Bengals President Mike Brown says the city of Cincinnati ''has refused to live up to its word'' in a letter the team is sending to business leaders and elected officials to defend its stadium deal with Hamilton County.
He argues that the city risks scuttling the team's $400.3 million stadium complex by refusing to transfer about 10 acres of city-controlled land to Hamilton County. The Bengals' Paul Brown Stadium is supposed to sit on that land.
''More than two years ago, the city promised to Hamilton County that it would fully cooperate in the transfer of whatever land it owned that was necessary for the stadiums,'' he wrote. ''To date the city has refused to live up to its word. The time has come for us to move forward as a community.''
Deputy City Manager Richard Mendes said Friday the city is ''as anxious as anyone to get moving on this.'' But county officials also must live up to commitments they have made regarding riverfront development, he said.
The city and county continue to negotiate a riverfront development agreement. The county wants the city land for the stadium. The city wants the county to pay for some riverfront infrastructure, including $14 million toward the city's $120.5 million overhaul of Fort Washington Way.
In Mr. Brown's letter, a version of which appears in today's Enquirer, he also takes on Mayor Roxanne Qualls for a quote that appeared in an Enquirer editorial Dec. 20.
She was quoted as saying, ''Some people are saying this is the worst deal ever entered into by any government with a private entity in the history of this country.''
Mr. Brown replies in his letter: ''Such a statement is uninformed and wrong.''
His letter says the Bengals' contribution to the stadium deal will be larger than at least five of the last seven NFL stadium contracts. He estimates the Bengals will contribute between $44 million and $50 million to the stadium project.
That contribution consists of an estimated $31 million from the sale of charter ownership agreements, which fans buy to secure the right to buy season tickets. It also includes the $11.7 million the team will pay in rent over the life of the stadium lease and a total of about $4 million the county will collect over the life of the lease from a 25-cent ticket surcharge.
Ms. Qualls was traveling Friday and could not be reached for comment.
While the team viewed her Dec. 20 comment as ''irresponsible,'' it isn't the reason for the letter, said Troy Blackburn, Bengals director of stadium development.
''We're about to hit the two-minute warning on this project,'' Mr. Blackburn said. ''You don't wait until the whistle blows to kick a field goal to win the game.''
Though there has been public outcry over the cost of the stadium project, Mr. Brown argued the $270 million price of the stadium itself isn't out of line with other NFL stadiums if the cost of the other stadiums is adjusted for the year 2000, when the Bengals stadium is scheduled to open.
Mr. Brown also argued that the overall $400.3 million cost of the stadium complex includes millions of dollars for riverfront land that ultimately will be used for parks, restaurants, shops and other attractions and some infrastructure improvements that will benefit other developments. The county has budgeted about $50 million for land. The county wants to own riverfront land stretching from the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge to the stadium itself, which will sit roughly between Elm Street and Central Avenue, with a curved Pete Rose Way to the north and Mehring Way to the south.
City and county leaders envision eventual parks and businesses on the land between the suspension bridge and Elm Street. The county expects to use the land for temporary parking lots when the stadium opens.
The county also must buy land west of the stadium for the team's three riverfront practice fields.
Mr. Brown's letter argues the half-cent sales-tax increase that Hamilton County voters approved last year to fund stadium construction was an expression of ''landslide approval'' for the stadium and a ''vision for a dynamic downtown and riverfront.''
''Today we stand on the threshold of claiming that vision, but there are still those who would deny the community that victory. To make sure the community wins, we need the help of clear-thinking citizens who want this project to move forward,'' he writes.
The Bengals already have sent Mr. Brown's letter to Ohio Gov. George Voinovich. In the coming days, the team will send the letter to those who have leased luxury suites in the new stadium, Greater Cincinnati business leaders and media. The team plans to send the letter to its thousands of season-ticket holders, too.
Brown's letter
Major League Sanity presses for cap on costs
Bengals increase ticket prices
