TheFightinPhils
02-09-2005, 02:29 PM
The Cincinnati Bengals are changing their playbook in the team's long-running legal battle with Hamilton County.
The Bengals and the National Football League have consented to use mediation and try to settle the multimillion-dollar federal antitrust lawsuit filed by county commissioners.
According to a court order this week by U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel, who is presiding over the case, the team and the NFL are mulling a list of possible mediators to use.
If all sides agree on a mediator, settlement talks likely will occur this spring.
County officials welcomed the new willingness to try mediation after the court rejected several attempts by the Bengals and the league to have the lawsuit dismissed.
Commissioners have long said the suit was a means to pressure the team into renegotiating its lease for the county-owned Paul Brown Stadium.
Commissioner Todd Portune, who initiated the suit almost two years ago, said mediation was "the right way to go. We've said all along that we want to mediate and change that lease."
The team's agreeing to mediate was "the first meaningful step they've taken toward settlement," he said.
Jack Brennan, a Bengals spokesman, couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.
The lawsuit's countdown is ticking: In July, it's set for a summary trial, a nonbinding proceeding that would help each side assess the strength of its case. A jury trial is scheduled to begin in September.
Current county officials have described the stadium lease, approved by a previous commission, as excessively favorable to the Bengals.
Among the perks in the team's lease, the county is required to pay for costly equipment upgrades, exempt the team from rent payments in the deal's later years, and share revenues from special events held there.
For example, the team received about $119,000 from the Billy Graham crusade in June 2002.
County officials have blamed the stadium construction's cost overruns mostly on tight deadlines and expensive amenities demanded by the Bengals to stay in town.
The team, though, said the additional expense was due to delays caused by haggling between the county and the city of Cincinnati.
In 1996, voters approved a half-cent sales-tax hike to pay for stadium construction, and supporters predicted that the dollars generated would be more than sufficient to cover the project's cost.
But sluggish tax revenues mean a deficit is likely that could force commissioners to take about $10 million annually from the county's general fund to offset the difference in coming years.
Portune and Commissioner Phil Heimlich voted 2-0 last spring to join Groesbeck resident Carrie Davis's lawsuit that challenges the circumstances surrounding the stadium's construction and seeks at least $200 million in damages.
The lawsuit alleges the NFL violated state and federal antitrust laws by using trade restraints to force Hamilton County to pay far more to build the stadium than a free marketplace would have demanded.
Hamilton County is seeking to triple the $200 million in punitive damages from the NFL if antitrust allegations are upheld in court.
Portune originally filed the lawsuit in May 2003, but Davis became the lead plaintiff after the Ohio Ethics Commission ruled that his involvement as an individual could constitute a conflict of interest with his commission duties.
Subsequent rulings in the case, however, persuaded Heimlich that the county had legal standing to sue the Bengals and the NFL, and commissioners took over the case as plaintiffs.
Portune and Heimlich were both elected to the commission after decisions were made in the mid-to-late 1990s about the stadium's construction and leasing.
http://www.cincypost.com/2005/02/09/bengals020905.html
The Bengals and the National Football League have consented to use mediation and try to settle the multimillion-dollar federal antitrust lawsuit filed by county commissioners.
According to a court order this week by U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel, who is presiding over the case, the team and the NFL are mulling a list of possible mediators to use.
If all sides agree on a mediator, settlement talks likely will occur this spring.
County officials welcomed the new willingness to try mediation after the court rejected several attempts by the Bengals and the league to have the lawsuit dismissed.
Commissioners have long said the suit was a means to pressure the team into renegotiating its lease for the county-owned Paul Brown Stadium.
Commissioner Todd Portune, who initiated the suit almost two years ago, said mediation was "the right way to go. We've said all along that we want to mediate and change that lease."
The team's agreeing to mediate was "the first meaningful step they've taken toward settlement," he said.
Jack Brennan, a Bengals spokesman, couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.
The lawsuit's countdown is ticking: In July, it's set for a summary trial, a nonbinding proceeding that would help each side assess the strength of its case. A jury trial is scheduled to begin in September.
Current county officials have described the stadium lease, approved by a previous commission, as excessively favorable to the Bengals.
Among the perks in the team's lease, the county is required to pay for costly equipment upgrades, exempt the team from rent payments in the deal's later years, and share revenues from special events held there.
For example, the team received about $119,000 from the Billy Graham crusade in June 2002.
County officials have blamed the stadium construction's cost overruns mostly on tight deadlines and expensive amenities demanded by the Bengals to stay in town.
The team, though, said the additional expense was due to delays caused by haggling between the county and the city of Cincinnati.
In 1996, voters approved a half-cent sales-tax hike to pay for stadium construction, and supporters predicted that the dollars generated would be more than sufficient to cover the project's cost.
But sluggish tax revenues mean a deficit is likely that could force commissioners to take about $10 million annually from the county's general fund to offset the difference in coming years.
Portune and Commissioner Phil Heimlich voted 2-0 last spring to join Groesbeck resident Carrie Davis's lawsuit that challenges the circumstances surrounding the stadium's construction and seeks at least $200 million in damages.
The lawsuit alleges the NFL violated state and federal antitrust laws by using trade restraints to force Hamilton County to pay far more to build the stadium than a free marketplace would have demanded.
Hamilton County is seeking to triple the $200 million in punitive damages from the NFL if antitrust allegations are upheld in court.
Portune originally filed the lawsuit in May 2003, but Davis became the lead plaintiff after the Ohio Ethics Commission ruled that his involvement as an individual could constitute a conflict of interest with his commission duties.
Subsequent rulings in the case, however, persuaded Heimlich that the county had legal standing to sue the Bengals and the NFL, and commissioners took over the case as plaintiffs.
Portune and Heimlich were both elected to the commission after decisions were made in the mid-to-late 1990s about the stadium's construction and leasing.
http://www.cincypost.com/2005/02/09/bengals020905.html