Speaker 1: All right, Billy cunning in the Great American Welcome. This
Speaker 1: floor is Tuesday afternoon in the Tri State Reds Baseball
Speaker 1: believe it or not. Off today they have a three
Speaker 1: game set against the Houston but it's Monday, and then
Speaker 1: off today they're still in town and then Wednesday Thursday
Speaker 1: Business Special and Bengals of course starred on Sunday Jamar Chase.
Speaker 1: As of this a moment is not signed. We'll see
Speaker 1: what happens down the road. But the person more or
Speaker 1: less in charge of the Bengals new stadium as far
Speaker 1: as the taxpayer contribution is Alisha Reese and she's joining
Speaker 1: you and I now this Tuesday afternoon. Alisha, welcome again
Speaker 1: to the Bill Cunningham Show. And there's been some reporting
Speaker 1: that you had a meeting with Governor Mike Dwine on
Speaker 1: Friday afternoon, and I would imagine this subject came up
Speaker 1: of the state funding of the Bengals stadium. Can you
Speaker 1: tell the American people the results of that and where
Speaker 1: we go from here?
Speaker 2: Yes, well, Willie, thanks for having me back on. It
Speaker 2: was started off as a rough day.
Speaker 3: My Facebook page has been hacked and so I was
Speaker 3: dealing with that trying to get Mark Zuckerberg to shut
Speaker 3: this mess down. But then I said I had to
Speaker 3: go because I had to get to a meeting with
Speaker 3: the governor. And he came and met with myself. Jeff
Speaker 3: Aluno was in the meeting, our attorneys as well as
Speaker 3: his top folks from around the state that deals with
Speaker 3: the budget and financing. And it was very important to
Speaker 3: us to have a meeting with the governor because you know,
Speaker 3: as you well know Cleveland, they had headlines saying Cleveland
Speaker 3: ownership and Cleveland folks were meeting elected officials as well.
Speaker 3: They're county folks meeting about the stadium in Cleveland. And
Speaker 3: coming from the state legislature where I serve for eight
Speaker 3: and a half years, I know that a lot of
Speaker 3: the money always goes up north and we get the crops.
Speaker 3: And I said, wait a minute, we've got to get
Speaker 3: a meeting we're the governor, so that we can get
Speaker 3: to the table early and not be stuck with the crumbs.
Speaker 3: So anyway, I had a meeting with him on Friday.
Speaker 3: Of course, so what are the first things I talked
Speaker 3: to him about. I said, wait a minute, we've got
Speaker 3: to get these property taxes down. As you know, I've
Speaker 3: been trying to get him to put a freeze on
Speaker 3: property taxes so they can get it the reevaluation mess
Speaker 3: put together in the legislature. But I did tell them,
Speaker 3: I said, I've been calling you. I've got to get
Speaker 3: these property taxes down. So that was the first thing
Speaker 3: I said. But then we talked about the Bengals Stadium
Speaker 3: belief that's going to be up in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 3: We're the first lease in the state that will be
Speaker 3: up before the Browns. But then also letting them know
Speaker 3: that we also have the RADS lease will be ten
Speaker 3: years right after that, and so we need to come
Speaker 3: with some type of funding model. We're the only deal
Speaker 3: in the.
Speaker 2: Entire country that has a lease that is at.
Speaker 3: Ninety five percent all the costs on the local taxpayers
Speaker 3: and only five percent on the ownership. There's no other
Speaker 3: deal in the country, and I don't even think they're
Speaker 3: offering those type of deals from what I've seen, and
Speaker 3: told them that we really got to work out of
Speaker 3: this because the average cost is about thirty three percent
Speaker 3: of local taxpayer money and the other that's what other
Speaker 3: states are doing.
Speaker 2: But when you get to Cincinnati, where.
Speaker 3: At ninety five percent, and we got a stadium that's
Speaker 3: that's in good shape, but as it gets older, you know,
Speaker 3: it's like an old car when you don't have the warranty.
