FC Cincinnati's Dispute With Ballet Could Disrupt Stadium Project

The Cincinnati Ballet is asking the City Council to "halt FC Cincinnati stadium plans until a resolution can be worked out between the ballet and the team over where people going to ballet practice can park," according to Sharon Coolidge of the CINCINNATI ENQUIRER. FC Cincinnati execs "aren't happy." They said that the "ongoing dispute is a private matter between a team and a business and should have no effect on council's pending approval of zoning for the stadium." But attorney Stephen King, representing the ballet, argued that the team "does not have full control of the site and therefore any approval of a zoning change for the team would be inappropriate." Negotiations between FC Cincinnati and the ballet have been "going on for months." The ballet is "worried the stadium site will gobble up its parking lot." But the club said that it has "no plans" to develop any land the ballet leases, including the parking lot. Coolidge noted maps of the stadium site show the plan "works best with the parking lot land, where there would be an open plaza at stadium level and an underground brewery" (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 2/9).