The NFL team will be playing in Cincinnati through 2036,
It appears that the ownership of the National Football League Cincinnati Bengals franchise and Hamilton County, Ohio lawmakers have cut a 10-year deal that would renovate the Cincinnati football venue and keep the business in Cincinnati until 2036. This ends the stadium issue for a few years anyway. Sometime around 2034, Bengals ownership has an option to renew the lease five times, two years at a time through 2046. The estimated cost of the renovation is $470 million with Hamilton County’s contribution capped at $350 million with the Bengals ownership putting up $120 million. It is unclear if the state of Ohio will kick in some money in the Cincinnati project but Ohio lawmakers plan to give the Cleveland Browns ownership $600 million seed money to build an NFL stadium-village in Brook Park just outside of Cleveland.
The two sides have spent years discussing extending the lease but the talks seemed to have been moving at a snail’s pace. The Bengals business Vice President Katie Blackburn said “We could, I guess, go wherever we wanted after this year” meaning 2025. In 2023, Blackburn said, “I think we have a great stadium. Our stadium has been a great asset to the area, and we think if we can keep it up to a certain level, it can serve us well for a while longer. It’s a big project.” The new lease requires the Bengals ownership to pay rent, the first three years of the lease the Bengals owners will pay $1 million in rent and by the fourth year, that payment will increase to $2 million. The Bengals ownership will receive 93% of parking revenue, with the county collecting the rest. But the county can book the stadium for events other than football. So ends the saga of the Cincinnati stadium game for the time being. The stadium game never ends.
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