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Back when Hamilton County officials backed a half-cent sales tax hike to pay for the public's part of the new stadium projects, they said that total spending would be $544 million. It didn't seem like that much for such an undertaking, and officials said it would be paid off in 20 years.
D'oh! So much for promises, estimates, projections and "maximum guaranteed prices."
Many elements of the original plan have changed -- additional parking garages were planned to help with riverfront development, for instance -- and thus have helped drive up the overall costs. But costs for the core projects, the new Bengals stadium and the new Reds stadium, have risen an incredible 85 percent since the pre-tax vote projections -- and that's before the Reds facility has even broken ground. Paul Brown Stadium alone will cost more than the county said both stadiums were supposed to cost.
Even more staggering, though, is how much the public's contribution to the projects has risen. Based on current cost and revenue estimates -- which, admittedly, still are in flux -- CityBeat figures that the public now will pay $784 million for the stadium projects (building the stadiums and attending parking garages, roads and infrastructure; demolishing Cinergy Field; and retiring the old stadium's debt). In 1996, county officials promised that the public would contribute just $304 million.
That's an increase of 158 percent. Basically, the public has been stuck with the bill for almost every dollar increase incurred over the projects' original $544 million budget.
In return for the public's benevolence, the county has held no public forums on stadium matters since November 1996. The public has had one opportunity for input since then -- the November 1998 vote on Issue 11, which would have required the county to build the new Reds stadium at Broadway Commons.
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Previously in Cover Story
Going Through The Spin Cycle
By Doug Trapp/photos by sean hughes
(February 17, 2000)
Down the Drain
By Mike Breen
(February 17, 2000)
PERSON OF THE YEAR: 1999
By John Fox
(February 3, 2000)
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Stadium Overruns Signal a Real Leadership Crisis
Bedinghaus and Neyer should resign; taxpayers must get satisfaction
Let the People Speak
Voters get the kind of government they deserve; does Cincinnati deserve the stadium mess?
We Told You So
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