From Ja’mar Chase to Tee Higgins and Trey Hendrickson, the Cincinnati Bengals have been dealing with a lot of contractual drama in this low season, but there is a great negotiation that has flown under the radar and that is the team of the team stadium with Hamilton County.
The Bengals are currently in a look down with the county and, if nothing is resolved, there is the possibility that the team can be free to leave Cincinnati after the 2025 season.
The executive vice president of the Bengals, Katie Blackburn, spoke about the situation this week at the annual NFL League meeting and this is what you need to know:
The lease of the Bengals stadium expires on June 30, 2026
The Bengals have been playing at the Paycor stadium since it opened in 2000. The team lease in the building expires on June 30, 2026, but does not have to expire because the lease contract includes a total of five extensions of two years that the Bengals can exercise.
The team has until June 30, 2025 to collect the first of those five options and if that happens, then they will be blocked in Paycor until June 30, 2028. However, if the Bengals do not collect the first two -year option, the five options will become annulled, which will prepare the scenario so that the entire lease expires on June 30, 2026.
The short version here is that the Bengals have less than three months to decide what they want to do and if they reject the option, then they will be free to move from Cincinnati after the 2025 season. With less than 90 days for the Bengals to have to make their decision, Blackburn said the team is taking things “day by day.”
“We play it every day, and like everything else, we continue to have discussions, we see where things are and then we have to make decisions at the appropriate time,” said Blackburn, through Cincinnati Enquirer.
The Bengals could also resolve a new long -term lease contract with the county that would imply earning more than one billion dollars in improvements to the Paycor stadium, but as it is about to see, negotiations do not go well so far.
Negotiations with Hamilton County are not going so well
Hamilton County sent a proposal to the Bengals in September that included $ 1.25 billion in updates for Paycor, but at this time, the two parties are not on the same page with how those renovations should be.
“We have all been working very hard to look at an extension of lease and renovations that could be part of that,” said Blackburn, through athletics. “And so, there are many great ideas out there. It’s just finding a way to unite everything, make sure everyone is on the same page and joining it. It seems that we have a lot of work to do so that it really happens.”
The county proposal would include not only improvements in the stadium, but almost $ 350 million would also be spent in a new field of practice and interior training facilities for the Bengals.
Although the two parts are talking, Blackburn admitted that he would like to see more urgency.
“We wish there would be a little more urgency and move faster,” said Blackburn. “I think the county would like to do something. It seems that we are very slow to make it happen.”
The Bengals obtained a friendly treatment with their first lease contract, so the county is now playing hard. The Hamilton County commissioner, Alicia Reece, wants to see things change in a big way before accepting something new.
“We are trying to get out of a lease upside down. Everything else is irrelevant,” Reece said in January, through WCPO. “We cannot build anything else until we straighten the relationship contractually between taxpayers and Bengal’s property.”
The Bengals and the County have had a controversial relationship for years, which could throw a key in the negotiations. In January, the county and the team accused the other of violating the terms of the current lease.
Bengals are very aware that they could move after 2025
If the Bengals do not collect the two -year option in the lease before June 30, that will prepare the stage to become a team of free agents after the 2025 season. The Bengals do not necessarily seek to move, but the team is very aware that it could be relocated if it wanted.
“We could, I suppose, where we would like after this year if we did not collect the option,” said Blackburn. “We’ll see. As I said, all these things will be done in due time. We are having discussions, so we hope that the county is also thinking about that and wants to address it in a way that is beneficial for both of us.”
In 1995, the owner of the Bengals, Mike Brown, flirted with the city of Baltimore before accepting staying in Cincinnati after the voters gave their approval stamp to build a new stadium on the Ohio River.
Bengals seems happy in Cincinnati
The good news for Bengals fans is that the team seems happy playing in Cincinnati, specifically in the center.
“We love where we are,” said Blackburn. “I am a great defender of being the center of the city. I think it is a great thing for the city. I think that the location of the stadium is at this time.
The Bengals do not have to have an agreement with the County to collect the two -year option. If the negotiations are going well, they could collect the option with the understanding that both parties will continue to function for a resolution that would see the Paycor stadium obtain more than one billion dollars in improvements. In that situation, if the Bengals picked up the option, but the county still played hard, then the Bengals could simply reject their second two -year option, which would allow them to move as they wish after the 2027 season.
What about Modell’s law?
The state of Ohio has a unique law that was implemented after Art Modell moved to Cleveland Browns to Baltimore in 1996. The rule makes it more difficult for a professional sports team to leave the State. Here is the exact wording of Ohio’s law:
No owner of a professional sports team that uses a tax supported installation for most games at home and receives financial assistance from the State or a political subdivision of it will stop playing most of your games at home at the facilities and will begin to play most of your games at home in another place unless the owner is:
(A) Enter an agreement with the political subdivision that allows the team to play most of its games at home in other places;
(B) offers the political subdivision in which the installation is not less than six months of early warning of the intention of the owner of stopping playing most of his games at home at the facilities and, during the six months after said notification, gives the political subdivision or any individual or group of people residing in the area to buy the team.
Since the Bengals used an installation backed by taxpayers, this law would technically apply to them.
The law essentially says that the city (in this case, Cincinnati) would have to sign an agreement that approves the movement or that the team would have to warn the city six months in advance before moving. During that period, the city or other rich stores could take a step forward to buy the team.
If the Bengals decided to leave, they would have to deal with the law, but that is not a fact. A situation with Modell’s law is currently being developed in court with the other NFL team of the State. The Browns want to build a new stadium in Brook Park, which is a suburb to Cleveland’s outskirts, but the city of Cleveland has filed a lawsuit that invokes Modell’s law to prevent that from happening. Browns say that the law does not apply to them for several reasons and one of those reasons is that when they move, they will have developed the complete terms of their lease. If the court agrees that the law does not apply in a situation in which an expire lease, then the Bengals would not have to worry about the law.
Whatever happens in Cincinnati, this will be a situation in which NFL will certainly be attentive in the coming months. The Bengals do not have exactly a great relationship with the County at this time and it is likely that the team wants to see the negotiations that are directed to the right address before it agrees to collect the option of two years before the deadline of June 30.
