WhoDeyRevolution

Part IV: WDR Official Breakdown of the Bengals Offer to Hamilton County

Follow the links to read parts I, II, & III.  If you feel like you should probably work instead of reading the interwebs and would prefer to prioritize, then just read part III since that is the first time I actually get to the Bengals offer itself.

To recap, we are breaking down the Bengals offer to revisit certain parts of the lease to help Hamilton County manage the accumulating deficits in the Stadium Fund.  In parts I & II the Bengals basically outline why they don't need to offer help but state they will anyway and in Part III we start tackling their offer.

Now let's tackle the rest.  We're keeping an estimate of the running tally of the total concessions offered by the Bengals and their total demands in return.  Right now it stands at:

Bengals Concessions:  $37 million

Bengals Demands:  $27 million

Allright, let's get back to the letter.

5. In consideration for the above financial commitments to Hamilton County, effective January 1, 2010 the County would grant the following to the Bengals (a) relinquish its suite to the team, (b) give the team the County's portion of "other event revenue”, and (c) surrender its small remainder interest in naming rights. On this last point, as you recognized when we met, even if naming rights were sold today, the County would not likely receive any revenues for a decade (if ever), and it is simply not practical to think that naming rights could be sold anytime soon in this economy.

Okay - this item covers a lot so I'll go into them one-by-one.  To be clear, these are all Bengals demands, not a single concession.

WDR Endorses Mo Egger For "Best Blog," "Best Radio Talk Show Host" and "Best Radio Personality"

We mentioned last week that WDR has been nominated by CityBeat for "Best Blog," "Best Twitter Feed" (For @MikeyBoyBrown) and "Best Troublemaker."   We have written off "Best Twitter Feed" since @OGOchocinco will win in a landslide (and deservedly so).  And we at WDR strive to be more than a blog, which is why we are gunning to win "Best Troublemaker."

You can vote until Sunday, Feb 21st here.

And when we sat back and considered some other categories, it became clear that we need to throw our full weight behind Mo Egger for "Best Blog," "Best Radio Talk Show Host" and "Best Radio Personality." Mo was one of the first local sports outlets that got behind WDR.  Over the years, he has shown that he is in touch with the local sports scene and has connected especially with younger Cincinnati sports fans.   He shared some very personal and touching thoughts that we all related to when his father passed away earlier this year.  And his blog mixes in local and national sports with scantily clad women.

So when you go to the Citybeat page, make sure to also vote for Mo for "Best Blog," "Best Radio Talk Show Host" and "Best Radio Personality."

Part III: WDR Official Breakdown of the Bengals Offer to Hamilton County

In Part I & Part II, we covered the lengthy and basically immaterial introduction from the letter Troy Blackburn wrote to County Administrator Pat Thompson outlining the concessions the Bengals offered with respect to their PBS lease.

Now we get to the actual offer.

I am trying to figure out whether the Bengals concessions ultimately help or hurt the County on balance...or if it is a wash.  Here goes.  As always, the text of the letter will be in bold.

Recognizing the history and the current economic climate, we will try and play role in an effort to help build an improved relationship between our two organizations that can better serve our community. You asked for help in the both short-term and the long-term, and we have thought carefully about what you said. Let me outline what we can do:

If this doesn't come in the form of bullet points I will be SORELY disappointed.

Short-term Assistance:

Come on bullet points (fingers crossed)...

Part II: WDR Official Breakdown of the Bengals Offer to Hamilton County

Okay, on to Part II.  I suggest reading Part I if you haven't yet.  Or don't, you lazy bastard. 

Anyway, in Part I, the Bengals (in a letter written by Troy Blackburn) gave their version of the stadium deal history to County Administrator Patrick Thompson.  In Part II, they continue with the history lesson and how Cincinnati officials expanded what the sales tax was supposed to pay for and screwed it all up for everyone.  Which contains elements of truthiness but still does not change the fact that the Bengals got a very sweet deal on PBS.

Here goes:

While the economic terms of the football deal have not changed, a number of other actions have been taken that impacted the County's financial situation:

Troy is about to spray some more bullet points up in here, he is like the Dirty Harry of lawyering.

•  Prior to construction, the City moved the location of Paul Brown Stadium from County owned land to privately owned land (and partly City owned land). At the time, the Bengals objected to the decision and voiced concerns that the added costs could not be supported. The stadium location was changed to free up future private development along the riverfront, a decision which cost the County $100 million in land acquisition and infrastructure improvements. While some politicians have tried to attribute those costs to us, that was plainly a decision by Hamilton County to go beyond what the public had voted on in March 1996 and to undertake a broader riverfront development plan. If the analysis looks only at construction costs - as it should - Paul Brown Stadium cost roughly $340 million, which is equal to Cleveland Browns Stadium and is proportional to Great American Ballpark.

