WhoDeyRevolution

Mike Brown Steals From Children

As WDR readers know, Mike Brown was able to swindle one of the biggest sweetheart stadium deals in the NFL from Hamilton County (Bob Bedinghaus, the biggest Brown Cheerleader while a Hamilton County Commissioner is now the Director of Business Development for the Bengals...make your own conclusions).  Read this old Enquirer article for a great breakdown and previous WDR posts for more details, but the biggest point is that Hamilton County Taxpayers are on the hook through 2027 for almost $800 million in YOUR taxpayer money.

Our taxpayer money  has been going right into Mike Brown's pocket and not translating into performance on the field since this bogus stadium deal was signed.  But here is a new development - Hamilton County had to cut funding to the Cincinnati Public Schools to cover the costs of the stadium. 

See if you can stick with me here.  This 2008 Hamilton County Budget in Brief (page 21) explains that the County had budgeted to pay for the stadium with a 1/2 cent sales tax increase, with annual sales tax growth of 3% per year.  The problem?  The sales tax growth from 2000 to 2007 has only been 1.38%.  So the County had to figure out where to find the money to be able to pay for the stadium and its upkeep costs.

Their County filled the budget gap 2 ways. 

1. "Restructuring" payments to the Cincinnati Public Schools, saving $39.5M. Basically the County deferred payments to the schools from 2006-2009.  So that is almost $40 million that the schools could have used that instead had to be used to cover the deficit created by stadium funds. Cincinnati's detoriating public schools are being deprived of funding because of Mike Brown's sweetheart stadium deal. 

Local TV Blackouts to Resume in 2009

After a more than five-year run, the string of consecutive home games shown on local TV will come to an end in September 2009.

And unless the Bengals play the Steelers, Browns, or a prime-time game...it will happen in the '09 home opener.

Prior to 2004, the last time the Bengals sold-out an entire season was 1992, left-over from the 'glory' days of 1988-1990. 

Albeit a different era now, with personal seat licenses to consider (COA's to Bengals fans), expect to see the days of 'announced' attendance in the 50,000 range to return.  Fans who have season tickets in the least expensive COA zone (corners of the upper deck and the 2nd level north endzone) will be the first to jump ship this off-season. At the bargain basement price of $300 per seat license, I think season-ticket holders will not have a problem forfeiting this money after watching the pathetic turd of a product that has been on display so far in four games.  Of course, these seat licenses are property of the season ticket holder, so they could sell them to the highest bidder.  But, seat licenses are generally worthless when the team is playing like garbage.  Only those in the lower level, between the 20-yard lines have seat licenses that might fetch an amount over face value. 

Face it guys, the COA is basically a sunk cost right now and subjecting yourself to another 20 years of punishment isn't worth $300 a seat.

Typical Mike Brown

In a cavalier business move made by Mike Brown yesterday, the Bengals will be sharing their practice field, training facilities and locker room with Brown's newly launched long term storage business.

Upon entering for practice, players saw Bob Bratkowski and Geoff Hobson carrying an elderly well off couple's grand piano into the locker room where they set it down in front of Levi Jones' locker, blocking him from his belongings. When Levi asked what was going on, Bratkowski told him that until he starts blocking again, the piano would be staying, and that Levi might as well learn a couple songs because everyone knows you suck.

Mike Brown Makes The Wind, But Bengals Fans Cook Up Destruction

As Comrade Pellegrino stated yesterday, the Bengals organization blamed their OWN FANS for throwing paper pretzel wrappers, flimsy plastic beer cups, and mis-behaved children on to the playing field in 70 MPH winds on Sunday. 

I don't know many things, but I do know that intentionally throwing a paper pretzel wrapper onto the field in 70 MPH winds with hopes that it disrupts a football game is a more futile effort than the Bengals offense.

The public address announcement for fans to refrain from throwing things on the field (maybe they meant refrain from letting yourself get thrown on the field) drew a chorus of boos from the dozen people left in the stands.  That was the perfect nod to the TWO 12-men on the field penalties the Bengals drew in this game.  (Picture at left). 

Bengals Excuse Generator

We here at La Revolucion want to prepare you for the excuses that the Bengals are going to use for when they suck this season. The sad part is, you don't need to be a psychic to see each and every one of these coming and you know they're coming! Picture Marvin Lewis saying these in a press conference.

Why the Bengals are losing in the pre-season: "It's pre-season. Pre-season games don't count."

Why the Bengals are 1-2 in their first three games: "It's early in the season, and we're trying to get healthy."  This would work if a baseball team started 1-2. 

Why the Bengals are 3-5 in their first eight games: "We had a rough first half schedule (Baltimore, Dallas, Tennessee, Giants, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Jets, Jacksonville), and we're still not healthy.  Injuries are killing us."

