In recent years, the Cincinnati Bengals have emerged as one of the more exciting and popular teams in the NFL, thanks to the high-profile offense led by star quarterback Joe Burrow and receivers Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. And while all of those players are now locked into long-term contracts to stay with the team, the team is not locked into staying in Cincinnati.
The Bengals currently play in Paycor Stadium on the banks of the Ohio River in Cincinnati, Ohio. However, the lease for the stadium is set to expire on June 30, 2026, unless the team chooses to exercise their option with Hamilton County to extend that deal for two more years on or before June 30, 2025.
That means that unless the team comes to a long-term deal with the stadium, the team will be free to relocate as early as 2026 or in 2028 if they do extend the deal for two more years.
During the annual NFL league meetings, Bengals executive Vice President Katie Blackburn was asked about the current state of the negotiations with Hamilton County.
"We play it day by day, and like everything else, we just continue to have discussions, see where things are, and then have to make decisions at the appropriate time," Blackburn told the Cincinnati Enquirer.
General view of Paul Brown Stadium, home of the Cincinnati Bengals, with the Ohio River and downtown skyline in Cincinnati, Ohio on Sunday, December 10, 2006. (Photo by Kirby Lee/Getty Images) Kirby Lee/Getty Images
While Blackburn did indicate that the team would ideally like to remain in Cincinnati at Paycor Stadium for the foreseeable future, she did very much acknowledge that things would need to happen before the team commits to that.
"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," she said.
She also made it very clear that if a new deal does not happen and the Bengals don't pick up the option to extend the current deal, the team would have to move elsewhere – and they'd be free to go "wherever we wanted."
"We could, I guess, go wherever we wanted after this year if we didn't pick the up option up," Blackburn said. "So, you know, we'll see. Like I said, all these things will be done in due course. We are having discussions, and so we're hopeful that the county is thinking about it a lot too and wants to get it addressed in a way that would be beneficial to both of us."
A relocation could mean that the Bengals could move to the suburbs outside of the city. This is an option that many NFL teams take. For example, the Dallas Cowboys play in nearby Arlington, Texas, and the San Francisco 49ers actually play in nearby Santa Clara, California.
However, as Blackburn noted, the team would be free to leave the Cincinnati area entirely, too.
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This story was originally published April 3, 2025 at 2:18 PM.