Cincinnati Bengals' Mike Brown: How to Piss Off a City 101

Disclaimer: If you are a Bengals fan reading this...prepare to bang your head against the wall.

The Bengals have asked the City of Cincinnati for $43.6M over the next decade for repairs and upkeep on the 10-year-old Paul Brown Stadium.

Bengals owner Mike Brown isn't even very specific in his proposal to the city.

From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

The plan, obtained by the Enquirer under a public records request, doesn't specify the improvements, listing them only in broad categories like "groundskeeping," "audio/visual," or "concession."

Mark Rosentraub, a professor of sports management at the University of Michigan, estimates the Bengals only need between $2-4 million each season for maintenance.

Earth to Mike Brown: The city is already facing very difficult budget decisions. The last thing they need is to drop $8 million on a new scoreboard (a request in the plan) for a team that gives the city a black eye.

Go around the country and ask somebody about the Queen City.

Skyline chili, Graters ice cream, the Reds and Nick Lachey may be brought up, but the NFL is the most popular league on the planet and everyone is all too familiar with the embarrassing Bengals.

They are a running joke among most NFL fans and they seemingly always find a way to reinforce the stereotype.

It's at the point where people associate the city with the Bengals and that is not the image Cincinnati wants.

Now they have to pay more money for it?

It's the only franchise where a QB can demand a trade and nobody rips him. The general consensus is that Carson Palmer is losing his career to Mike Brown.

Now the grinch who stole a football franchise is demanding the fans, who shovel gobs of cash at him, need to pony up even more.

County commissioner Todd Portune told the Enquirer this gem about the plan:

"It offends me and should offend every taxpayer."

That's just how it goes in Bengaldom. The P.R. team has to be the worst in the league. The way the franchise is portrayed in the public is brutal.

Or maybe there is just no way to conceal the realities of a man who gets paper cuts counting all of the shared league-wide revenue while pinching as many pennies as he possibly can.

How are fans supposed to root for that, let alone pay thousands of dollars on season tickets, concessions, parking and apparel?

This last quote is from lawyer Stuart Dornette, a guy that works for the Bengals. He sums it all up nicely.

"The Bengals are not a team that goes for the high end for much of anything, it's not as if they're interested in throwing around money."

Sigh.