CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Bengals and FC Cincinnati could improve their chances for state funding by blowing up the Cleveland Browns’ deal for state funding.
That’s the assessment of Sen. Bill Blessing, R-Colerain Township, who serves on the Ohio Senate Finance Committee.
Blessing said professional sports teams in Ohio should get behind Governor Mike DeWine’s proposal to establish a new funding source for stadium improvements — by doubling Ohio’s sports-betting tax to 40%.
"I think the Bengals' best option at this point would be to lock arms with other teams ... and get behind the governor's proposal," Blessing said. "Start working Senate members on how this is much more sustainable."
Hear more from Blessing in the video below:
The Cleveland Browns derailed the governor's plan by getting the Ohio House to endorse a $600 million bond deal for its $1.2 billion domed stadium and entertainment district in Brook Park.
That led to separate requests for additional funding by the Bengals and FC Cincinnati. The Bengals want $350 million, while FC Cincinnati wants to be reimbursed for 30% of construction costs on its planned $332 million mixed-use development near TQL Stadium.
“As (Senate) members see this kind of spiraling out of control, they're going to either do one of two things. Nothing at all. Or they’re going to just agree, ‘You know what? Let’s solve this once and for all with the plan the governor proposed,’” Blessing said.
In an April 10 interview with WCPO, DeWine wouldn’t say whether he will veto the Browns stadium-funding plan if it isn’t altered by the Senate.
"I just want to make it very clear we do not have this money," DeWine said. "If you just bond the money that the Browns want, that's a billion dollars over a period of 25 years. It's about $42 to $45 million every year out of the budget. We do not have that money. We can't take it away from education. There's a pathway, but that's not the pathway."
Blessing said the Browns told him they pursued the bond deal because they didn’t think the governor’s plan could become a reality. He thinks the Browns are wrong about that.
“The Bengals, FC Cincinnati, all these teams. Frankly the Cleveland Browns should get behind it,” Blessing said. “There’s nothing to say that they still couldn’t get the same amount of money from the sports-betting tax increase fund. They absolutely could.”
The Bengals quest for stadium funding took a step forward Tuesday, when Hamilton County announced an agreement with the team on an $830 million renovation plan for Paycor Stadium, including a $184 million first phase in which the team and the NFL cover $120 million in project costs.
Even with that upfront commitment, Blessing said the Bengals’ request will be “a hard sell” in the Senate, “simply because $600 million for the Browns is a hard sell and you add $350 million for the Bengals, eventually the Reds, the Guardians, the Blue Jackets, all of these other teams are going to want money.”
Although he hasn’t introduced legislation that specifically addresses funding for the Bengals or FC Cincinnati, Blessing has introduced a bill that could revive the Governor’s stadium funding plan in a Senate version of the budget.
Senate Bill 150 would increase the sports betting tax to 36% and require teams to submit proposals to a newly created “sports venue redevelopment commission.”
The bill lists a dozen criteria that will be considered when teams request funding, including “whether the facility is usable by the public for other purposes.”
It also limits state contributions to 40% of project costs.
Blessing said the criteria could be modified to require teams to pay for a minimum percentage of new construction.
“That’s the nice part about having the flexibility in that fund,” Blessing said. “We can demand more money from the teams upfront in order to get state dollars, instead of having it all written in stone.”
FC Cincinnati proposed revisions to the House budget bill in hopes of securing funds for its mixed-use development near TQL Stadium, according to a copy of its proposal, which we obtained in a public record request.
Those revisions included language allowing for 30% reimbursement of construction costs for a “transformational major sports facility mixed-use project” in a county with at least 750,000 in population.
Applied to the anticipated cost of the team’s private development next to TQL Stadium, FC Cincinnati’s funding request amounts to roughly $100 million.
FC Cincinnati released a statement about its funding request:
“FC Cincinnati strongly believes that if the State of Ohio is to be involved in stadium projects, there should be a mechanism for all the state's teams to be eligible for comparable support. TQL Stadium was privately funded by our owners without benefit of the County sales tax, and we are continuing with our $1.5B stadium development that includes a world-class mixed-use district."
Blessing doesn’t support that request for two reasons: He wants to eliminate the Browns’ bond deal in the Senate instead of amending it to include FC Cincinnati — and he wants to limit stadium funding to venues only.
“The way the Cleveland Browns want to structure this, doing this large project that includes apartments and all these other things, that becomes significantly more expensive,” Blessing said. “So, anything we would do in that space, I would want to have focused on literally just stadium construction and renovation.”
Blessing expects a Senate budget to be unveiled by June 8. He said amendments will be offered through the end of June, with the most important decisions made in conversations between Governor DeWine, House Speaker Matt Huffman and Senate President Rob McColley.
Huffman has already voiced opposition to the Bengals request and support for the Browns bond deal. And the Senate Finance Chair is Cleveland Republican Jerry Cirino.
“Finance chairs do have a great deal of say, but at the end of the day the buck stops with the speaker of the House, the Senate president and the governor,” Blessing said. “They’re the ones that I think will ultimately make the decision on this.”
