Monday, January 31, 2011

The Entire County Should Unify In Telling Mike Brown to Shove It.

There are few things that Hamilton County voters can agree on, uniformly, but I am hoping we can all unite in telling Mike Brown "No new scoreboard for you!" Yes, the County must help maintain Paul Brown Stadium, but only what needs to be replaced. The scoreboard works just fine.  If Mike Brown wants luxury, he can pay for it himself. If he doesn't like that deal, then he can pack his bags and move the team.

I am serious. If any Tea Party person is serious about what they say, they should be the FIRST group to support the County playing hard and fast with Mike Brown. We don't need professional football. We do need public services. Brown has become a parasite.  He must pay his own way, and he has the ability to do so and still make himself plenty of money.

A unified front is the only way the public can succeed.  We need every County official on the same page.  We don't need Joe Deters out there shooting his mouth off about contracts, in hopes of currying favor with Brown.  One voice must speak and tell Mike Brown what he is going to get.  That voice must not waver, must not cave into the fear of losing the team.  Instead, that voice should publicly announce what it will pay for and then pay nothing more and "if Brown doesn't like the deal, he can move the team."

A way many people can show their personal displeasure is for current season ticket holders to give them up and buy Reds season tickets instead.  Show Mike Brown how sports teams can work well with the County and get support from the public.  Let us use the power of the purse to force Brown to either comply or just move.  I think local bars would do better sales with 65,000 more fans going to their neighborhood bar on Sundays to watch better football on TV, anyway.

Stop buying Bengals jerseys and hats and anything that will make Brown any profit.  Show him that the Customer is what matters.  Tell him to shove it.  If he wants your business, he can beg.

8 comments:

  1. On 1/19 Hartmann & Monzel voted to pass a resolution authorizing a "frame sync upgrade" so I think the scoreboard spending is a done deal, unless there are other scoreboard upgrades also being asked for.

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  2. I agree with you that we should tell Mike Brown to take a hike, but only after we study the total economic impact to the city of losing an NFL franchise. Lets not be hasty and say simply, "You suck Mike Brown, get outta town" before we quantify a few things:

    1) How much do the bengals really bring to this town in terms of jobs, sales, and economics.

    2) How big of an economic impact would it have to lose the team on the city.

    3) How big of a hardship would it be on the team to try and move.

    Then you come up with some forumula that states how much money it makes sense to work with the bengals on. Lets be fair, the Bengals aren't the only business in town to demand public spending, they are just the highest profile one. Cities around the world make special deals with companies all the time to get them to do business in their locale, its all about the total economic math and weather you can make those numbers make sense.

    That being said, there are fine examples of great cities even in our own state that have no NFL Franchise, so I don't think losing the Bengals would be so terrible, but I haven't run the numbers, I would like to see them.

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  3. I agree and disagree. I do think that Mike Brown is like a leech on the neck of the city, especially when he, as the owner of a team who has had two winning seasons in the last 20 years, asks a city suffering badly from the current recession for $43 million over the next 10 years. I wish that Brown could change his tune or at least understand that asking the city for money would look better if he gave us something back, like a playoff win.

    However, I don't agree with telling the Bengals to pack their bags. I understand that, in the large scheme of things, football isn't nearly as important as public service or oxygen but I think that many underestimate how important the Bengals are to this city. Ohio is a football state from Cleveland to Columbus to Cincinnati. I've seen thousands of fans tailgating before a game against a team that the Bengals have no chance to beat in a losing season and I've watched thousands more flock to bars downtown because they didn't want to watch the game in their own homes.

    The worst thing the city could do in a time when many are feeling financially desperate, or just desperate, is to get rid of the one thing that gives thousands of people in this city hope every year. Winter is depressing enough in Cincinnati; what would we do if the only in-state team we had to watch was the Browns? The winter suicide rate would climb through the roof.

    I agree, Mike Brown is a bad owner and doesn't do much for the city. I think, though, that you should be careful what you wish for, especially if you're wishing the Bengals would pack up their bags and go away. You may miss them more than you think.

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  4. Jason, the issue has nothing to do with "the city", this is 100% Hamilton County's show.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. Not sure how much of a positive impact ten home games can have on the county's, or the region's economic vitality. It must be minimal.

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  7. NFL Licensed Merchandise royalties are pooled together and split between the league, choosing not to purchase gear in Cincinnati will not have a large direct impact on the Bengals' budget since the impact will be split with the 31 other teams. The Bengals don't place on top of any of the lists for last season.


    http://www.cnbc.com/id/30111451/Saints_Are_NFL_s_Top_Sellers

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  8. I think the bigger issue here is the terrible contract the county entered into with the Bengals, which leaves the stadium empty most of the time and we're not allowed to use it. the 43million may not be a big deal if the county could negotiate and was allowed to make better use of the stadium for other events, sports, etc during the bengals off-season.

    i'm not a fan of the team, their ownership or the deal the county made, but there are a lot of people who would be affected if the bengals left. i'd love to tell brown to get bent, but the reality is that franchise is a rather key part of the banks development and without a solid replacement for the bengals i think it's a risky proposition to kick them out.

    either way i'd like to see an economic study that showed the true $$ impact of the bengals as they stand today, and if they left, and what the alternative uses of the stadium could be and their economic impact.

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