Cincinnati Bengals, Hamilton County Commissioners Agree on New Stadium Lease Days Before Deadline

CINCINNATI – The Hamilton County Commissioners announced an agreement on a new stadium lease with the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday morning.

The deal ends months of negotiations and pointed comments and fingers and will keep the Bengals playing at Paycor Stadium through at least 2036.

"To be clear, it's not perfect, but as often is the case in in tough negotiations, no one leaves the table thinking they got the perfect deal," Hamilton County Commissioner Administrator Jeff Aluotto said. "And I think as you'll hear, it's a better deal, a smarter deal than what was done under the previous lease.

"I'm hoping the team would concur with that," he added.

The agreement comes four days before the old lease, which was signed in 1997, was set to expire, although the Bengals could have opted into a two-year extension of the old lease, during which time they could have explored options for moving the team.

But relocating to any surrounding counties would have been a longshot given that it would have involved the construction of a new stadium that would have necessitated the Bengals paying a substantial portion of the cost.

And moving the team to a new city would have required approval from NFL owners.

It’s all moot after today’s meeting, as the Bengals will call Paycor home long after any of their current players’ contracts expire.

It's a 10-year extension that runs for the next 11 years. There will be two, five-year extension options.

While the extensions are voluntary for the Bengals, the first one will become automatic if the team reaches a top 24 ranking in NFL revenue.

Today's announcement comes after the two sides finalized a memorandum of understanding on stadium renovations reached in April.

Since then, the Bengals sent the county an offer to extend their current lease by five years, with the team contributing $125 million and the county contributing $308 million, per a report from the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Hamilton County made a counteroffer the following week that called for a 15-year lease with the team contributing $312.5 million and the county supplying $357.5 million.

The new lease reduced the amount of the renovations from $830 million to $470 million, of which $350 will come from the county and $120 from the team.

"The board's goal was clear," Aluotto said. "Keep the team in Hamilton County, to invest in the stadium to ensure it remains a viable asset, for the entire community, to improve the utilization of the stadium, to work with the team to craft a smarter lease that still works for both parties and to do so in a financially prudent manner."

The shared costs of those renovations could be offset by a portion of $400 million that was set aside in the final budget for the State of Ohio, which set aside the money for “other qualifying projects,” per a report from Daryl Ruiter of 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland.

The budget awarded $600 million to the Cleveland Browns for a new stadium in Brook Park, a Cleveland suburb.

If the Bengals apply for money earmarked for other qualifying projects, they likely wouldn’t receive all of the $400 million. But the line item in the budget indicates the state intends to spend that money.

With the stadium lease behind them, the Bengals can put all of their focus on their other negotiations that have been dragging for months – a new contract for Pro Bowl defensive end Trey Hendrickson and a first contract for rookie first-round pick Shemar Stewart.