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There's an uncomfortable truth lurking beneath the Bengals' promising 2-1 start to the season: every victory on the field comes with a hefty price tag for local taxpayers.
The team recently emerged victorious in stadium lease negotiations with Hamilton County, securing a deal that requires residents to contribute $350 million over the next decade. That figure represents a staggering 75% of the total cost for stadium renovations and maintenance during that period, leaving the Bengals responsible for just $120 million—a mere quarter of the expenses.
This arrangement seems particularly favorable for the Bengals, especially considering that Hamilton County taxpayers have already shelled out $1 billion for the stadium's construction and are still servicing the original debt.
Were the Bengals struggling financially last year? Facing massive losses? Did county commissioners feel compelled to offer such generous terms out of sympathy? Forbes magazine's latest analysis suggests otherwise.
Forbes has released its 2026 NFL team valuations, placing the Bengals at $8 billion. Just a year earlier, the team was valued at $5.25 billion. This means that while the Bengals were aggressively negotiating to secure $350 million from taxpayers, their value skyrocketed by 50%—an increase of $2.75 billion—in a single year.
But the negotiations likely began even earlier, in 2024. At that time, Forbes valued the Bengals at $4.1 billion. Over the two-year period during which the stadium deal was finalized, the team's worth doubled, adding $4 billion to ownership's coffers, all while they contributed only $120 million.
Remarkably, this windfall wasn't the result of shrewd business maneuvers by Bengals leadership. The team remains the least valuable in the NFL, a position it has held for years. Instead, the surge in valuations across sports is driven by a booming stock market, fueled largely by the AI industry, which has swollen the fortunes of billionaires.
When a billionaire's net worth leaps by 50%, 100%, or even 300% due to surging stocks or private equity gains, they often seek to acquire professional sports teams. Owning a team has become the ultimate status symbol in America—a way to declare, 'I've made it.'
Recent examples abound: the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers sold for $12 billion to a group led by Jared Kushner's brother, who heads a top tech-focused private equity firm—more than double their $5 billion valuation in 2021. The NFL's Seattle Seahawks recently fetched nearly $10 billion from the former CEO of Sun Microsystems, now part of Oracle, marking a dramatic increase.
These soaring valuations are further boosted by the NFL's decision to allow private equity groups to own partial stakes in teams. The Bengals, meanwhile, simply watched their value double without lifting a finger.
So why did the Bengals fight so hard for $350 million in public funds when they gained $4 billion in two years by doing nothing? Would it have hurt them to sell some equity, issue a bond, or take any steps to cover the costs of their own business instead of relying on taxpayers? But why would they, when Hamilton County's coffers remain open? As long as elected officials keep writing checks, the Bengals will gladly cash them.
As the community grapples with funding essential services like Cincinnati Public Schools, child welfare levies, and climate change mitigation for flooding, it's worth remembering: the Bengals took $350 million from taxpayers and then made $4 billion in two years by doing nothing.
Here's hoping the Bengals enjoy a successful season and make a deep playoff run—that would bring joy to many. But it shouldn't translate into more public money for the team. Not a single penny more for these leeches.
Christopher Wood is a neurologist who lives in Clifton.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Bengals stadium deal looks worse after team's value hits $8B | Opinion.
Originally reported by yahoo.