Speaker 1: It's a thirty I had fifty five KRCD talk station
Speaker 1: kind of expected Jason Williams from The enquire to talk
Speaker 1: about the County Bengals name stadium funding. Joe has not
Speaker 1: been able to reach him at this point, so I
Speaker 1: just appreciate the frustrated look on Joe's face when that happened,
Speaker 1: since we had him lined up. Is he there now? No,
Speaker 1: I had a glimmer of hope there when the screen
Speaker 1: went read. Anyhow, I do have local stories to dive
Speaker 1: on into before we hear from Marine Gardner. She's going
Speaker 1: to talk about the twenty twenty five Harvey Chayette Spring Forum,
Speaker 1: which is designed the benefit the Parkinston's Support and Wellness Group,
Speaker 1: which is a wonderful group. Bob Letter, who's a friend
Speaker 1: of the show and the guy responsible for the Christmas
Speaker 1: tree ornament thing every Christmas time, is behind the relationship
Speaker 1: with the Parkinson's Group and the fifty five KRC Morning Show.
Speaker 1: So anyway, excuse me, we can get the local stories
Speaker 1: one thread the entire article a little, but suffice it
Speaker 1: to say, us Representative Greg Landsman and his wife Sarah
Speaker 1: had to dump hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of
Speaker 1: their corporate stocks, including shares and defense contractors in a
Speaker 1: tobacco company to our own conclusions on that. That's corny
Speaker 1: new Federal. Oh is he there now? Oh, Jason Williams,
Speaker 1: since I acquire welcome back to the fifty five careceone
Speaker 1: Morning show. A little worried about you there for a moment.
Speaker 2: Hey, Hey, Brian, how you doing.
Speaker 1: I'm doing fine. If I didn't live in Hamilton County,
Speaker 1: I'd feel a little bit better because I guess some
Speaker 1: of my tax dollars are going to be going to
Speaker 1: pay Course Stadium, probably not the full don't know the
Speaker 1: full amount yet, but Phase one suggests that I guess
Speaker 1: the county County's going to be on the hook for
Speaker 1: sixty four and a half million dollars of this phase
Speaker 1: one of the upgrades, and that's a total of one
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty five million dollars to improve pay Course Stadium.
Speaker 1: But the full four phases of it, I guess you
Speaker 1: got to get to phase four before you reach profit.
Speaker 1: I don't know eight hundred and thirty million total dollars.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I'm not a fan of tack spare dollars
Speaker 1: funding private sports owners. Playfields. So we'll start with that.
Speaker 1: What's your reaction with this is, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Much the same reaction that you had, Brian, were very
Speaker 2: very much think like on this, and I'm sure I
Speaker 2: feel like probably a lot of fifty five KRC listeners
Speaker 2: are shaking their head right now just to you know,
Speaker 2: it's just the the money Spiggott just continues to stay
Speaker 2: on for the Bengals and.
Speaker 3: I'm still trying to process this thing yesterday and it
Speaker 3: almost feels like a forced PR thing because it was
Speaker 3: an agreement and then announcement of an agreement of an agreement. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's like they announced that they have an agreement about
Speaker 3: an upcoming agreement and I'm like, to me, that just
Speaker 3: came off like they are trying to generate some good
Speaker 3: positive PR here. And the fact that the it came
Speaker 3: out to where in this phase again, you know, like
Speaker 3: you said, Brian, it's just it's phase one and I
Speaker 3: didn't know they were going to do this whole thing.
Speaker 2: In phases or whatever. But the fact that it.
Speaker 3: Right now, the numbers come out that the Bengals side
Speaker 3: are going to put one hundred and twenty million in
Speaker 3: and that the County side is going to do sixty four.
Speaker 3: It very much comes off like a pr thing like, well, wow,
Speaker 3: the Bengals are going to put more in than the
Speaker 3: county's going to put in. Yeah, double basically what they're
Speaker 3: going to put in. And so that's my read on it. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 3: let's say, look when you get out out, when this
Speaker 3: thing all is said and done and it gets out
Speaker 3: eight hundred and thirty million dollars, let's let's see how
Speaker 3: that that's what.
Speaker 1: We need to know Phase two that yeah, there's no
Speaker 1: way whatever Phase two, three, and four have hit it
Speaker 1: that the math is going to work out with the
Speaker 1: angles covering the lion's share of it in those next
Speaker 1: three phases. If I was a betting man, I put
Speaker 1: it all on that outcome. But you know, the funnier
Speaker 1: part about this, the Bengals are borrowing half of one
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty million that they're throwing in from the NFL.
