As the Bengals prepare to head to Los Angeles for Super Bowl LVI, Hamilton County leaders on Tuesday debated whether to open Paul Brown Stadium to watch the game.
Hamilton County Commissioner Alicia Reece, who first proposed the idea a week ago, called it the "unofficial Super Bowl" and an opportunity to draw people to the area.
The other two county commissioners were not yet sold on the idea, raising questions of cost, public interest and COVID-19 concerns.
The county administration will need to answer many questions in the next week before approving a watch party. And the NFL needs to sign off on it.
The Bengals will face the Los Angeles Rams in the new SoFI Stadium in sunny, warm southern California on Feb. 13 for Super Bowl LVI.
Officials with Hamilton County, the city of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, the Bengals and others have met to discuss the possibility of fans watching the game on the stadium's big screens, said Hamilton County administrator Jeff Aluotto.
He said staff is working to come up with answers and have a plan by the end of this week or early next week at the latest.
"We’ve got multiple staff working on multiple logistics, everything from ticketing to access to security," Aluotto said. "We want this to be a safe event."
When pressed by commissioners to estimate how much it would cost, Aluotto said a typical game day for the Bengals costs $250,000 to $270,000 for security, clean-up, and other preparations. The Bengals pay the costs on game days.
Aluotto estimated a watch party, which would likely have fewer people than a football game, could cost half to 2/3rds of that.
Reece, the one commissioner who has pushed for the event, said the county should provide the taxpayer-funded stadium for the taxpayer's use.
"This is a give back to the taxpayers," Reece said. "This is a give back to the fans."
Reece suggested a watch party could be packaged and marketed with other events going on in the city that week. Cincinnati could be a more affordable alternative than L.A. to travel to watch the game, she said.
"Let’s not think so small," Reece said. "That’s why it’s called the Super Bowl. We should be thinking big."
Would fans show up?
One question looming over the event is how many people would actually show up.
Commissioner Denise Driehaus said she's gotten emails both for and against the watch party.
Paul Brown Stadium is outdoors with no roof. That has led some critics of the proposal to question whether many people would want to watch a game on a television outdoors in February in Cincinnati.
Hamilton County Republican Chairman Alex Triantafilou doesn't think using the stadium for a watch party is worth the resources.
"I appreciate, I guess, what the County is trying to do," Triantafilou tweeted. "But would you go sit in the cold to watch TV from 50-100 yards away? Me, neither. Might be good optics for national TV, but this is a game to be savored at home or favorite sports bar if not in Los Angeles."
Driehaus would like to know more about the public interest and the cost before committing.
"I don’t have a good gauge of interest based on what my office has heard," Driehaus said. "If we move forward on an event of this scale, we do want to make sure we’re doing it and people will come."
Aluotto said there would be some form of ticketing and registration so they would know how many people to expect. Whether the tickets would cost anything or be free remains unknown. Reece suggested a $5 cost with the proceeds going to the Freestore Foodbank.
COVID-19 concerns
Hamilton County Board of Commissioners president Stephanie Summerow Dumas also raised the specter of COVID-19.
Hamilton County is still under a state of emergency with a high number of cases. Does the county want to sponsor an event that would encourage a mass gathering, Dumas asked.
"I don’t want to say the county is sponsoring an event with the COVID numbers as they are," Dumas said.
Dumas didn't say whether she would vote for or against it.
"I’m not going to stand in the way," Dumas said. "But we cannot forget COVID is in the air."
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