred and fifty million dollars? Have I got that figure right that the Bengals had on their wish list for improvements, including brand new buildings for the administrative staff.
Yeah, it was right around three hundred yeah, three hundred million. And and then in one of these emails it was it indicated like that potentially in these emails, and because the county likes to take its time in releasing public records. We're talking about emails from last July and August, so you know, some things have happened since then. It seems like generally things are on track or you know, some
of those improvements to continue on that. Last May, the Bengals announced they're going to pour one hundred and twenty million dollars into the stadium, and so it's a little confusing then on the timing of and then those emails came out what a couple of months later that indicated
that maybe the Bengals aren't going to do that. But then everything since in terms of just what reporters have have found out, and you know what, some county officials have said that some things are on track, like the county, uh you know the county, well this was I guess apparently this this would have been approved around this time
last year. It seems crazy to think, uh, you know that the Bengals did they did new club seats for this season, and you know that was about thirty nine million, I believe, and there's all kinds of million this, a million that, and one hundred here and forty million there, and so it gets it gets a little confusing, but you know, a lot of my reporting on this, Brian, has been everything I've been told for for you know, really a couple of years now, is that the Bengals
don't want to fight. They don't want a contentious fight on this, they don't want to fight on this, on this new lease. But it's like everything I read from those emails and from reports is like you can say you don't want to fight, you you're fighting, and you're you're doing the same things and being incredibly tough. And they're known as incredibly tough negotiators. And I suppose, as not suppose, I mean as a private business, they have every right to, you know, do whatever they want in
terms of their negotiation. But that doesn't mean the county can say yes to everything they asked for. And the county's pushing back, and that's what the county should be doing. I really believe the county is committed to absolutely trying to get a better deal for the taxpayers this time around than they did last time. Now, is that ultimately gonna happen. We can sit here and try to predict and project, and I mean, and I certainly have my
prediction on how this is gonna go. I think in the end, like everyone's gonna you know, the Bengals are gonna threaten to leave, and the county's gonna play hardball, and they're gonna play hardball right up to the very last second. I don't think the Bengals are ever really going to be serious about wanting to leave, and then we've got a deal.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Litigation is most usually settled on the courthouse steps. Is the old adage. You know, they wait to the last minute and then finally reach a resolution because no one wants to take the gamble. But I guess I have to ask, is there really any possibility of them leaving? I mean, is there some other city that says, hey, you know, we're right here, and by the way, we're willing to build a two billion dollars stadium for you whatever new stadium costs these days. I
didn't know that was really even a possibility. And don't we as a city also get the option to sort of buy them out if they threaten to do that?
I don't know on your last question, is it I mean, is it possible they could leave? Certainly when you look around, there's not in terms of American cities, there's doesn't seem like there's that many options. I know Austin has the Texas has been thrown around. I believe the Buffalo Bills used Austin, Texas as as levers to get their new stadium.
There were some reports out there on that. Now there's also this, you know, there's a lot of talk or there has been talk out there that like Jerry Jones and Dallas would never allow a team in Austin, and I think San Antonio has been has been mentioned and again at a lot of times it's a speculation. Yeah uh, and again that would be the Dallas Cowboys would have
their say on that. So it kind of comes back to the the question of as you see the NFL teams continuing to play international games and talk of could there could there be a team in London? Could there be a team in Mexico City. I I this is what I truly believe. And again just from my conversations and trying to put puzzle pieces together, and I am I want to be clear, I am not saying this is what's going to have happened, that this is what
the Bengals want. I really believe the Bengals would sell the team before that, that they would move the team from Cincinnati really to anywhere, whatever city it would be. I really believe that.
Yeah, I guess the ownership, the ownership change is really what I was going for. If they sell, I think that brings about a legal option for the city to buy it. Not if they just move. The Brown foundly wants to pack up and collectively move their team to another city. I suppose they can do that, But that international angle is kind of an interesting topic because you know, they are pushing NFL globally, so that doesn't remain a possibility.
Who is negotiating or leading the negotiations on the county side, well, the.
County administrator, Jeff Luta, some of Yeah, some of the same lawyers that have been involved for a long time are are still involved now. Obviously the county commissioners are
getting briefed. They are having a little bit of say, but certainly from the county side of this or some different players at the table now on the on the Bengals side of this, uh, there's mostly the same folks are still involved, from the attorneys to the obviously the Bengals ownership are still involved in what happened last time.
