BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Two years ago today, Hamilton County voters said an overwhelming ''I do'' to a county sales tax proposal to build new stadiums for the Bengals and the Reds.

The volatile marriage has seen the Bengals twice threaten to break up with Hamilton County. But the team and county have settled into a relationship, and site preparation began on the $400.3 million football complex in January.

The county also has a lot of money to show for those two years. By the end of 1998, the county expects to have collected more than $87 million in tax revenues for stadium construction. They also expect to have issued $37.5 million in property tax rebates by year's end, the other chief component of the half-cent on the dollar tax increase.

But the county still has no deal with the Reds, arguably the region's most beloved sports franchise.

''Well, it's half done,'' said Scott Borgemenke, executive director of the influential Cincinnati Business Committee and a supporter of the project. ''Keep the faith.''

County officials say the reasons for lack of a deal are complicated. Like any marriage, the county's relationship with the Reds has had highs and lows. Over the past two years, county officials have thought they were close to a deal, only to see it collapse.

And county leaders acknowledge the deal with the Bengals had a sense of urgency that the Reds deal lacks.

''The county has been able and enthusiastic to make a deal with both teams since day one,'' said County Commission President Tom Neyer Jr. ''I think the Bengals transaction had greater urgency because they had a lease deadline staring us in the face. We have no such deadline with the Reds.''

The Reds feel that led the county to play favorites with the Bengals, a source familiar with the negotiations told the Enquirer.

''(The county) openly told us we wouldn't be treated like the Bengals, and we found that offensive,'' the source said. ''The likelihood of getting a deal comparable to the Bengals' is not likely, so it's up to the Reds to settle for something else.''

Reds Managing Executive John Allen, who runs the team during CEO Marge Schott's suspension, won't talk about why the Reds still have no deal.

County Commissioner John Dowlin, an opponent from the start of the sales tax increase known as Issue 1, said he's in no hurry for the county to make a deal with the Reds.

He argues that the Reds have a valid lease to play at Cinergy Field until 2010, and the county should just let the team play there if the team does not want to make a deal.

Mr. Dowlin figures the longer the Reds have to wait, the more money the county can allow to pile up for the stadium projects.

''All of us feel great frustration with the Reds, who do not respond quickly and consistently in their negotiations with our people,'' Mr. Dowlin said. ''They just don't seem to be focused.''

If the Reds have to ''wait it out,'' Mr. Dowlin argues, the team might ultimately agree to go to the Broadway Commons site.

Broadway Commons, at Broadway and Reading Road, is where Mr. Dowlin thinks the stadium should go whether the team wants it or not. The team has said repeatedly it wants a riverfront site. Mr. Dowlin is the only commissioner who wants to force the team to Broadway. County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus, who unveiled the plan in 1995 to increase the sales tax for stadium construction, thinks the Reds should play on the riverfront, either in a new ballpark or in a ''transformed'' Cinergy Field.

Mr. Neyer, a local developer and the swing vote on the commission, has steadfastly declined to state a site preference.

''From a development standpoint, expressing a preference for a site absent all other considerations is simplistic,'' he said. ''From a negotiations standpoint, it's foolish.''

For months, it looked as if the Reds were focused on rehabbing Cinergy, in part because it would require a smaller financial contribution from the financially ailing franchise.

But in recent weeks, the team has turned its attention to a new ballpark just west of The Crown at a site known as Baseball on Main or the ''Wedge.''

The team and Major League Baseball are worried a renovated stadium might not generate the revenues the team needs to stay financially healthy for the next 30 years.

But the Wedge has problems, too. In past proposals the team has made to the county, the team has demanded an extensive feasibility study of the site before making a binding stadium deal.

Such a study also would be necessary for a transformation of Cinergy Field. But county officials won't spend the time and money to conduct either of those studies until they at least have a non-binding agreement with the Reds.

The pace of talks between the county and team appears to have picked up in the last few weeks, but county and team officials are coy about whether they think a deal is imminent.

''I'm confident we'll come to an agreement with the Reds in the near future,'' Mr. Bedinghaus said Wednesday. Having a deal by Opening Day, March 31, he said, ''is still a possibility.''

There are reasons besides the team's financial health to make a deal sooner rather than later.

The county made promises to the city in a riverfront development agreement, each of which has a price tag attached. The most expensive item is a riverfront parking garage built south of a reconfigured Fort Washington Way.

If the county builds the garage and the parking revenues alone are not enough to pay off the debt issued the build the garage, the county could opt to make up the difference with sales tax revenues. That would mean less money available for the Reds.

Tim Mara, the lawyer who led the campaign against Issue 1 in 1996, suspects the county is in no hurry to make a deal because officials are worried they won't have enough sales tax money for both projects. Indeed, Mr. Dowlin worries that the county could spend so much on riverfront development that it will be forced to renovate Cinergy because there won't be enough money for a new ballpark.

But Mr. Bedinghaus emphatically disagrees. Monthly sales tax revenues, he said, ''just keep getting better and better.'' There's plenty of money for new stadiums for both teams, he said. Mr. Bedinghaus thinks the county's stadium project is turning the corner. With construction beginning on the new Bengals stadium, the community could regain some of the enthusiasm it had right after Issue 1 passed and lost over the past two years, he said.

Mr. Mara, unsurprisingly, has a different take: ''I hope the chaos is over by the time the third anniversary rolls around. I'm not optimistic.''

Geoff Hobson contributed.

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