Speaker 1: By Billy Cunningham, the Great American and some exciting news
Speaker 1: this morning came out to Hamny County Commission's office headed
Speaker 1: up by Didney's Treehouse and about a agreement with the Bengals.
Speaker 2: The Memoran of understanding has been signed.
Speaker 1: You may know the last few weeks I had on
Speaker 1: Matt Huffman, Speaker of the House, loan with others who
Speaker 1: are saying, well, we're not going to move until we
Speaker 1: see if the county and the Bengals actually have a deal.
Speaker 1: Joining you and I now is Denise street House, Hamny
Speaker 1: County Commissioner. Denise, can you tell the American people this
Speaker 1: afternoon kind of the memo of understanding and what it
Speaker 1: means for the Bengals to taxpayers and the American people
Speaker 1: kind of give us an overview.
Speaker 3: So, the memorandum understanding is about a one hundred and
Speaker 3: twenty million dollar investment between the team and the NFL
Speaker 3: into the county's asset, which is the stadium. The county
Speaker 3: is in for some of that as well, but we're
Speaker 3: going to do some of the improvements that have been
Speaker 3: identified through this master plan. You know, it's about elevators
Speaker 3: and escalators and plazas and seats and all the things
Speaker 3: that we need to do. But for the first time ever,
Speaker 3: the NFL is participating in that financial stack and the
Speaker 3: team is in substantially too. So it's a good day
Speaker 3: for the tax players because we're leveraging our money with
Speaker 3: the NFL and the team to get stuff done in
Speaker 3: that stadium.
Speaker 1: Now, how does this relate to the extension of the
Speaker 1: lease or a new lease, Because the last time I
Speaker 1: had you on about a week or ten days ago,
Speaker 1: you said it would be a downer if somehow the
Speaker 1: Bangals would exercise the two year option in a month
Speaker 1: or two, that would be a downer.
Speaker 2: How does that impact that extension?
Speaker 3: It doesn't. I mean, the least extension that we were
Speaker 3: talking about is we're ongoing negotiations about that. We're at
Speaker 3: the table with the team. But this, I mean, if
Speaker 3: you look at it on its face, it's certainly a
Speaker 3: good sign that they are using their money in the
Speaker 3: NFL's money to do these improvements. So they got this
Speaker 3: money a while back, we need to move on it
Speaker 3: to make sure we can get it done by next year.
Speaker 3: And so that is the timing element here. But it's
Speaker 3: really important. It's part of the larger stack of projects,
Speaker 3: and so it's important that we leverage the NFL and
Speaker 3: the team's money to get this stuff done. You mentioned
Speaker 3: something else, and I want to dig in just a
Speaker 3: tiny bit about the process at the state level, because
Speaker 3: I've been asked, well, you know you didn't get in
Speaker 3: the budget. Well, let me correct that and say we
Speaker 3: did get in the budget. It was the governor's version
Speaker 3: of the budget where he put in the gaming fee
Speaker 3: for sports facilities. So that was us in the budget.
Speaker 3: It went to the House. The House took that out
Speaker 3: of the budget and put something different in for the Haslams.
Speaker 3: And now we're over on the Senate side negotiating the
Speaker 3: same thing. And so I don't know what's going to
Speaker 3: come out of the Senate, but I think it will
Speaker 3: be different from the Governor's version or the House's version.
Speaker 1: When I had on Matt Hoffman, he said that the
Speaker 1: Haslam deal was different because in the Haslam Browns deal,
Speaker 1: it's brand new money in some cornfield in southern Calahooga County,
Speaker 1: like two and a half three billion. The Bengalo deal
Speaker 1: was different because it's an upgradest renovation that may generate
Speaker 1: a little bit of additional income at Huffman is saying
Speaker 1: that the taxpayer can't be on the hook for any
Speaker 1: of these improvements unless the plan has shown that it's
Speaker 1: going to break even. So is the news Drea House
Speaker 1: saying that the plan is going to break even to
Speaker 1: the taxpayer.
Speaker 3: Well, listen, I don't want to be penalized because we
Speaker 3: did twenty years ago what Cyahoga is doing now. I mean,
Speaker 3: that's that's not fair. And so you know, for the
Speaker 3: and by the way, Cyahoga County and the City of
Speaker 3: Cleveland are not on board with the Haslem deal. So
Speaker 3: I just want to be really clear that the team
Speaker 3: that Cincinnati Bengals and the county commissioners are on the
Speaker 3: same page. That is not the case in northern Ohio.
