The Cincinnati Bengals could relocate out of The Queen City if the franchise does not secure a new lease for their stadium.
The Bengals have played in three different venues since their founding and have called what is now the Paycor Stadium home since 2000.
Paycor was constructed with the $555 million in public financing the Bengals secured after threatening to move to another city. Hamilton County taxpayers refused to subsidize the project.
Years later, the team looks to be returning to the same page as their current lease nears its conclusion.
According to The Cincinnati Inquirer, executive vice president – and daughter of owner Mike Brown – Katie Blackburn did not dismiss the idea of uprooting the Bengals from Cincinnati ahead of the lease expiration next summer.
‘We play it day by day, and like everything else, we just continue to have discussions, see where things are, and then have to make decisions at the appropriate time,’ Blackburn said at the recent league meeting.
The Cincinnati Bengals could move to a different city if they do not renew their stadium lease
Executive vice president Katie Blackburn addressed the situation at the NFL league meeting
‘We love where we are…I think that’s a great thing for the city. I think [the] location [of the] stadium right now is good. Our stadium obviously needs to continue to be maintained appropriately, and you want to keep it at a certain level that’s important, just so that we’re competitive with others,’ she added.
‘But you know, at the end of the day, we’re playing it one day at a time, and it’s just we have to see where it all goes.’
The outlet noted that the Bengals could extend the lease for two more years.
If they don’t, Blackburn threatened that ‘We could, I guess, go wherever we wanted after this year if we didn’t pick the option up.’
The extension is linked to the stadium renovation proposal Hamilton Country floated last year, which could cost around $1.24billion. However, both parties have not agreed on who pays the lion’s share of the bill.
While negotiations around the lease renewal continue, there is no indication of where the Bengals will move if don’t reach an agreement.
