The Bengals signed a lease yesterday with Hamilton
County that will keep the team in a new Cincinnati football
stadium until 2026. Preliminary site work on the 67,000-
seat stadium will start this fall, with construction
beginning in early '98 and an expected opening in the summer
of 2000. The facility will include 7,600 club seats and 104
suites, and will be named Paul Brown Stadium, in honor of
the founder of the Bengals and Browns (Bengals). In
Cincinnati, May & Hobson outline components of the lease,
which "generally mirrors" the Memorandum of Understanding
signed last September. The Bengals will get all ticket,
broadcast, advertising, concession and parking revenues from
games and half of all non-football revenue. If the stadium
is not ready by August 1, 2000, the county or its contractor
must pay the team "up to" $4M per game the team doesn't play
in the new facility. Other lease arrangements: the Bengals
have the "sole right for first 10 years" to present pro
soccer; the team will pay $11.7M annual rent for the first
nine years, with no payments after that; and the county will
build 5,000 parking spaces (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 5/30).