Speaker 3: And I just want to point that out because I
Speaker 3: think it's important. But why would you know, we kick
Speaker 3: off forty million dollars for the state every year on
Speaker 3: the banks and that's the Bengals, it's the Reds, it's
Speaker 3: the collective. But why should we be penalized for that
Speaker 3: when it comes to you know, funding these assets that
Speaker 3: have benefited the state all these years. I mean, that's
Speaker 3: just not right. And so the ski that they've come
Speaker 3: up with for the Hansloms doesn't fit what we're doing
Speaker 3: here in Hamilton County. And that's what we've said to
Speaker 3: the speaker. I mean he heard us loud and clear.
Speaker 3: And so we're still, you know, working with the state
Speaker 3: to try to come up with something that works for everybody.
Speaker 2: Is this contingent?
Speaker 1: Is this one hundred and eighty four million, two thirds
Speaker 1: from the Bengals slash NFL about and one third from
Speaker 1: the Hamilton County? Is this contingent on a long term,
Speaker 1: long term deal?
Speaker 3: Are you talking about the MoU? Are you talking about
Speaker 3: the large term?
Speaker 2: Yeah, heard the MoU.
Speaker 1: The one hundred and eighty four million announced more or
Speaker 1: less today, say about one twenty from the Bengals, about
Speaker 1: sixty four.
Speaker 2: From the county. Is that contingent on signing a long
Speaker 2: term deal? Or is that? Is that going to proceed?
Speaker 3: Nonetheless, it is proceeding now. But if we don't come
Speaker 3: to an agreement on a long term lease, then we
Speaker 3: can claw back and we can drop out of this
Speaker 3: deal that we just made. So we've got an hour
Speaker 3: clause in there. But you know, as you know, Lily,
Speaker 3: I'm an optimist and so I shouldn't be. And so
Speaker 3: right now we've been meeting with the Bengals. We're working
Speaker 3: this together. We're working in collaboration on this MU and
Speaker 3: also at the state level, and so you know, so far,
Speaker 3: so good. But we do have a provision in here
Speaker 3: that we can get out of it if need be.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, And so the Bengals fans to show up
Speaker 1: in August for a preseason game or September, that's only
Speaker 1: about five six months away. Will anything be seen at
Speaker 1: that point?
Speaker 3: Well, we're always doing renovations, but these projects that are
Speaker 3: in here, the reason we had to do it this
Speaker 3: week or next it's actually going to be next week
Speaker 3: is that there's so much lead time because of the
Speaker 3: nature of the projects. And so these projects are going
Speaker 3: to go online in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: Six, twenty twenty six, waiting are you twenty twenty six,
Speaker 1: which you know? Are you optimistic that the Bengals were
Speaker 1: not exercised a two year but rather seek long term deal.
Speaker 1: You're at the table, You're meeting with Katie and Troy,
Speaker 1: and I guess Mike Brown and others, the lawyers et
Speaker 1: cetera and Gableman. Are you optimistic the Bengals want to
Speaker 1: do a long term deal and not a stop gap.
Speaker 3: I am hopeful that we will come to a long
Speaker 3: term deal by the end of the deadline. That's what
Speaker 3: I'm now. They can exercise the extension of the current
Speaker 3: LEAs that is not good for the county or the taxpayers,
Speaker 3: and so I'm hopeful that we don't get to that point,
Speaker 3: but rather have a long term deal instead.
Speaker 1: When I spoke to you about ten days ago, you
Speaker 1: kind of said one third from the county, one third
Speaker 1: from the state, one third from the Bengal slash NFL.
Speaker 1: Is that still there? Because I sent on to Matt Huffin,
Speaker 1: by the way, the stories, and I'm sure you're in
Speaker 1: contact with him, But nonetheless, is that still the deal
Speaker 1: from your mind? One third state, one third Bengals, one
Speaker 1: third county.
Speaker 3: So we've always talked about this as a third to
Speaker 3: third a third. I mean, it's fluid, a little fluid.
Speaker 3: I mean, don't hold me to the exact numbers, but yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, I think that's the idea, that it's a
Speaker 3: stack that works for the taxpayers and works to make
Speaker 3: sure that facility is upgraded to the level we need
Speaker 3: it to be because it's not only about the games.