Whether or not the cost of PBS should include the decision to move it west onto privately owned land depends on a lot of factors.  If you were (or are) a big believer in keeping both the Reds and PBS on the Riverfront, then buying up the land was just an inevitable consequence of building the stadia regardless of what the Bengals claim.  Here's a link to a series of articles about the history of the stadia where you can read all about the issues for yourself.  But it's not like PBS was being built in a vacuum. 

MikeyBoyZilla

Badass artwork courtesy of Rachel. 

Reporter: Hello, I am reporting live from right outside Cincinnati and if you are just tuning in you are NOT HALLUCINATING! That is a three thousand foot tall MikeyBoyZilla using the P&G towers like two oven mitts about to pick up a burning hot plate of meatloaf. 

The first sightings of MikeyBoyZilla were reported in Mason this morning, where the behemoth crushed an indoor soccer facility that the Cincinnati Bengals recently used to practice in. Bystanders that witnessed the destruction say that the monster mumbled something about, "Jacked up rental pricing." 

MikeyBoyZilla then spent the next hour uprooting and swallowing unfortunate Denny's franchises. Once his hunger for delicious Grand Slamwiches was sated he made his way downtown where, as you can see, he is currently wreaking havoc.  

Once again, if you are just tuning in, this isn't a bad dream. It's more like a metaphor for what Mike Brown has done to the city over the last 20 years coming to real life. 

Part I: WDR Official Breakdown of the Bengals Offer to Hamilton County

Lots of news so far in this young offseason.  After some on-the-field stuff - Zimmer staying (hooray), Bratwurst staying (boo), Rey going all Ted Kennedy (Sunfire!) - we got some very significant off-the-field news about the Bengals offering to help the County improve its fiscal position.

WDR naturally views any move by the Bengals with skepticism.  Especially when the Bengals offer to "help" (run!!!).  We do not know what will ultimately come of the Bengals offer but at least we can get our full opinion on record here.

All I'll say before we break this down line by line is that the whole thing sort of smells.  The county has no leverage I know of in the first place and the Bengals have no demonstrable history of doing anything financially selfless.  Like Doc and C&C Music Factory, it makes me go "Hmmmm".

With that said, let's begin.

The wonders of basic software technology allowed us to convert Troy Blackburn's letter and official proposal to Hamilton County Adminstrator Patrick Thompson to a Word document so we can tear it apart FJM-Style.  Here's a copy if you're interested: Download Bengals Letter to Hamilton County

We'll do this by parts, as the letter has distinct sections to it.  The sections basically go like this:

1. The Bengals version of the history of the stadium deal
2. Changes that have occurred since the deal that explain why much of the costs aren't their fault
3. Despite this why the Bengals would like to help if they can
4. The Bengals detail their offer and what they want in return

After the jump, I'll dive into the first section (Bengals letter in Bold):

This Should Make Up for Any Lease "Concessions"

Remember when the owners thought they could abolish the "supplemental pool" of shared revenue since 2010 is an uncapped year?  Probably not, but I do.  Anyway, the "SRS" is not a huge deal, just a side pocket of about $215 million that must be distributed among the teams and gives an extra boost to small market squads (we need the dues!). 

Well, anyway, turns out they won't be abolishing that.  From Chris Mortensen ESPN:

The NFL Players Association won a decision Monday from Special Master Stephen Burbank that will prevent league owners from dismantling the supplemental revenue sharing (SRS) pool in 2010, as management had planned. The pool was valued at $210 million in 2009 and $220 million for 2010.

Not sure of the details (though I guarantee you Katie is) but assuming it's divided equally that's about $6.5 million per team (though, of course, some of the revenue contributed clearly comes from the Bengals, so you'd have to net some out).  For a small, family owned team, not a bad little windfall.  Every dollar helps Katie to pay the estate tax bill when Mikey & Nancy die after all!

Anyway, strangely enough, Mortensen takes a comedy angle with the rest of the article.  Check out this passage:

...the ruling, if upheld, should motivate low-revenue clubs to participate in spending on its own players and potential free agents

Zing! The Bengals motivated to spend?  Oh man.  That's rich.  Wait there's more?

The union was concerned about [low-revenue clubs] incentive to spend with an uncapped year and a looming lockout by the owners in 2011...This means a more vibrant outlook for players, teams and fans and now we'll monitor how the market behaves.