Speaker 3: You certainly don't want the engine to go out, and
Speaker 3: you're stuck with repairing the engine, you know.
Speaker 2: So we were able to.
Speaker 3: Articulate that to him and also talk about like we're
Speaker 3: cut ahead of of what Cleveland's trying to do or
Speaker 3: what they potentially are proposing they're to propose.
Speaker 2: You know, he said, well could you could you, you know,
Speaker 2: do a.
Speaker 3: Tiff in the area. Well, they're going to the area
Speaker 3: they're looking at moving and going to an area that
Speaker 3: is underdeveloped. We're we're developing, have developed the banks, and
Speaker 3: we're using tiff dollars we've used on the.
Speaker 2: Parking we also used.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, and I was not in favor of this, we
Speaker 3: took one of our tools off the table by giving
Speaker 3: away our hotel, motel tax, all of that going to
Speaker 3: uh the convention center face list. I was against that
Speaker 3: because that's a tool the Tennessee used and we needed
Speaker 3: we needed to keep that on the table as well.
Speaker 2: So I thought it was a good meeting.
Speaker 3: I thought it was very important because he said I
Speaker 3: had not heard from Cincinnati. I said, well, you hear
Speaker 3: it from us now, because we can't let Cleveland get
Speaker 3: all the all the funds and where where with the crumbs.
Speaker 2: So I thought it was a very good meeting and.
Speaker 3: We were able to show the we've got a master
Speaker 3: plan that mister Ludo said will have showed to the
Speaker 3: public in the next two weeks. We're looking at two
Speaker 3: weeks to be able to show that and what this
Speaker 3: thing is really going to cost. Well, we got to
Speaker 3: get to the exits and o's and we've got to
Speaker 3: come with something that will be both Cincinnati and Cleveland.
Speaker 3: I don't think we'll be able to do any type
Speaker 3: of deal that will be a loaner deal, but we
Speaker 3: got to dig out of.
Speaker 2: As hole, and it's a pretty big hole.
Speaker 3: It's because the tax players have spoken that you know,
Speaker 3: we've got we can't have this type of deal with
Speaker 3: we Well.
Speaker 1: Alisha rees I met with John Baron on other issues
Speaker 1: on Friday. He pointed out to me the chairman CEO
Speaker 1: of Western Southern that you see, for example, has eighty
Speaker 1: percent of the attendance of Ohio State, but gets twenty
Speaker 1: percent of the money that Ohio State gets so Cincinnati
Speaker 1: and Covington wall. If you're Covington deals with Frankfurt and
Speaker 1: Cincinnati deals with Columbus. Both of them are short at
Speaker 1: repeatedly from Columbus, don't have the steams, don't have the power.
Speaker 1: The money goes to Columbus and Cleveland. Now, according to
Speaker 1: the Gensler report, the report that put together the stadium
Speaker 1: means about four hundred and ninety five, say, five hundred
Speaker 1: million dollars in improvements, and the Bengals have already put
Speaker 1: up about one hundred and twenty million. Do you have
Speaker 1: a sense that the Bengals lease, which is up in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, have they extended the lease yet for
Speaker 1: another five years?
Speaker 2: Yes? Or no?
Speaker 3: Have they not? At this point that is an option
Speaker 3: under this old deal. And as I talked to you before,
Speaker 3: you know that old deal was a really good deal
Speaker 3: for the Bengals because you know, lew else in the
Speaker 3: country's got a ninety five percent of the local taxpayers
Speaker 3: paying all the Beals and then they get all the revenue,
Speaker 3: and nobody else has those kind of deals. So you
Speaker 3: know that is a very I mean, if you're the Bengals,
Speaker 3: that's you know that's a good deal for you you're.
Speaker 2: The ownership of the Bengals.