Speaker 3: Well, that's exactly right. And you know again that's also
Speaker 3: another thing that's kind of being you know, it looks
Speaker 3: a little it's a little behind the scenes sort of
Speaker 3: thing that a lot of times when the Bengals are
Speaker 3: putting their own money in, it's there's always it's always
Speaker 3: kind of coming from somewhere else. I mean, they did
Speaker 3: some kind of upgrade to like the club level. I
Speaker 3: don't know, a couple of years ago. It's been in
Speaker 3: a recent memory. And you know, they made a big splash.
Speaker 3: We find out, you know, a lot of that money
Speaker 3: was coming from the concessionaire. Now, look, however the money's
Speaker 3: coming from is all just not coming out of my
Speaker 3: pocket or your pocket as Hamilton County taxpayers, okay, whatever,
Speaker 3: like private sector. So I've always said, like, you know,
Speaker 3: even when I write about them, now it's like I
Speaker 3: think the Bengals slash NFL slash private sector side of things,
Speaker 3: you know, need to need to come through with, you know,
Speaker 3: what they need to come through with. And uh and
Speaker 3: so that that what whatever whatever that is, and wherever
Speaker 3: it's coming from, if it's not coming from the taxpayers.
Speaker 3: And and when I say taxpayers, I mean not just
Speaker 3: Hamilton County taxpayers, but state taxpayers. Now, all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: we you know, and it's a whole other, you know,
Speaker 3: a whole other rabbit hole of this story, Brian, is
Speaker 3: that all of a sudden, there's this big you know
Speaker 3: push that you know, state government needs to be footing
Speaker 3: the bill and a big old chunk of money for
Speaker 3: these things. And it's like, where where is all where
Speaker 3: where's all.
Speaker 2: This coming from?
Speaker 3: You know, it's interesting to see all these trends, and
Speaker 3: it's like all of a sudden now that there's all
Speaker 3: big onus being put on the state.
Speaker 1: Well, why amen, six hundred million dollars coming from the
Speaker 1: state for the Cleveland Browns new mega complex. I mean
Speaker 1: it's a multi billion dollar thing that they're going to
Speaker 1: be building. And that really really frankly, you know, he
Speaker 1: used the words pisses me off, because it does. But
Speaker 1: that now we're turning to Columbus to get money for
Speaker 1: this monstrosity. Are these upgrades? They've already hit Hamilton County
Speaker 1: taxpayers up for it, and they are in this particular phase.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: And I you know, I am not always been much
Speaker 1: of a fan of Commissioner at Lisa Reese, but unlike
Speaker 1: the other two commissioners, she at least pointed out that
Speaker 1: the Bengals in the NFL should probably be footing the
Speaker 1: bill for the whole package. I love their quote that
Speaker 1: was reported they the Bengals got enough money. Forbes magazine
Speaker 1: said that referring to the recent news that Bengals under
Speaker 1: Mike Brown is among the nation's billionaires.
Speaker 3: Yeah, in the Bengalsapam, I wrote my column last week.
Speaker 3: I mean, the Bengals have money. And here's the thing.
Speaker 3: And again, it doesn't get. It wasn't very heavily reported.
Speaker 3: It doesn't get you know. I mean, it's just one
Speaker 3: of those kind of you know, things that get voted
Speaker 3: on at NFL meetings and you know, among many different things.
Speaker 3: But last year, the NFL owners voted that NFL teams
Speaker 3: are allowed to bring in like up to ten percent
Speaker 3: and private equity. So you know, that's just basically like, hey,
Speaker 3: you need more money, you know, you you need more
Speaker 3: money to help you know, do your business for stadium
Speaker 3: or for you know, however you run your football team. Well,
Speaker 3: you can now bring in a limited partner, a limited
Speaker 3: home or home elemited, a private equity firm of up
Speaker 3: to ten percent of the of the owners of you
Speaker 3: could own up to ten percent of the team. Well,
Speaker 3: guess what team voted against that. One team. One team
Speaker 3: voted against that. I have no idea why, because it's
Speaker 3: I don't understand. I don't know what the downside of
Speaker 3: that is. I don't let me let me post it
Speaker 3: could do that. They could. They have the ability even
Speaker 3: though they vote against it. It was voted and you
Speaker 3: know it was voted in, and so they could go
Speaker 3: out right now and get uh, you know, millions and millions.
Speaker 2: Of dollars in private equity.
