Bengals’ Katie Blackburn addresses staying downtown, seeks ‘more urgency’ for stadium deal

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PALM BEACH, Fla. — Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn sat down in a serene courtyard at The Breakers Hotel on Tuesday with a small media contingent that traveled to the NFL’s annual league meeting. Her plate has been full of late, with contracts for stars Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase, a negotiation ongoing with edge rusher Trey Hendrickson and free agency.

One matter of business that didn’t match the peacefulness of the surroundings has come to the forefront, though. A June 30 deadline to exercise the first of five two-year rolling extensions of the Paycor Stadium lease approaches. It will be an inflection point for keeping the Bengals on The Banks in downtown Cincinnati.

Blackburn said she’d prefer to be offering encouraging details of a deal coming together with Hamilton County and have an optimistic tone about the state of landing a renovation deal downtown.

That’s just not the case.

Instead, she could only reflect her tone of the negotiations as “neutral” and acknowledge a sizable gap doesn’t seem to be closing as the clock ticks.

“We wish there was a little more urgency and it was moving faster,” Blackburn said. “I do believe that the county would like to get something done. We just seem to be very slow in making it happen.”

The county unveiled renderings and details of a $1.3 billion renovation proposal in September, featuring new team training and headquarters, practice fields and increased connectivity to The Banks beyond the in-stadium updates.

Those served as a jumping-off point but not necessarily sharing the same vision or financial investment as the Bengals would prefer. A series of contentious emails between VP Troy Blackburn and county administrator Jeff Aluotto surfaced in January reflecting a negotiation that wasn’t anywhere near completion or contentment with the direction of talks.

The county recently hired David Abrams, of Inner Circle Sports, based in New York City, as a consultant in the negotiations. He’s helped negotiate deals in Atlanta, Houston, Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville and Nashville. He arrived with a specific understanding of what should be in these types of deals with hopes of bridging the gap.

Blackburn sees roadblocks despite everyone’s efforts.

“We’ve all been working really hard on looking at a lease extension and renovations that might be part of that,” she said. “And so there are a lot of great ideas out there. It’s just finding a way to bring it all together, make sure everyone’s on the same page, and pulling it together. We seem to have a lot of work to do to make that actually happen.”

Meanwhile, in Cleveland, the stadium discussions have remained ugly with lawsuits between the Browns and city of Cleveland over ownership’s desire to move the team out of downtown into an indoor stadium and entertainment district in suburban Brook Park. They are angling for proposed state funding to help cover the expenses of the $2.4 billion football mecca.

State funding could also be part of the solution in Cincinnati, but how much and who it goes to is yet to be determined.

If the Bengals don’t reach a deal or exercise the first two-year extension by June 30, the lease will officially expire on June 30, 2026.

The Bengals at that point, theoretically, would be free to find other options.

“We could, I guess, go wherever we wanted after this year if we didn’t pick the option up,” Blackburn said. “We’ll see. Like I said, all these things will be done in due course. We are having discussions, and so we’re hopeful that the county is thinking about it a lot, too, and wants to get it addressed in a way that would be beneficial to both of us.”

All this brings up the obvious question, posed to Blackburn: If a deal can’t be reached with the county, is there a possibility the team would be open to moving to another county in Ohio or Kentucky?

“We love where we are,” Blackburn said. “I’m a big proponent of being downtown. I think that’s a great thing for the city. I think the location of the stadium right now is good. I think 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.”

There’s been a building boom of sorts in the NFL with nearly a third of the clubs dealing with stadium issues.

Carolina, Jacksonville and Baltimore recently approved renovations of existing downtown stadiums. Tennessee, Buffalo and Cleveland (pending) are building new, multi-billion dollar stadiums. Kansas City is weighing options of a move to Kansas after Missouri voters rejected a renovation proposal. Chicago is potentially moving out of downtown to suburban Arlington Heights.

Considering the Bengals’ situation and actions across the NFL landscape, Blackburn was then asked if other counties have reached out to check on the possibility of a move.

“It’s not where we are focused at the moment,” she said.

The overall theme from Blackburn is the Bengals’ situation is no different than the rest of the NFL. They want to stay downtown in a renovated Paycor Stadium, but there’s concern from ownership about the lack of urgency in finding a deal to make that happen.

“At the end of the day, I guess we’re playing it one day at a time,” Blackburn said. “We’ll just have to see where it all goes.”

(Photo: Phil Didion / Imagn Images)

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