Hamilton County has hit its most important football stadium cost target after months of sometimes tense negotiations with the Bengals. The target, known as a guaranteed maximum price, or GMP, is $288 million, according to county documents obtained by the Enquirer through the state's public records act.
That cost covers the $270 million stadium itself; the team's three riverfront practice fields and practice facilities, at a cost of $10 million; and other costs such as carpeting, furniture in luxury suites and equipment, such as popcorn poppers.
The number was never intended to equal the total project cost of $400.3 million, which also includes land costs, abatement of hazardous materials, demolition and off-site roads and utilities. That's because the project manager -- who guarantees the GMP -- can't be responsible for overruns on those costs.
Hamilton County Commission President Tom Neyer Jr., a developer, said the public shouldn't underestimate the importance of bringing in the GMP on budget.
"Not only is it the largest number (in the project), it's also the area with the biggest potential for cost variances because it's the structure itself," he said.
Mr. Neyer and County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus said they're confident the total budget cost -- the widely reported $400.3 million -- will come in on budget, too.
The other budget items that add up to the $400.3 million figure are far less complicated, Mr. Neyer said.
The county has spent about $5 million more than has been budgeted for land costs, Mr. Bedinghaus said. But because construction bids have come in lower than expected -- with one recent bid coming in $2 million under budget -- officials think the project can absorb that amount, he said.
There also are county commitments -- such as building an Elm Street that curves around the stadium -- that aren't in the $400.3 million budget. Mr. Bedinghaus argues those costs are related more to riverfront development than the stadium.
The final GMP document won't be ready for another couple weeks, but a new amendment to the Bengals' stadium lease with the county makes reference to the GMP figures. Commissioners likely will approve the amendment Monday.
In the lease amendment, the county gets additional concessions from the team. For instance, the county will pay the team $2 million in penalties, rather than $4 million per game, if the stadium isn't ready for each of the first two games of the 2000 season.
The Bengals also agreed to allow the county to use 1,100 parking spaces east of the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge to meet the team's parking requirements. That's a victory for the county because the team's 5,000 spaces can then be spread over more land.
Correspondence between the team and the county and preliminary figures obtained by the Enquirer show the project's initial GMP in November was $355 million -- $64 million over budget.
While the county has been criticized as giving the team too sweet a deal, Mr. Bedinghaus said the county had strong leverage during GMP talks.
"It was very simple," he said. "If they couldn't meet those (budget) numbers, we weren't going to build it."
The team was clearly irked with some suggestions.
In a letter dated Feb. 25, Troy Blackburn, the team's director of stadium development, questioned whether the county was overpaying the project's construction manager and design team at the expense of the stadium structure itself.
"This deal has worsened for us every month that we have been operating under it, and now that the city's histrionics are out of the way, that trend will stop," Mr. Blackburn wrote.
The fees detailed in the county's latest budget are included in the GMP and are lower than when the Bengals complained.
Mr. Blackburn conceded that "from time to time" the team and county had differences.
"But the club and county have worked together to get a budget that maintains the project's schedule, keeps the project on budget and fairly resolves differences," he said.
The county cut $20 million from the $64 million difference when the team and county started using the same cost estimates, Mr. Neyer said.
The sides also agreed to cut the grade of some finishes, he said. "You can have $20-a-yard carpet or $50-a-yard carpet, but both are installed with the same quality," he said.
The process also included reducing the project's contingency fund, for use if something is more expensive than expected.
That was a county concession to the team, Mr. Blackburn said. The county initially wanted to maintain a higher contingency, but the team argued the design was so far along that it wasn't necessary. The GMP includes a contingency of $6.5 million, or roughly 2 percent of direct construction costs.
Mr. Bedinghaus added that savings the county realizes as it bids out the project will help boost the contingency.
From the start, the county has put great faith in the GMP process, saying that a GMP offers taxpayers insurance that they won't be reading headlines in the coming years about cost overruns.
The GMP doesn't make the construction manager liable for everything. If the work site floods, making it cost more to complete on time, that's a cost the county would bear, Mr. Neyer said.
In addition, if either the county or team requests more expensive changes in the project during construction, the construction manager doesn't have to absorb those added expenses, he said.
Mr. Bedinghaus acknowledges that the real cost of the stadium won't be known until after it's completed in August 2000.
"It'll be what it will be, and people really won't be able to judge us until the end of the project," he said. "We feel cautiously optimistic that we're going to be successful in bringing it on time and on budget."
