Things have gotten messy between the Bengals and Hamilton County.
Cincinnati Bengals Executive Vice President Katie Blackburn is currently in Palm Beach, Florida at the NFL’s annual league meeting. While in attendance, she sat down with some local reporters, including The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr., to discuss everything from some potential rule changes to the current makeup of the team.
Eventually, the conversation turned to the looming June 30 deadline to exercise the first of five two-year lease extensions, keeping the team in Paycor Stadium and in Hamilton County.
Unfortunately, for those who were hoping for good news that the county and the Brown/Blackburn family were making progress, that wasn’t the case.
“We wish there was a little more urgency and it was moving faster,” she said on Tuesday. “I do believe that the county would like to get something done. We just seem to be very slow in making it happen.”
In 2024, Hamilton County unveiled a $1.3 billion renovation proposal, which included upgrades to the stadium, both inside and out, and new team facilities. The ideas, which served as a starting point, didn’t match the Bengals’ vision or their financial expectations. Tensions surfaced publicly when contentious emails between Troy Blackburn and Hamilton County administrator Jeff Aluotto.
In an effort to bridge the divide, the county hired David Abrams from Inner Circle Sports out of New York City. He’ll be a consultant in the negotiations and has helped the Dolphins, Texans, Falcons, Buccaneers, Jaguars, and Titans reach agreements in their respective cities.
Dehner highlighted the fact Cleveland, just four hours northeast up I-71 and in the AFC North with the Bengals, is now in an ugly fight with the Browns that includes lawsuits over ownership’s wish to move the team to an indoor stadium in Brook Park, leaving an empty stadium downtown.
Blackburn doesn’t want this to happen in Cincinnati but also understands there is much to be done.
“I’m a big proponent of being downtown,” she said. “I think that’s a great thing for the city. I think the location of the stadium right now is good. I think our stadium, obviously, needs to continue to be maintained appropriately, and you want to keep it at a certain level. That’s important just so that we’re competitive with others.”
If the Bengals and the county don’t come to some sort of agreement by the June 30 deadline, the team’s lease would technically end just 12 months later on the same date the following year. At that point, the team technically could move to a new location.
“We could, I guess, go wherever we wanted after this year if we didn’t pick the option up,” she said, per Dehner. “We’ll see. Like I said, all these things will be done in due course.”
This week, we also got an update from County Commissioner Alicia Reece, who wants to give the taxpayers an answer on the future of the Bengals and their stadium.
“I’m ready to get out the blank piece of paper, get out an ink pen, and let’s get down to the lease,” Reece said via The Cincinnati Enquirer. “Can we get a deal, or can we not get a deal? And I think the taxpayers deserve to know.”
Aluotto also weighed in.
“No one is slow-walking this process,” Aluotto stated. “We’re moving expeditiously. We’re moving purposefully on this.”
There are several teams that have played outside the city limits or are planning on or are trying to move. The issues between the Brown/Blackburns and the county are well documented and go back to the founding of Paul Brown Stadium in 2000. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that the team could move to a new location outside of the city, possibly in Northern Kentucky, Clermont, Butler, or Warren Counties.
Hopefully, the two sides will come to an agreement before the June 30 deadline so the front office can focus all their attention on bringing a Lombardi Trophy to Cincinnati.
