CINCINNATI — The Bengals are at a crossroads with the Paycor Stadium lease timeline. Executive vice president Katie Blackburn discussed that among other topics at the NFL's Annual Meeting this week.
The Bengals are set to decide on a set of rolling two-year lease renewals at Paycor Stadium, with the first decision deadline on June 30. If the team doesn't trigger a renewal amidst stalled talks with Hamilton County, then the lease will expire on June 30, 2026, and the team will have to find a new home.
The stadium is due for a projected $1.25 billion in the county's projected upgrades over the coming years. Blackburn and the Bengals are taking the situation "day by day."
“We love where we are,” Blackburn said to a group of reporters, including The Enquirer's Kelsey Conway. “I'm (a) very big proponent of being in the downtown. I think that's a great thing for the city. I think (the) location (of the) stadium right now is good. 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. But you know, at the end of the day, we're playing it one day at a time, and it's just we have to see where it all goes.”
Discussions will continue between the two sides, but Blackburn did not sound confident a deal was very imminent.
“We've all been working really hard on looking at a lease extension and renovations that might be part of that,” Blackburn noted. “And so, there are a lot of great ideas out there. It's just finding a way to bring it all together, make sure everyone's on the same page, and pulling it together. That we seem to have a lot of work to do to make that actually happen.”
Worst-case scenario, Cincinnati will have to find a new home for next season and beyond. However, Ohio state law makes it hard for them to leave the Cincinnati area.
According to the Art Modell law enacted in 1996, a professional sports franchise playing in a tax-supported facility cannot move the team unless they:
"Agree with the political subdivision permitting the team to play most of its home games elsewhere or give the political subdivision in which the facility is located not less than six months’ advance notice of the owner’s intention to cease playing most of its home games at the facility and, during the six months after such notice, gives the political subdivision or any individual or group of individuals who reside in the area the opportunity to purchase the team."
A lot of things would have to go wrong to get to that point of forced sale, but the law is in place to protect Cincinnati as much as possible from losing its NFL team. Check out Conway's full story here.
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