Free Speech Silenced at Bengals Game

Paul Daugherty brings us news that two signs at the Bengals-Saints game on Saturday critical of the team's decision to resign Chris Henry were removed by authorities.  As the Doc writes:

The best attack the Bengals evidenced was against a couple anti-Mike Brown banners hanging brazenly from opposite ends of the taxpayer-funded stadium.

One read, "Hey Mike, Surely You Can't Be Serious. Please Tell Me Chris Found Jesus." The other offered, "Fool me once shame on you. Fool me six times, shame on Mike Brown." Each was removed by the middle of the first quarter. Let freedom ring.

In my view, Hamilton County taxpayers are PAYING for the stadium and should have every right to criticize the team.  Although Mike Brown, with his history of implementing speech codes on players, certainly disagrees. 

So, I say to you heroes who will not sit down and let Mike Brown continue to destroy our Bengals, do not let them silence you. Continue to agitate and speak out about the bonehead decisions that the management has made that have led to zero playoff wins in 17 years.  The only way the Bengals will ever change is if enough of us speak out and demand change. 

Bengals Update Fan Code Of Conduct

A lot of people have heard of articles like this.

I have a unique point-of-view of those among La Revolucion: I am both a rabid Bengals fan and a dad.  I have already taken the time and imagination to figure out that my son's seventh birthday will be on a Sunday a few years from now, and if that is the date of a Bengals home game, then his present will be a ticket to his first game. 

However, I'm also guilty of the following things as well (some before, and some after I became a father)...

1) Giving the finger to a father-of-the-bride at a rehearsal dinner in Pittsburgh 45 minutes after I met him.  Why?  Dude mentioned the 2005 playoff game. 

2) Been the victim of mistaken identity for The Jerk Hotline (the cops wanted a guy one section over).

Quote of the Day: Troy Blackburn Edition

I've got a laundry list of gems from this A$$hole, but I wanted to build on Comrade Klinglered's post on the sweet stadium deal the Bengals "negotiated".  This was a statement by Troy discussing the deal after it was signed.

“This deal, it gives us the ability to compete in the average of the NFL,” said Mr. Blackburn. “And if we're about the average of the NFL, that's fine. That's good enough. We're not going to do much better than that in Cincinnati.”

Comrades in arms, that is a PUBLIC statement by our ownership saying they are hoping to be average after signing a deal that gives them rights to all revenues from a stadium that will cost potentially over a $1 billion in taxpayer money.  Hoping to be average?!  Good enough for Cincinnati?!  This makes me so furious I am going to the Stoned Crow right now to drink away the pain.

Hey, Troy, F*** YOU.

UPDATED:  Make that:  Hey, Troy, the guy who married into everyone's dream job, F*** YOU.

Here's the full article by John Byczkowski with the quote (towards the bottom, it's long).

Stadium Lease Poised to Strike Again and Again

I’ve long been puzzled as to why the scrooge of Cincinnati wouldn’t sell the naming rights to Paul Brown Stadium (Sure his family name on the stadium but the man is legendarily cheap after all.  Just read about how the Bengals would have reporters pick free agents up at the airport or how Ki-Jana caused team morale to soar by buying the locker room new towels that weren’t shrunken and threadbare).

So as I’ve been pondering this I’ve been doing some reading and I came across this recent article on stadium deals.  It lays out how the Rams are about to get hosed into building a new stadium or risk losing their team to relocation.  The article mentions a clause in the Bengals lease I had never heard about before.  The Bengals lease wasn’t really negotiated by adverse parties (typically how contracts are decided - each side arguing their case for the details to favor their organization), but it was just two sides agreeing with each other on how to bilk the taxpayers out of the most money.  Consequently, there are still awful parts of the lease that have yet to be revealed to show just how much the Bengals bent over Hamilton County taxpayers on the lease deal.  This is one of those awful things.

Revisiting the Bogus Stadium Deal

While most people in Bengaldom have either forgotten or come to peace with the bogus stadium deal the Bengals were able to "negotiate," we here at WDR would like to do our small part to keep reminding Bengals fans the absurdity of the whole situation. So when Mike Brown claims that the "small market" Bengals can't afford free agents, medical facilities and a front office, you can remember how your taxpayer money (if you live in Hamilton Country) is basically going right into Mike Brown's pocket.

The whole story is much too long to rehash in one post, so we will focus on one aspect of the deal each post.

Today's topic: the Bengals' blatant deception.  As described in the opinion of the 6th District Court of Appeals from the lawsuit brought by Hamilton County against the Bengals and the NFL, Mike Brown demanded a new stadium in 1995 because Riverfront did not have enough luxury boxes (luxury box revenue goes right to the team and is not shared with other NFL teams as part of the NFL revenue sharing agreement), causing the team's revenues and profits to be among the lowest in the NFL.  This, Brown claimed, put the team at a competitive disadvantage vis a vis other NFL teams.