PX: FC Cincinnati's West End stadium plan sounds pretty good. But ... There's always a but

FC Cincinnati's West End stadium plan doesn't sound all that bad.

No houses will be torn down, critical in a historic African-American neighborhood long threatened by gentrification. FC Cincinnati will build Taft High a spiffy new football stadium. It wants to take the current Stargel Stadium site for the new futbol stadium. The soccer club will be open with the public, certainly refreshing after months of secrecy.

These are all promises FC Cincinnati President Jeff Berding made to a few hundred residents and others during a packed-house meeting of the Cincinnati Public Schools board on Monday night.

Sounds pretty good. But ...

Yep, there's always a but when it comes to FC Cincinnati and its pursuit of a stadium deal and Major League Soccer expansion bid.

Will FC Cincinnati pay the full amount of property taxes on its proposed $250 million stadium? School board members raised concerns about that. All Berding could promise is the school district would be held "harmless." He didn't explain what "harmless" meant.

After the three-hour marathon meeting, board President Carolyn Jones told The Enquirer's Sharon Coolidge that she walked away with no understanding of what FC Cincinnati was thinking on the matter.

RELATED: West End Community Council to outsiders on stadium issue: Back off

FC Cincinnati could pay the same property taxes being paid currently on the site of Stargel Stadium and the 30-some other properties that are part of the proposed soccer venue footprint. Technically, that would be harmless.

But it wouldn't be anywhere near the taxes generated by a $250 million soccer palace.

Haven't we heard this before? Sure have. The Bengals and Reds don't pay the full amount of property taxes on their stadiums. That shorts the public schools. It's just part of why the public loathes the riverfront stadium deals.

Let's be fair to FC Cincinnati. Maybe the club will pay the full property tax bill. Carl H. Lindner III and his ownership group already have pledged to pick up $200 million of the soccer stadium tab. There are no Mike Browns running the soccer franchise.

FC Cincinnati owners will pour millions more of their own money into the neighborhood. A new Stargel Stadium could cost $10 million. Berding has talked about the team paying to build new affordable homes. The Lindner family has always been good for pouring millions into helping kids, schools and poor neighborhoods across Greater Cincinnati.

Sounds pretty good. But ...

It's still hard to fully believe until we see the whole, elaborate plan in writing. FC Cincinnati's process has been too secretive, too sloppy, too all-over-the-map to go all-in with our trust just yet.

Local NAACP Vice President Joe Mallory summed up how we all should probably view the soccer team's pursuit of a stadium.

"I'm a skeptic," Mallory told the school board. "I haven't seen the truth all the way yet. The devil's in the details, and they keep using invisible ink."

Politics Extra is a column looking inside Greater Cincinnati and Ohio politics. Follow Enquirer political columnist Jason Williams on Twitter @jwilliamscincy.