Latest on Cincinnati Bengals Stadium Lease Talks With Hamilton County

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00:00Let's get to stadium talks. Basically, the Bengals have until June 30th to make a decision

00:06on whether or not they're going to pick up their two-year option. They have rolling two-year

00:12options. The stadium lease is up June 30th, 2026, but they have to make that decision June 30th,

00:202025 or sooner than that. It felt like last month, they reached this memorandum of understanding

00:27that everything was going to get done, that everything was going to be smooth.

00:32Then, well, things have gone the other way. Local 12 has been all over this. James Pilcher,

00:38I certainly suggest if you're into the finite legality element of it, following him on social

00:45media, certainly checking out his work for Local 12. What's really interesting, and you can check

00:52out this letter, but calling Connie Pilich's recent statements, the Bengals issued this letter on

01:01Wednesday, calling Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pilich's statement, basically about negotiations

01:08and different things that have gone on. I'm not going to try to get into too much detail,

01:14but the Bengals are calling out the count and saying that Connie, since being elected in January,

01:19has not participated in negotiations. It's worth noting that Hamilton County moved on from the

01:25attorneys that have represented them for decades last week by a three, nothing vote. And so that

01:33is concerning. There's no doubt about it. We're talking about five weeks now until the deadline.

01:40And I think I've been asked this a ton, like, oh, well, could the Bengals move? I don't think the

01:45Bengals are moving out of this area. But I think if we get to that June 30th deadline, and there's

01:52no long-term fix, then moving in general is very real. And so getting into the minutiae, you can read

02:00the entire letter I posted at banglestalk.com. But I'll just read a quote here. The Bengals wrote

02:07to, quote, express our serious objection to your public comments and urge you to withdraw such

02:12comments, which are plainly false. And it was basically, Connie Pilich made comments about the

02:19stadium lease negotiations with the team and how difficult it was to negotiate with them. And I

02:25think a lot of fans are going to be like, well, yeah, that's what happens. On the other side,

02:30this is really, this is a lot of public posturing. And what's interesting to me is they had this

02:35memorandum of understanding last month, which basically said, hey, we have an agreement in place.

02:39We're close. And it feels like it's going to get done. And then the county starts making all these

02:45moves, makes all these shifts. And I was worried about this. I've talked about this a few times.

02:51I was just a kid in the 90s, but I remember when these talks were going on and how big of a deal it

02:58was and reading the papers about it and the political back and forth. I remember that then,

03:03and I was like five. And I just remember hearing little things about it. It's not like I understood the

03:08minutia and everything that was involved. Obviously, Jeff Blake, a lot of people say that

03:13pay course that Paul Brown Stadium at the time was the house that Jeff Blake built because he made

03:17them relevant when things were really, really struggling. And it felt like at one point,

03:21the Bengals were going to move as in move cities and completely out of town. I don't think that's

03:29going to happen here. Obviously, anything is possible. I don't think that's going to happen.

03:32But what I do think is Hamilton County lost that negotiation. And politically,

03:40certainly County Pillage, they want to win this one and to be declared the winner.

03:47And meanwhile, the Bengals on the other side are probably understanding like,

03:51yeah, we're not going to get the same deal. We know that because we won that last deal,

03:54but can't give it all up. And we can't do the reverse thing now, 25 years later, 30 years later,

04:03geez, 30 years later, because we're talking like 95, 96 when this was going on.

04:09So yeah, that's where you're at. And I think it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out.

04:14I'm not going to cover it a ton on here unless there's a lot, because it's a lot of, to be quite

04:20frank, it's a lot of political BS. And the Bengals want to stay where they are. And I think Hamilton

04:26County wants the Bengals where they are. So for me, get in a room and figure out what works for

04:31everybody. And I get it. It's complicated. And there's layers and layers and layers to this deal.

04:38We've known this date was coming up. I don't need the political posturing. I don't need the public

04:42outcry. And by the way, I don't think the Bengals sent that letter to do that. I think when Connie

04:49goes public with stuff, well, then the Bengals feel like they need to respond. Here's what I need.

04:54I don't care if it's the Hamilton County prosecutor. I don't care if it's the attorneys that represent

04:59the County. Now the attorneys that represent the Bengals work out a deal, work out a deal. Now,

05:06if the sides want to be difficult, fine, but understand Hamilton County, you risk

05:12losing the Bengals. And Bengals, if you want to be difficult, realize you risk having to move,

05:19which sounds awful. They want to stay right there. They've invested a lot of money in the stadium.

05:24So risking that is annoying. So all this back and forth, just get in a room and get it done.

05:29Yeah. The only loser here would be the Bengals and the County if they have to split. There's the loser

05:40because then the Bengals have to go through that whole headache and the County has to go through

05:44that whole headache. It's much less of a headache if you just get a deal done.

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