Speaker 3: If you're the taxpayers, it's a terrible deal what we've
Speaker 3: been trying to do if you're looking at getting a
Speaker 3: new lease. I wasn't there for the original deal, and
Speaker 3: there were some other commissioners that were there and signed
Speaker 3: off and signed away the money of the taxpayers and
Speaker 3: handcuffed future county commissions. So when I show up, I
Speaker 3: got an old lease that I'm tied to and we're
Speaker 3: trying to get out of it, and we've got to
Speaker 3: get a new lease. And i'd like to see if
Speaker 3: you're what you're saying around the country is fifty to
Speaker 3: fifty partnerships and you're seeing the upkeep off the backs
Speaker 3: of the taxpayers.
Speaker 2: You know, we like to see.
Speaker 3: Something like that. But you know, also, as you know,
Speaker 3: the NFL allowed for an equity component. Had our team
Speaker 3: voted no, our team ownership voted no. They don't want
Speaker 3: equity because they saw that as a way because the
Speaker 3: NFL is also having requirements for stadiums to to you know,
Speaker 3: look a certain way.
Speaker 2: And so you know, when they come in.
Speaker 3: With this this deal, this this one hundred and twenty million. Uh,
Speaker 3: you know, my my questions that I'm going to pass
Speaker 3: those questions in public in a public forum. That one
Speaker 3: hundred and twenty million that's being mentioned, is.
Speaker 2: That on ticket sales?
Speaker 3: Is that on season ticket holders? Is that only six
Speaker 3: how much is coming from the NFL? You know because
Speaker 3: or is it only sixty million coming from the NFL
Speaker 3: and sixty million from you know, season ticket holders? You know.
Speaker 3: So we've got we've got to get down to the
Speaker 3: to the nitty gritty. You could throw numbers around all
Speaker 3: day long. That's what happened with the taxpayers. They went
Speaker 3: to the polls, voted for two stadiums, right, but then
Speaker 3: they got screwed behind the They got screwed in all
Speaker 3: the fine print in the least well, Mike.
Speaker 1: Mike Brown beats the irs and tax score. Mike Mike
Speaker 1: Brown knows that going back thirty some years you were
Speaker 1: probably too young at the time, but there was such
Speaker 1: a feeling in nineteen ninety four, nineteen ninety five, Mike
Speaker 1: Brown goes to Baltimore, comes back here. Okay, we voted,
Speaker 1: but the devil's in the details, the devils and actually
Speaker 1: who pays the upkeep? Here we are now, and do
Speaker 1: you have a sense that Bengals. I guess you're dealing
Speaker 1: more with Katie Blackburn than you're dealing with Mike Brown.
Speaker 1: He's almost ninety years old, for God's sakes. But do
Speaker 1: you have a sense that the Bengals are going to
Speaker 1: be willing to have like a fifty to fifty split,
Speaker 1: much less thirty three sixty seven? Do you have a
Speaker 1: sense that they're going to agree to have the Bengals
Speaker 1: and the county I have a fifty to fifty split
Speaker 1: or is that a pipe dream?
Speaker 3: Well, I think coming out of a ninety five percent
Speaker 3: five percent deal that would be tough, that.
Speaker 2: Would be ideal.
Speaker 3: But that doesn't mean that we don't go to the table.
Speaker 3: I mean, when you start negotiating, you never come in
Speaker 3: negotiating from the compromising position. You've got to go in
Speaker 3: and our client is the tax Now, let me say this.
Speaker 2: I am a huge Bengal fan. People know I love sports.
Speaker 3: I'm pushing for a youth amateur sports facility that would
Speaker 3: be privately owned, but would be something that we can
Speaker 3: bring in amateur youth sports ninety three billion dollar industry.
Speaker 3: We're losing out. I love sports. However, when I am elected.
Speaker 3: I'm elected on behalf of the taxpayers of Hamilton County,
Speaker 3: and we've got to be very we've got to understand it.
