FC Cincinnati stadium: 'Our bid to lose' says club owners, putting pressure on Hamilton County

The fight to get a new soccer stadium has pitted FC Cincinnati against the Hamilton County Commission just weeks away from Major League Soccer's deadline.

At a hastily-called Tuesday afternoon press conference, FC Cincinnati General Manager Jeff Berding put pressure on Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune to support a new soccer stadium - with county-controlled money.

The stadium is key to FC Cincinnati's bid to become a MLS team.

"At this point it does not appear we have county support," Berding said.

If the county and city pay for the infrastructure, FC Cincinnati will pay for the $200 million stadium with private money, Berding said.

FC Cincinnati needs local governments to pay $70 million to $75 million to upgrade the roads, parking and other infrastructure. To do that, Berding suggested the county's hotel tax.

The county's hotel tax revenue, he said, has $2.8 million left over each year for "other projects." That could pay off the debt for the infrastructure over about 30 years.

It would not raise taxes, he said.

"This money is waiting to be used," Berding said.

Berding isn't the first person to ask the Hamilton County Commission for leftover hotel tax money. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center couldn't convince the commission in 2014 to give the center $900,000 from leftover hotel tax money.

Visitors to local hotels pay a 6.5 percent tax in Hamilton County; most of the money goes to convention centers Downtown and in Sharonville, as well as the Cincinnati USA Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Berding praised Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley for identifying the county's hotel tax and city resources to pay for the project. He didn't identify what those city resources could be.

"The mayor's leadership has been so extraordinary, he even identified the source for the county," Berding said.

The stadium's size will be reduced from 25,000 seats to 21,000 seats, the minimum needed for the MLS bid.

"It's our bid to lose at this point and the county commissioners need to understand that," said club owner Carl H. Lindner III.

Berding's announcement comes a day before the Hamilton County Commission is expected to announce an offer to use Paul Brown Stadium.

Hamilton County Commission President Todd Portune tweeted that the county commission will meet Wednesday - and then announce at 1 p.m. its response to FC Cincinnati’s request for stadium help.

"We were aware they had been planning a press conference today," Portune told the Enquirer while the press conference was going on.

"We're meeting tomorrow to figure out what to do, if anything. There are so many different angles to this. We're looking at them all.We will detail that tomorrow."

Portune said later that commissioners have discussed using the $2.8 million for expanding the Duke Energy Convention Center or for something that would benefit multiple entities.

Portune has supported using Paul Brown Stadium for the MLS bid. It appears the county will outline a plan to that effect, said Alex Linser, Chief of Staff of Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus. Cranley, Portune and Driehaus are all Democrats.

“The commissioners are going to outline what they’ve offered to FC Cincinnati, what they can do for them at Paul Brown,” Linser said.

Driehaus told The Enquirer she'd reserve comment until 1 p.m. Wednesday.

Commissioner Chris Monzel, the board's lone Republican, didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

MLS requires teams to have a soccer-specific stadium. Berding said the team will not win the MLS bid with Paul Brown Stadium.

FC Cincinnati General Manager Jeff Berding has singled out the Oakley neighborhood as the preferred place for the club’s 21,000-seat, $200 million stadium. A site in Newport across the Ohio River is also a possibility.

But at least two-thirds of the county commission opposes using tax dollars for a stadium in Oakley, Linser said.

The Bengals would profit from having a soccer team at Paul Brown Stadium. The lease agreement with the county gives the Bengals a cut of the revenue, with the county and Bengals splitting their shares.

Paul Brown Stadium was built with soccer in mind. At the time the stadium was built in the 1990s, Cincinnati was also bidding to host the Olympics. Part of that bid would be to use Paul Brown for soccer.

As a result, soccer is the one other use Hamilton County can use Paul Brown Stadium for that Bengals can't outright veto. That is, unless the Bengals start its own soccer franchise. If the Bengal's owner Mike Brown got into the soccer business, he would have the first choice to use Paul Brown.