The Univ. of Cincinnati will "pay the same standard rental fee" it has paid in the past to play its '14 home football games at Paul Brown Stadium, but the Bengals will "return their share of the rent" to the school, according to Bill Koch of the CINCINNATI ENQUIRER. Bengals Business Development Dir Bob Bedinghaus said, "We couldn't say you guys come in and play rent free because Hamilton County needs to make money when other events happen down there. What we came up with is we are going to reimburse to the University of Cincinnati all the money we would have received in rent for the full season. We will reimburse 100 percent." Koch notes the county owns the stadium, and its lease terms entitle the Bengals to 50% of the rent, with the rest "going to the county." Bedinghaus said, "We’re not going to make any money off the rent, but we cannot stand in the way of the county making money because it's not our money to give away." He added that he "expects the rental agreement will be finalized within a few weeks." UC AD Whit Babcock said, "The Bengals really stepped up and helped us out. We had nowhere to go. They could have not been easier to work with." Koch notes the school "must pay" 10% of the first $1M in ticket revenue for each game played there, 12.5% of the next $1M, and 15% of gross ticket revenue exceeding $2M. UC "must also pay a 25-cent surcharge to Hamilton County for each ticket sold and is responsible for all game expenses." The Bengals and the county will "split all money from parking and concessions on a 50-50 basis." But Bedinghaus said, "I suspect at the end of the day we will allow UC to sell their merchandise without anything coming back to us" (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 8/14).