Speaker 3: It's about concerts and football games, high school football games
Speaker 3: and other events and making that thing more accessible. And
Speaker 3: so it's a good you know, it's it's it's something
Speaker 3: we need to do for the general public. But yeah,
Speaker 3: we've always talked about this in the third of thirty third,
Speaker 3: and that's what we're shooting for.
Speaker 1: The first phase is eight thirty renovation for the pay Corps,
Speaker 1: with three to four phases rolling out through twenty twenty nine.
Speaker 1: Anticipated a cost of a two hundred and ten million
Speaker 1: per phase. So when you talk about this phase in
Speaker 1: the MoU, this is one of four phases. Is that correct?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, and a good point that this is
Speaker 3: not money that's utilized all in one year. I mean,
Speaker 3: we can't. We don't have capacity to do that, and
Speaker 3: so it rolls out over five years or so, and
Speaker 3: so it's not and this is important to know about
Speaker 3: the state. It's not like we're asked in the state, hey,
Speaker 3: give us all of that money upfront to participate in
Speaker 3: this financial sect. It's a burn, right, it goes over
Speaker 3: a few years, and so yeah, that's the nature of
Speaker 3: what we're looking for here.
Speaker 1: Lastly, are you working toward the idea that the county
Speaker 1: will control the events more than the Bengals with the
Speaker 1: veto power. Will that veto power be gone?
Speaker 3: We are looking to get something in the new lease
Speaker 3: that gives us the ability to bring more events into
Speaker 3: that stadium to the benefit of the taxpayers. We're not
Speaker 3: doing it now, and we need to do it.
Speaker 1: And when will you sign the deal the MoU When
Speaker 1: will that be done?
Speaker 3: We're shooting for next Tuesday.
Speaker 1: Next Tuesday? All right, Denise, congratulations. We think is it
Speaker 1: premature to say congratulations?
Speaker 3: I want to say, Willie, this is a new look.
Speaker 3: We've never had the NFL give us any money for
Speaker 3: our stadium before, and the team's participating in a big
Speaker 3: way here, So yeah, I think it's good news.
Speaker 2: All right, Denise Dreehouse, thank you very much.
Speaker 1: I know you're in meetings, but thanks for coming on
Speaker 1: this afternoon of the Bill Cunningham Show.
Speaker 2: Denise, thank you very much. Thanks really God Bush, let's
Speaker 2: continue with more.
Speaker 1: Well, there it is, And you might recall when I
Speaker 1: had on Madam Adam Byrd. Sloaney had on Senator Blessing,
Speaker 1: then I had on the Speaker of the House. Then
Speaker 1: I had on the governor and this is fluid. Underline
Speaker 1: the word fluid, because in the governor's budget submitted to
Speaker 1: the House there was money for the Bengals and the
Speaker 1: House because of the increase in the so called syntaxes,
Speaker 1: the House took out the syntaxes. They're not in the
Speaker 1: business of increasing taxes and took out the Bengals deal.
Speaker 1: Matt Huffman was with you and I about a week
Speaker 1: ago in which he said, we're not going to put
Speaker 1: money into a deal unless the taxpayer breaks even. And
Speaker 1: based upon that more discussions are being held. And I
Speaker 1: guess then each tree Houses point is this that the
Speaker 1: Bengals deal was is fresh money, but don't hold out
Speaker 1: against Hamilety County be goes twenty five years ago, this
Speaker 1: would have been a fresh deal.
Speaker 2: Now this stadium needs to be upgraded.
Speaker 1: This is one hundred and eighty four million dollars one
Speaker 1: of four phases. And in the first phase NFL and
Speaker 1: the Bengals are putting up one hundred and twenty million
Speaker 1: and the county's putting up sixty four that's about two
Speaker 1: thirds on the Bengals and one third in the county.
Speaker 2: Is that good news? Many people think so.
Speaker 1: And the Bengals and the NFL and the Hamlet County
Speaker 1: and the city wants the state lawmakers to treat the
Speaker 1: Bengals in the city in an equitable and fair fashion
Speaker 1: compared to the compared to the Browns and Jimmy Hanslam.
Speaker 1: And you know, up to this point, we've not had
Speaker 1: much sway over Columbus because they don't think Cincinnati is
Speaker 1: part of the state. Almost and now it's just like
Speaker 1: Covington doesn't act as if Frankfort thinks they're part of Kentucky.
Speaker 1: But will continue. This is a positive. So much negativity
Speaker 1: running around, this is a positive. I'll let's continue with more.
Speaker 1: Bill Cunningham seven hundred WLW