The stadium where the Bengals play opened in 2000. The Bengals are committed to playing there through 2026.
Talks have started to extend that relationship.
Via Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer, negotiations have commenced on a new lease. Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn spoke about the situation.
“A lease extension is still something on our radar,” Blackburn said. “It’s pretty important thing to us to get figured out at some point. We obviously have options for the next 10 years, so we have flexibility to keep working if we need to, but it is definitely something on our radar that we’re focused on.”
The article doesn’t mention the options. But for any team with a lease that expires in three years, one of the options is to sign a lease somewhere else.
Blackburn said there’s no clear timetable for getting a deal done.
“We can only do what we can do, which is work with the county on a timeline that they’re comfortable with, too,” Blackburn said. “These things are always just a little slower than you would like and there are lots of different options for what you do. It’s slow going, but we’ll just keep working at it and I think patience is worth it here. There’s not a fixed timeline that anyone has played out on this. We just keep working on it and hope to make progress.”
She nevertheless remains optimistic about working something out.
“We wouldn’t do these things if we didn’t anticipate hopefully getting something done in the future,” Blackburn said. “But, anyway, we’re doing what we think will give us the best opportunity and be good for our fans and hopefully give everyone a good result.”
A good result will be good. A good result will mean that the team that has been in Cincinnati since its inception in 1968 will stay there. Which absolutely should happen. Hopefully, it will.
