With dueling stadium projects under way at either end of Ohio, football fans are bound to compare Cleveland's new home for the Browns and Hamilton County's new Paul Brown Stadium.
Before construction started on the Bengals' $400.3 million stadium complex, fans occasionally griped that the city's neighbors to the north were moving more quickly than notoriously slow Cincinnati. But Hamilton County officials argue there are sound reasons behind the fact that Cleveland's project is moving along faster than Cincinnati's.
For one, Cleveland's new stadium must be ready by Aug. 21, 1999, when NFL football will return to the city. That's a full year earlier than Paul Brown Stadium's scheduled August 2000 completion.
"Football in Cleveland is extraordinarily important. It's part of the social fabric of this community," said Bill Futterer, president of the Browns. "It was felt that the sooner those open wounds could be closed and the sooner the team would be back, the better."
Hamilton County was not trying to get a team back; it was working to forge a deal to keep the Bengals in town and to keep the area healthy financially. Officials here say one of the biggest differences between the two projects lies in the county's insistence on using a "guaranteed maximum price," or GMP, in construction planning. A GMP estimates the cost of every element of the project, down to bathroom fixtures and cup holders. The process guarantees that if the actual price is over the estimated budget, the extra expenses are the responsibility of the county's construction manager, not the county or the team.
Hamilton County wanted the GMP as insulation from the cost overruns that have dogged the Cleveland project, Hamilton County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus said.
"It's a painful process to go through, but it's one that really pays off," Mr. Bedinghaus said.
Cleveland officials had lengthy discussions with the city's architectural and engineering team about using a GMP process, said Diane Downing, stadium project manager.
"But in order to meet our deadline . . . we were told it would not be possible to have a guaranteed maximum price and meet that time frame," she said.
Indeed, the GMP process proved even lengthier than Hamilton County officials anticipated. Hamilton County hoped to have a GMP late last fall. The county and team finally settled on one in April.
While Cleveland's stadium project has had published cost overruns of about $13 million so far -- which the NFL recently agreed to absorb -- all of Hamilton County's construction bids to date have been under budget, Mr. Bedinghaus likes to point out.
The Bengals tried to push Hamilton County to bypass a GMP process and move faster on the stadium project, said Troy Blackburn, the team's director of stadium development.
"When we walked away from that negotiating table, we lost a lot of money not being able to play the 1999 season in the new stadium," he said, estimating that loss at more than $20 million.
Mr. Blackburn describes Hamilton County's as a more "cautious" approach, adding, "I think reasonable minds could come down on either side of that coin."
Mr. Bedinghaus said the county's decision to use a GMP reflects the conservative way the county does business.
"We weighed the two issues. What do we get by moving quicker?" Mr. Bedinghaus said. Ultimately, the county chose to go with a GMP. "When you're entering into these kinds of multimillion-dollar projects, they are either failures or successes; not during construction, but during the planning process," he said.
Mr. Bedinghaus said he takes some lumps from the public over the cost of the $400.3 million Bengals stadium complex, especially as compared to Cleveland's projected $247 million price tag.
The two designs are strikingly similar, although they were done by different architects. Cleveland's stadium is a bit bigger, with 72,000 seats, compared with Cincinnati's 66,965.
But Cleveland did not have to buy land for its stadium. In fact, the new Browns stadium is being built on the same lakefront spot where the old stadium used to sit. City officials simply knocked down the old stadium and started building.
Hamilton County's land costs totalled about $68 million.
Cleveland did not have to include flood protection in its lakefront design, which Hamilton County officials argue added to the cost of the Bengals riverfront stadium.
Cleveland's deal also did not include new practice facilities for the Browns. Hamilton County will build three full-size fields on the riverfront and a practice facility for the team, at a cost of $10.5 million.
Mr. Bedinghaus also tells people that Cleveland does not yet know exactly what its stadium will cost because of its overruns. Cleveland Mayor Michael White, who has always pledged to bring in the stadium project on time and on budget, has pegged the overruns at about $13 million. Some members of Cleveland City Council argue the overruns are closer to $24 million.
Cleveland's stadium is more than one-third complete. In the coming weeks, the city will open its final bids for the project and then announce the final overrun figures.
While some fans remain stunned by the $400.3 million cost of the Hamilton County project, Mr. Bedinghaus said county officials do not expect to be unpleasantly surprised by their bids.
Even with all the differences between the projects, there is one important similarity: Both communities are counting on state funds to complete the stadiums.
The state pledged to give Cleveland $22 million and to give Hamilton County $30 million. Both communities have been told that funding is in limbo because of the recent defeat of the statewide sales tax increase for schools.
While proceeds of that sales tax would not have been used for stadiums, lawmakers have said they might now have to spend the money earmarked for stadiums and other community projects on schools. There's plenty of unspoken competition between Cleveland and Hamilton County about which community will have the best stadium once both are finished. But when it comes to the state money, the two communities are allies, Mr. Bedinghaus said.
"Kind of quietly, we're rooting them on for their money because we know we'll get our money when they get their money," he said. Ms. Downing said the rivals also share the common experience of simply making such massive projects come to life.
"I know how hard the team here is working to build a good facility that will return the Browns to the playing field by Aug. 21, 1999," she said. "It's not easy. I salute my counterparts."