Speaker 3: I don't think the people who were in office during
Speaker 3: that time as county commissioners, no one was there on
Speaker 3: behalf of the taxpayers. Everybody was at the table, and
Speaker 3: it was a lump sided situation. And I'm saying that
Speaker 3: as we know to the table, I'm going as here's
Speaker 3: what the taxpayers. You know, what's the best deal for
Speaker 3: the taxpayers? How do we come out of there with
Speaker 3: a win win?
Speaker 2: And I'm willing.
Speaker 3: If people say, well, this is not what the people want,
Speaker 3: I'm willing to take it to the ballot and hear
Speaker 3: directly from the peace.
Speaker 1: Now without happening in Kansas City, you might you know,
Speaker 1: the Chiefs went to the went to the people in
Speaker 1: Kansas City. Is the dominant franchise not just in Missouri
Speaker 1: or Kansas, but maybe in the entire nation. When the
Speaker 1: Kansas City Chiefs taxpayers after they won two consecutive Super Bowls,
Speaker 1: went to the ballot a few months ago, how what
Speaker 1: the taxpayers say in Kansas City.
Speaker 3: Well, the taxpayer said no, they had to go back
Speaker 3: to the drawing board.
Speaker 1: And now they might move but.
Speaker 3: Well, we'll we'll see what happens with with that situation.
Speaker 2: But I my goal is we like to keep our
Speaker 2: teams here. We want to get a better deal. And
Speaker 2: there are.
Speaker 3: More tools that weren't available then that are available now.
Speaker 3: The NFL's got to put a lot more skin in
Speaker 3: the game like they're doing around in other other other areas. Uh,
Speaker 3: you know, and we just can't do the ninety five
Speaker 3: five percent now on the same lease. They have an extension.
Speaker 3: They have not indicated whether.
Speaker 2: Or not they're going to utilize it.
Speaker 3: But I think we're preparing just to try to go
Speaker 3: to the table and see if we're going to do
Speaker 3: a new lease, then we've got to get some we've
Speaker 3: got to get some things changed or be able to taxpayers.
Speaker 3: I mean, will these people are out here trying to
Speaker 3: hang on to their homes right now, right you know,
Speaker 3: they're getting killed out of here.
Speaker 2: They're trying to hang on to their homes.
Speaker 3: They're trying to be able to buy eggs and bacon,
Speaker 3: you know, if they want to be able to hold
Speaker 3: on to the stadium, but they also want to be
Speaker 3: able to hold on to their homes, and as you know,
Speaker 3: one of the things they advertised.
Speaker 2: But never put in the lease. They never put it.
Speaker 3: In writing, but they advertised that the people were supposed
Speaker 3: to get a thirty percent privaby tax rebate. They were
Speaker 3: supposed to be a win for the homeowners and a
Speaker 3: win for the team as well, and the homeowners got
Speaker 3: the taxpayers and homeowners got screwed.
Speaker 2: It never happened, but three times in twenty plus years.
Speaker 3: I was elected twenty twenty, came in in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2: I was able to get in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3: But every year it's a struggle because we have to
Speaker 3: vote on it every year. It's a struggle, and you know,
Speaker 3: the taxpayers are not getting what they were promised. Everything
Speaker 3: else was in writing, and I'm trying to get the
Speaker 3: taxpayers to get their stuff in writing, so now everybody
Speaker 3: has a fair deal. So that's what we're trying to do.
Speaker 3: I'm hopeful. I've asked the administrator and I think two
Speaker 3: weeks we'll get to the master plan that was asked
Speaker 3: before I got elected. They started on this master plan
Speaker 3: and they're supposed to give it to us. But my
Speaker 3: thing is to the administrator. There is a proposal that
Speaker 3: you know, they've talked about an executive session, so I
Speaker 3: can't talk about it. But I'm trying to get stuff
Speaker 3: out of executive session, out into the open, get a
Speaker 3: timeline for the taxpayers, so we don't have what happened
Speaker 3: last time, where a lot of meetings behind the closed doors,
Speaker 3: behind the curtains, and the taxpayers got screwed for I
Speaker 3: wanted out O.
