By Carl Weiser
Enquirer Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Don't look for advertising banners in the skies above Bengals or Reds games this year. Those banners are now banned.

A provision slipped into a 4,200-page spending bill prohibits banner-towing aircraft from flying over major sporting events for the next year. President Bush was expected to sign the bill late Thursday.

"This is common-sense legislation that will protect the public and provide them with the peace of mind that they are safe from the skies while at the stadium," said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., who sponsored the provision.

"I think anything to help the security of our country is a good idea," said Rob Butcher, the Cincinnati Reds' director of media relations.

Most Bengals officials were inspecting possible draft picks at a National Football League meeting in Indianapolis and were not available for comment, Bengals spokesman P.J. Combs said.

Pilots say the provision has nothing to do with security and everything to do with lobbying from sports leagues and teams, which get no revenue from those advertisements above their games.

"It's probably going to put us out of business," said George "Bud" Newhouse, president of High Signs Aerial Advertising at Lunken Airport.

About 80 percent of his company's business comes from towing banners over football and baseball games.

Banner companies charge $200 to $400 to tow a banner, usually for about six laps or half an hour around a stadium.

"They call us ambush advertisers," he said. The teams gripe that they bring in the crowds and the banner companies cash in without paying the teams.

"This has no bearing on safety or security or anything," said Dan Hirsch, president of Blue Ash-based Northstar Helicopters, which tows about 10 banners during a typical Bengals game. "I think whoever is making these rules and laws, there's not enough people who know what is really going on."

Another pilot who used to tow banners, Dan Kelly, said sports teams had been pushing to restrict banners even before the Sept. 11 attacks.

"They don't like it because they can't cash in on it or get their cut," said Kelly, president of D&M Aviation at Lunken Airport. "I don't think it's fair."

Upton said the ban could prevent accidents as well. A plane crashed into an upper deck at Baltimore's Memorial Stadium after an NFL game in 1976. And in 1998, a plane had to make an emergency landing near Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium during an Eagles game.

"Outdoor venues packed with thousands of spectators are no place for pilots to be circling around. It is a recipe for disaster," Upton said.

Blimps still will be allowed to float above games, and the provision won't affect commercial flights, military planes or law enforcement, Upton said.

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, which represents the nation's small-plane owners, said its members are victims of a lobbying blitz from the NFL, Major League Baseball and college sports representatives.

Newhouse said banner-towers may challenge the ban in court.

"It's a restriction of our civil rights," he said.

E-mail cweiser@gns.gannett.com