Speaker 3: Money to help them. And but you know that would
Speaker 3: require them, you know, giving up you know, a little
Speaker 3: bit of you know, you know, or be a you know,
Speaker 3: a minority stake owner and the team.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, maybe they're afraid that Hamilton County would be
Speaker 1: that ten percent, that the county would then control part
Speaker 1: of the ownership and prevent it from ever leaving the
Speaker 1: city and take away that threat from the future. But
Speaker 1: moving away from that concept, Jason Williams, I can just
Speaker 1: ask a basic, simple question, do we really need all
Speaker 1: these upgrades? I mean, can you can you not play
Speaker 1: football on a blank in high school football field and
Speaker 1: actually get the game played? I mean, the size of
Speaker 1: the fields the same, the rules are the same. What's
Speaker 1: with all this glorified upgrades and all these amenities and
Speaker 1: bells and whistles, most notably in the boxes that people
Speaker 1: like you or maybe you get to go there. I
Speaker 1: don't go. I'm not invited to the boxes. I don't
Speaker 1: get any kind of special treatment. The vast majority of
Speaker 1: the the residents of the state of Ohio and the
Speaker 1: people live in the county are never going to see
Speaker 1: those boxes, right, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Mean the answer the answer to that is, I mean no,
Speaker 3: I mean that d do you really absolutely have to
Speaker 3: have that and certainly pay for that with taxpayer money? Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean the infrastructury things, that's you know what going on,
Speaker 3: uh well, heading on thirty years now, right, I guess
Speaker 3: opening the twenty five year twenty five year old building,
Speaker 3: it certainly is gonna you know, need need some of
Speaker 3: the one of the guts of the building.
Speaker 1: Upgraded, and all that maintenance and upkeep, maintenance and upkeep.
Speaker 1: There's no way maintenance. He comes up to thirty million dollars.
Speaker 3: And that means to me, see, I mean that stadium
Speaker 3: fund has been there all of that. Again, the stadium
Speaker 3: fund that the sales tax that we pay on our
Speaker 3: groceries and on everything we buy in Hamilton County. Uh,
Speaker 3: you know, half a cent of that goes right into
Speaker 3: that stadium fund. And that stadium fund is for ongoing
Speaker 3: maintenance and upkeep, and so what's been going on? And
Speaker 3: that's something that probably some intrepid reporter can dig into.
Speaker 3: It's like, well, you know, why, why is it like
Speaker 3: some of the stuff, you know, why isn't that continuing on?
Speaker 3: And I know some of it is, but it's like,
Speaker 3: all right, so then why then there is this bill
Speaker 3: so big? If that money is that that tens of
Speaker 3: millions of dollars is coming in every year to help
Speaker 3: pay awfully pay off the original debt but then still
Speaker 3: go towards maintenance and upkeep, you then turn around and think, way,
Speaker 3: thirty million dollars, well, that's more than double what the
Speaker 3: whole thing costs to build back in you.
Speaker 1: Know, the late nineties exactly. And it still functions and
Speaker 1: you can still play a game there, and there's no
Speaker 1: I'm not keep up with the Joneses attitude, I'm sorry
Speaker 1: has lost on me. You know, it's just well I.
Speaker 3: Agree with that, you know, and this whole notion that
Speaker 3: I mean, you go around the NFL and you go
Speaker 3: around ballparks and stadiums and all that, and it's just
Speaker 3: like there's just this you're right, there's this keeping up
Speaker 3: with the Joneses thing and it just seems that it
Speaker 3: seems to gall a little more here are a lot
Speaker 3: more here because of that original lease agreement. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: you know we're feeling it right now. You're seeing it.
Speaker 3: You're seeing some of those old wounds come back up.
Speaker 3: And I mean, yeah, there's been a lot of you know,
Speaker 3: a lot of letters to the editor of the Inquirer,
Speaker 3: and I know a lot of callers to iHeart radio stations,
Speaker 3: and you know, there's a lot there's some old hard
Speaker 3: feelings coming up now and the Bagles were trying to
Speaker 3: avoid that. And so that's why I go look at
Speaker 3: this thing that got announced yesterday. It's like it comes
Speaker 3: out like, Wow, the Bengals are gonna pay more. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you can you hit the nail on the head on
Speaker 3: probably ever. Yeah, for the first time, probably ever in
Speaker 3: this whole process, there's been a news story where it
Speaker 3: looks like the Bengals are going to pay more than
Speaker 3: the county.
Speaker 1: So wish we had more time. Jason. We'll have you
Speaker 1: back on to discuss this as phases two, three, and
Speaker 1: four get rolled out. But I'm glad to see you're
Speaker 1: on the same side of the ledger as most on
Speaker 1: most of my lesseners in me. God bless you. Jason
Speaker 1: William Cincinnati dot com to read Jason in The inquire