In a meeting this week, the Bengals asked Hamilton
County to "ratchet up" its campaign to sell seat licenses or
charter ownership agreements (COA) prior to an April 30
deadline, according to Geoff Hobson of the CINCINNATI
ENQUIRER. Bengals Dir of Stadium Development Troy
Blackburn: "We think it's got to be elevated quickly."
Bengals President Mike Brown said the team is about 15,000
seats short of the 50,000 seats they wanted to have sold by
the April 30 deadline. The county's campaign has sold about
35,000 COAs. Brown: "We have three years to get to where we
want to end up. We do think we can get there." Don
Schumacher, head of the county's campaign, said the county
has been "unable to give the go-ahead for the second sales
push" due to ongoing negotiations between the team and
county over the next phase of the campaign. Schumacher:
"There was a planned pause in the campaign to read the
results so both parties could catch up." The Bengals' Brown
added Wednesday that the "deal" between the team and county
is "not in trouble" (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 3/21).
