Fuel to the Fire: More on the Stadium Deal

A fellow Comrade-in-Arms pointed me to a book named "Public Dollars, Private Stadiums" that investigated all the issues surrounding the flurry of publicly funded stadiums built in the 90's (and into this decade albeit at a much reduced rate).

I recently emailed one of the author's, Rick Eckstein, and I wanted to post a quick excerpt of the exchange:

Me:  "...I have done only basic research but it appears like the deal the Bengals' got was particularly sweet and that the negotiations were hugely stacked in favor of the Bengals (the commissioner who represented Hamilton County now works for the Bengals, for example).  I was curious to hear your take on how the Bengals deal compares to other cities and franchises.  I would like to write more on this and want to make sure I have the facts correct and can put the stadium deal in some context."

Rick Eckstein:  "The Bengals deal remains the single most lopsided stadium deal since 1993, at least as far as  know...I had no idea that Bedinghaus was now working for the Bengals.  if that doesn't beat all.  Sounds a lot like the revolving door between the Pentagon and military contractors!"

It makes me mad.  Especially because, at the end of the day, we as a community dropped the ball here and let the Bengals' walk all over us (I won't fault the Brown Family for trying to get everything they could out of the County but I like to think if I were in that position I would still recognize and be grateful for the fact that I was being supported by the taxpayers).

I will revisit this more later.  Specifically, post Christmas once I get my hands on this book.  I highly recommend it for all, you can purchase a copy here or if you have Kindle (in which case I am jealous), here.  Rick said that they dedicate an entire chapter to the Cincinnati deal and that it was their "model city" for the book.  Definitely check it out.  Rick -  you are an honorary Comrade-in-Arms.

Comments

[jaso]

Holy shnikeys.

I just commented about the stadium deal in another topic. Great minds although differing in agendas do think alike. It doesn't make me mad about Bedinghaus. I didn't vote for the new stadium. I guessing you did. I NEVER FALL for corporate welfare. And by the way what's with all the amazement about fuckups in Cincinnati history today? This is a town that has kept Simon Leis in power all these years.

Although it should be criminal for Bedinghaus to accept a job due to somehow, somekind of conflict of interest.

Here it is again (sorta) under a more appropriate titled topic. To the citizens of Cincinnati, your vote wholly built, not helped, raise a monument to collosal, utter fucking failure. Shiny ain't it? May it burn your retina's.

[Who Dey NYC]

How could anyone blame the citizens of Cincinnati? What they did (I was in my early teens at the time) was voted to construct a stadium that would keep one of their two professional sports franchises in town. What they did not do was vote for the most lopsided lease on the planet that will ensure Mike Brown makes money no matter what.

[Sleeping With Bieniemy]

I was too young to vote at the time. So I plead not guilty.

Point taken Who Dey NYC, but still, knowing the Brown family as well as we did, we probably should have had tougher negotiations. The fact that it was an army of lawyers vs Bedinghaus was unacceptable, I feel like it doesn't even take hindsight to see that.

[Sleeping With Bieniemy]

I was too young to vote at the time. So I plead not guilty.

Point taken Who Dey NYC, but still, knowing the Brown family as well as we did, we probably should have had tougher negotiations. The fact that it was an army of lawyers vs Bedinghaus was unacceptable, I feel like it doesn't even take hindsight to see that.

[Who Dey NYC]

I was more responding to commenter, jaso. You are correct in that "as a community, [we] dropped the ball." But it was our civic leaders that did not properly represent our interests. The taxpayers simply voted to build the stadium...but in practicality, it was voting on whether or not to retain our NFL team.

[Hofbraunow]

I think we in Cincy/ Hamilton County should be able to vote *again*, just like we did for the stadium tax, but now this time, to sue Mike Brown, for all the stadium tax money, plus revenue resulting from building the [then] new stadium...

[Bolshevik Bengal]

This goes beyond mere blogging into the realm of investigative journalism. Sure, a lot of people knew about our shitty stadium deal, as my WDR comrades have posted a lot. However, many people in Cincy probably don't know all the facts, at least not in the context of other cities/deals. Having a comment from Rick Eckstein is awesome. That quote should be emblazoned on WDR signs, underwritten: -Rick Eckstein, author, "Public Dollars, Private Stadium"

If we are really going to take this fight to the people of Cincinnati, we need to remind them that whether or not they follow the Bengals, they are paying for this team. With the economy in shambles, that should get people's blood BOILING. It definitely pisses me off.

[Phathead]

Have you ever noticed that everything Bengal within that stadium is temporary? Sure they put up the orange and black graphics around the bottom of the stadium on Sundays, but thats it. The seats are green, there is no "ring of fame", there is no tiger eyes on the scoreboard, no player banners or graphics anywhere in the vendor areas....nothing. If there isn't a Bengal game going on, its just a concrete stadium with green seats.

Some may say this is because of the public participation in the stadium deal and the fact that they do use the stadium for a high school game now and then. I think its just another item the Brown family is not prepared to pay for and doesn't really care about. I mean seriously, Tampa Bay has a pirate ship, Pittsburgh has gawd awful yellow seats...if this is the "Jungle" then where are the vines hanging from the upper deck and the big growling Bengal on the scoreboard??

[WC]

Just a quick note on Rick's statement that: 'the commissioner who represented Hamilton County now works for the Bengals, for example' is either a bad grammatical error or a bad error in fact. The statement would cause one to think that Hamilton County has but one commisioner when in fact there were three at that time and that said ONLY Commissioner was 'in the tank' for the Bengals as circumstantially 'proved' by his working for the Bengals. The better statement would have been: 'One of the commisioners who represented the people of Hamilton County during the negotiations and voting on the new sales tax that allowed for the Stadium (Identify him by name) is now working for the Bengals. The two other commissioners have gone elsewhere.'

[Sleeping With Bieniemy]

WC - I said that in an email, not Rick and he replied "I had no idea Bedinghaus worked for the Bengals"...

The fact that he knew it was Bedinghaus right away without me naming which commissioner is all you need to know about who was in charge during negotiations. He was the President of the Commission, of course.

If you read historical articles it appears that Bedinghaus framed the argument as if we would be lucky to be able to keep the Bengals at all and that selling suites, club suites and boxes would be an uphill battle. He acted as if the city was holding none of the cards and the Bengals were holding all of them. Thus he gave into basically all their demands. Perhaps this is true that our negotiating position was just incredibly weak but giving into everything is frustrating at the least. Downright suspicious when later this guy goes and works for...

[Pal]

I've always thought that the Brown/Bedinghaus relationship should have been pounded more by the worthless local media. This would be a good way, perhaps the only way to nail Mikey. Of course, Mikey beat the IRS so I'm sure that he has protected himself somehow(the only thing that he is good at). How much does it cost to file a class action lawsuit? How much higher can that thermometer to the left go?