Well, same players and the same people.
Who were there last time are here again at the table. And these these guys are I mean, the Bengals are. They are incredibly legally smart. They have incredibly smart negotiators, and they they they are tough negotiators. And I mean, you know, if you were teaching a class in law school about negotiation and how to get the absolute best deal for yourself, I would certainly use the Bengals as an example. From a private business standpoint.
The Dream Team just said, don't don't worry. We We've got Stephanie Dumas on the other side. So there's nothing.
Well, yeah, I mean there has been some talk behind the scenes too about some desires I think on the Bengals side too. You know, I think they would like to see maybe a some kind of a stadium authority. And again this is just I think just probably cutting room four types of ideas in which basically you would
get the negotiation piece away from the county commissioners. I've not since any kind of real momentum there on really you know that happening, But I mean you certainly see that I believe Pittsburgh has a stadium authority and it's just basically a board, a publicly appointed board, and that's what they do. They do they do stadium related issues and maintenance and budget and money and that kind of thing.
Well, budget and money, I think is where the rubber meets the road, because we're talking about a lot of money and a finite amount of dollars in the county, you know, a lot of which is supposed to go to law enforcement and the other thing I have to observe for a part company to da Jason Williams, and I've enjoyed this conversation is I always do with you? You know, I find this all ridiculous, this whole idea of keeping up with the Joneses. In so far as
stadium upgrades are concerned, does the stadium perfunction as it should? Yes, it provides an adequate space where a game of football can be played. I mean, really, that's it. I don't care if the if the locker room has a disco ball and a special stereosystem, and damn it, you could probably have those guys in a high school locker room. It would hold their clothes while they're playing the game. They could shower and clean up there and then go home.
All these bells and whistles really just kind of pissed me off, especially since you and I, the taxpayers of Hamilton County, are going to shoulder the burden on this. It seems to me that the Bengals, if they don't have a whole lot of leverage about pulling the plug in leaving town, need to think about their own reputation
and loyalty to the fans. The good will needs to be established, and that's where their own money should come in, or maybe they should pair back these what I consider outrageous demands for upgrades.
I mean, Brian, you couldn't have you couldn't have really said that any better. And you know, I think that's
where the I think that's there. There's a real crossroads here, and you know where does when you think about taxpayers and a lot of those taxpayers are also fans, and so then where where does that you know, where does that kind of nexus meet there in terms of, yeah, you want the NFL in your town, but I'm also like a taxpayer in Hamilton County and this is incredibly expensive and we got a bad deal last time, which you know, we can sit here and we can yell
at the Bengals, and yeah, do I think that they need to pour more money into it? Absolutely? Do I think the county, uh you know, didn't get the best deal for the taxpayers last time around.
Absolutely, sat lightly.
Yeah, I mean, and and so that there is a there's an absolute premium when you look around the NFL and what when it comes to new stadiums, and and look, hey, I guess I give the Bengals credit, like they're not asking for a new stadium, whereas in Tennessee they did ask for a new stadium, and their stadium there is only a year older than ours, and they're getting a
new stadium in Nashville. And so yeah, yeah, And but typically what I've seen in Nashville and in Buffalo, it's been about a sixty forty sixty public money forty private money. There's the new wave of stadiums now or there's more state money going into and so I think there's this there's a lot of talk about more state money this time around. Obviously the Cleveland Browns are looking at a new stadium, so then there's talk about giving them more
state money. So I certainly think you're going to see a lot bigger burden carried by the state government this time around, and you know, in the Bengals stadium. But it all it's like, we still don't know what the Bengals are willing to pay. They're gonna have to be willing to pay a lot more than they paid last time.
Percentage will obviously when it comes to row number they're going to But when it comes to we're talking about percentage here because the upgrades are going to cost more than what it costs to actually originally build the stadium.
I know. And when I every time I hear that, Jason, it just blows my mind again. It functions fine. And the wave of the future, I think is for me to sit in the basement on a giant screen, great resolution TV, drinking three dollars beer as opposed to fifteen dollars beer and not having to incur parking and you know, I don't know, It's just it's all shocking to me. Jason.
I'm glad you're staying on top of it. Cincinnati dot Com is where you find since an enquirre online and read what Jason has to write in sports and Jason, You're always welcome here in the fifty five Catsey Morning Show. You get any other details or developments on these negotiations, you know you've got a spot to talk about it, and I welcome you back at any time.