Speaker 1: At least you're Race County Commissioner. Are you ready for
Speaker 1: the big question?
Speaker 2: Uh? Oh, what is it? Willy?
Speaker 1: Are you willing to let the Bengals leave Cincinnati if
Speaker 1: the taxpayer doesn't get a good deal.
Speaker 3: I always start a negotiation in a pot of light.
Speaker 2: We want to.
Speaker 3: Keep the Bengals.
Speaker 2: We would love to keep them here at any costs,
Speaker 2: at any cost.
Speaker 1: Well, you keep them at any cost?
Speaker 2: Well I would. I don't think. I don't think. I
Speaker 2: don't go in thinking at any costs.
Speaker 3: Everybody has a part where we've got to say that
Speaker 3: this is this is the max.
Speaker 2: But we ain't.
Speaker 3: We haven't gotten there yet. But at the same time,
Speaker 3: don't want the people are able to keep their homes, so.
Speaker 2: We've got to we haven't gone to the.
Speaker 3: Table, so I can't really say what we would do
Speaker 3: because we haven't gone to the table. I haven't had
Speaker 3: a meeting at the table with their lawyers and our lawyers.
Speaker 3: We had a meeting with the governor to try to
Speaker 3: see if we can get some additional funds at.
Speaker 2: The state level, but I haven't met with I haven't
Speaker 2: met with Roger Goodell.
Speaker 3: I'd like to meet with Roger Goodell before we get
Speaker 3: to that point and find out.
Speaker 2: You know, why is the NFL not given more to us?
Speaker 3: They told us we couldn't have a watch party in
Speaker 3: our own stadium, so he's got to put in some
Speaker 3: more skin in the game.
Speaker 1: Here's a big question here. We are Tuesday afternoon. Are
Speaker 1: you saying that you and your lawyers have not sat
Speaker 1: down at the table yet with Kadie Blackburn and their
Speaker 1: lawyers to hammer out a deal. You haven't got to
Speaker 1: the point of even having a meeting yet in person.
Speaker 1: Is that fair to say?
Speaker 2: It's fair to.
Speaker 3: Say that I am not, as the president of the
Speaker 3: County Commission, been in a meeting with their lawyers and
Speaker 3: our lawyers. I don't know if they've been tiptoeing behind
Speaker 3: the scenes, but as far as from my perspective. I'd
Speaker 3: like to have the same meeting I had with the governor, right,
Speaker 3: you're eyeball to eyeball, and then find out also what's
Speaker 3: going on with this NFL piece. But I'm saying, you
Speaker 3: know the deal we got right now, if I had
Speaker 3: to go and vote on it, the voters would not
Speaker 3: want me to vote on this particular lease. Now they
Speaker 3: have more options to keep it going.
Speaker 2: And I don't know where they where.
Speaker 3: They are on that.
Speaker 1: It begins with a meeting. It begins with to sit
Speaker 1: down with the power brokers at one table, sitting and
Speaker 1: working out the deal. And you're saying, that has not
Speaker 1: happened yet. And the time you know, they're going to
Speaker 1: push up to the water the last minute, and then
Speaker 1: here's the deal, take it or leave it at Leasta Reese,
Speaker 1: thank you, you're like the taxpayer watchdog. Once again, thank
Speaker 1: you for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. Good luck
Speaker 1: and try to get to mar Chase signed by Sunday
Speaker 1: at one o'clock. Alisia Reese, thank you very much. Get
Speaker 1: them signed all right, Thank you, Alicia, thank you. Let's
Speaker 1: continue with more. There it is Alisha rees the present
Speaker 1: into the commission, says any deal will be approved by
Speaker 1: the taxpayer, and that makes the Bengals very very very unhappy.
Speaker 1: Bill Cunningham News Radio seven hundred ww