Bengals Provide Reasonable Terms for Bearcats’ Use Of Paul Brown Stadium In Their Time Of Need

(Courtesy ESPN)

I don’t speak too highly of the Cincinnati Bengals around these parts. I could go on and on about how they’ve continued to squeeze every penny out of a financially drained city on an annual basis. And they’ve certainly done UC little favors over the years when it came to use of Paul Brown Stadium. This despite the Bearcats allowing the Bengals to practice in the Sheakley Athletics Complex bubble during the Winter.

It seems, however, that goodwill towards their neighbor downtown has paid off for UC. Earlier this week it was announced that the Bearcats had struck a deal with the Bengals to play their 2014 football season at Paul Brown Stadium. Initially I cringed at the thought of what the terms of that deal might be. The Bengals knew they had UC by the balls, since the Bearcats really had no other options, and could have probably charged any price they damn well pleased.

But it doesn’t sound like that was the case.

Today the Cincinnati Enquirer revealed some of the terms of that deal and it actually works out fairly well for UC. You can dive into the nitty gritty by reading the full article but here are the two nuggets that stuck out at me:

• The Bengals will reimburse all of the rent UC owes to the NFL franchise for use of Paul Brown Stadium.
• The Bearcats will collect 100% of the merchandise sales*.

*This hasn’t been finalized but the Bengals anticipate this will be the case.

Said another way, the University of Cincinnati will pay half the rent they normally would to play at PBS and keep all of the money from Bearcats gear they sell during gamedays. The other half of the rent will have to be paid to Hamilton Country since they and the Bengals split the rental income. UC will be paying nothing to the Bengals themselves. Both will still keep all of the revenue from parking and concessions but overall this appears to be a much better deal for the Bearcats than they had in the past.

It remains to be seen if these better terms yield profit for UC during their home games at Paul Brown Stadium. Obviously better attendance will increase the chances of the Bearcats getting into the black but I think that’s a moot point right now. Use of PBS was always thought of as a stop-gap between current Nippert and new Nippert. Any lost income by playing downtown will surely be made up in the first few years in the Bearcats’ renovated stadium beginning in 2015.