Hahahaha!  OMG!! LMFAO!!!  Seriously, Morty, you gotta stop.  I'm dying over here.  Let me know how "monitoring" the Bengals free agent market goes.

Seriously though, I'm glad for this turn of events.  Clearly the result of Karma paying back Mikey for the "concessions" made to the county over the stadium deal he negotiated with himself.

Real Lawyers Will Now Review PBS Lease

News leaked out yesterday that Troy Blackburn, Director of Business Development for the Bengals, wrote a letter dated Oct. 16th to county Administrator Patrick Thompson regarding certain "concessions" the Bengals are willing to re-negotiate in light of the growing stadium deficit.   The fund intended to pay for the construction and maintenance of PBS was supposed to be derived from a half cent sales tax increase.   But as the economy has suffered, sales tax revenues have declined and the fund is "expected to be $13 million to $14 million in each of the next two years before escalating."

It has been reported that "the deficit could balloon to $92 million by 2014."

Watch a great feature on this story from John London of Channel 5 here.

The shortage caused Hamilton County to delay payments to the Cincinnati Public Schools of $39.5M to be able to pay debt payments in the fund.  

Hamilton County officials have for years been trying in vain to renegotiate some of the more absurd clauses in the stadium lease, with Commissioner Todd Portune even suing the team claiming the team breached the lease by failing to be competitive.

The Bengals paid its last rent on the 26 year lease this year and is required to pay for upkeep of the stadium only on game days.  "Starting in 2017, the county will reimburse the team for these costs, too. The county will pay $8.5 million this year to keep the stadium going.  The Bengals keep revenue from naming rights, advertising, tickets, suites and most parking. If the county wants to recoup money by taxing tickets, concessions or parking, it needs the team’s approval."

You may recall that the original lease was negotiated by Hamilton County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus, who was SHOCKED at the time that the Bengals brought lawyers to negotiate!    “They’re an organization that’s run by lawyers, and they look for every penny around every corner,” he told The Cincinnati Enquirer. “It’s going to be a difficult relationship going forward for the next 30 years.”  Bedinghaus was hired by the Bengals soon after being voted out of office.

With the news that Bengals are interested in negotiating the lease terms, it is time for Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters to get some real lawyers in to evaluate the offer and make a counter proposal.   It is time for some"shared sacrifice," as John London mentioned.

Do NOT buy into the Enquirer's misleading headline - "Bengals offer Hamilton County $40M in Paul Brown Stadium lease concessions."  The Bengals want the County's suite back so they can re-lease it and they want a greater share of revenue from non-Bengals events. 

We applaud the Bengals for coming to the table, but Hamilton County needs to take this opportunity to bring some real lawyers to the table and renegotiate this lease.

WDR will have more comments as this story develops...

UPDATE: From the Cincy Business Courier (h/t nick): "Finally, the team seeks the county’s help in winning a concession from the city of Cincinnati, “procuring unused city billboard credits – to help the team build an indoor practice facility and to expand advertising opportunities at Paul Brown Stadium."

Two Questions

Everyone asked why Maualuga fell to the Bengals in the second round of last year's draft. That question has been answered. The guy likes to party, to the tune of .157 BAC & DUI, according to police reports. 31 teams passed on Maualaga at least once for this reason. Either the Bengals didn't have a good enough read on the guy before they drafted him because of their non existent/family business style scouting department, or they willfully ignored the same red flags that they have willfully ignored in the past on a number of players.

The second question is why was Rey driving a 2003 Pontiac Sunfire? Keeping it real is definitely an acceptable answer.

As always, I'm blaming Odell for this. Who by the way is apparently getting some looks from NFL teams again. You know Mikey Boy's redeeming rod is vibrating wildly.

WDR Nominated in Three Catagories for "2010 Best of Cincinnati"

WhoDey Revolution is proud to have been nominated in three categories for "2010 Best of Cincinnati" by CityBeat.  WDR is competing in the "Best Blog," "Best Twitter Feed" (for @MikeyBoyBrown) and "Best Troublemaker." 

While we would love to win all three, @MikeyBoyBrown is no match for Chad Johnson's @OGOchoCinco.  Best blog would be great, but we at WDR strive to be more than a blog.  That's why we are going to put our full force behind trying to win "Best Troublemaker."

WDR is competing in the "Best Troublemaker" category with politicians (Jean Schmidt), radio personalities (Bill Cunningham) and community activists (Chris Smitherman).  But WDR is the only website that has brought the MAYHEM.

So please support the Revolution today by visiting the Citybeat site and picking WhoDey Revolution from the drop down menu under "Best Troublemaker."