Ramblings: Bengals & Community Involvement

Project Mayhem Task #4 touches upon something that I would like to highlight:  the civic involvement of Mike Brown and the Bengals in the larger Cincinnati area.  Specifically, the lack thereof.  For a family sustained by taxpayers, they show surprisingly little interest in the region that supports them.  And I'm not just talking about the charitable end of things, but the business end of things too. 

The plans to build the stadium were underway in 1996, over 12 years ago, for example.  And the plan to develop the Banks seems to just now be gaining traction.  While many parties are at fault here, it is not like you ever heard of the Bengals being a proactive force.  Nope, from what I have heard they were mostly unhelpful and satisfied to earn parking revenue rather than encouraging development that would likely make them more wealthy, successful and popular in the long term.  For an example, check out this quote from an Enquirer article about condo development on the Banks in 2005:

Bengals owner Mike Brown and Reds chief operating officer John Allen attended the commissioners' press conference Friday in a show of support for the project, but there was no talk of what if any contribution they might make toward the project. The Bengals have veto rights over some development that could be visible from Paul Brown Stadium.

As you can see, Mike's stance amounts to:  I maintain the right to veto, but I feel no obligation to contribute.  Sweet.  Love that positive engagement from the leader of the most public organization in Cincinnati.  I will touch upon this topic more, civic responsibility and the Bengals, but for now I'll close with just one more quick anecdote.

In the quest to make Project Mayhem as successful as possible, every now and then I find out some interesting tidbits from those who have held positions of leadership in the Cincinnati community at some level (be it business, gov't, not-for-profit, etc.).  For example, here is a line from an email I received from a person I will keep anonymous:

"As far as I can tell, Mike Brown has no support in the business community and, I think, very little interaction with them.  He is not a civic "team player." He surely is not known for charitable giving or promoting/investing in civic causes. In  all these respects, he is the opposite of Bob Castellini."

Mike Brown, everyone, in a nutshell.

(I'm going to run a cheese grater across my knee cap now)

Comments

[Joe]

Mike Brown is an entitlement baby. He hasn't earned anything his entire life because everything was given to him - his daddy handed him a $100M+ football franchise that he built from the ground up. Look at how Mike Brown has handled that.

He doesn't even comprehend the idea of civic involvement, nor would he know the first thing about taking a leadership role in a project like the Banks. He just wants to play with the toy his daddy gave him. And he's not going to share his toy because it's HIS.

[Pal]

The stadium could have had a retractable dome and incorporated a convention center to give the city some bang for it's buck but Mikey wanted an "open air" stadium because "football should be played on grass". When Mikey's grass died (big surprise) he made the taxpayers pay to replace it with fake grass-thanks Mike.

[Pal]

The stadium could have had a retractable dome and incorporated a convention center to give the city some bang for it's buck but Mikey wanted an "open air" stadium because "football should be played on grass". When Mikey's grass died (big surprise) he made the taxpayers pay to replace it with fake grass-thanks Mike.

[IDRATHERBEINCHURCH]

You have never heard of the Bengals community fund. It took Marvin Lewis to get that going. Mike is about as cold as they come and he makes no apologies for being that way.

[Sleeping With Bieniemy]

I am well aware of the community fund and it has Marvin's name on it, not Mike Brown's, which is why I ignored it because I don't want to give too much credit to Mikey even if he does support it.

Obviously that was Marvin's brainchild as there was no LeBeau, Coslet or Shula community fund? Certainly there is no Bengals community fund.

Pal - you have some documentation about that retractable dome and convention center stuff? Would love to see it.

[Pal]

A had a small role with the group who was tying to locate the baseball stadium at Broadway Commons and remember the issue being brought up that the Bengal's stadium should be a dome and a convention center associated with it to help pass the issue with the voters.(see Indianapolis on how to build the correct stadium/team). It was probably reported in one of the newspapers. I also remember Mikey squashing that proposal quickly with the natural grass thing-he wanted nothing to do with it probably because it would mean he would have to share his "house".

[WC]

Let's just face it, folks... Mikey Boy Brown is simply a mistake -- a mistake that we have to pay for. I hate to gloat (nah, I don't -- really) but I was telling people all of this way back when. I feel so superior now... NOT!