BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Reds Managing Executive John Allen is tired of hearing that the taxpayers are giving the Reds a new stadium that should be built wherever the voters want it.
The way he sees it, the team has agreed to contribute more than $260 million over 30 years toward the construction and maintenance of a new riverfront ballpark.
"We don't mind paying it," he said Wednesday. "But we feel as a tenant we should have some say on where we're going to locate our business."
In an interview during an open house for the Move Greater Cincinnati Forward! campaign, Mr. Allen went into detail about the team's reasons for wanting a new stadium on the riverfront. He expressed frustration that some people seem to view the team as wanting a handout.
"Before we even play one game there, we're paying $30 million (toward construction)," Mr. Allen said.
The team also has agreed to pay $22 million in rent over the life of its lease, 25 cents of every ticket sold and an estimated $7 million a year for operation and maintenance of a new riverfront ballpark.
"It's a two-way street," Mr. Allen said. "Yes, we're being helped with the stadium. But we pay earnings taxes. We pay admissions taxes. We give something back."
But Cincinnati Councilman Todd Portune, a champion of the Broadway Commons site the team has rejected, agreed the team should have a say in the stadium decision -- not "veto power."
"And that is what they want for what is, in the great scheme of things, a nominal amount compared to what the public is paying," he added.
Hamilton County will pay the bulk of the estimated $297 million cost for a riverfront ballpark, and as much as $280 million in interest on the money borrowed to build the stadium.
Mr. Portune came up with the idea for Issue 11, which will ask Hamilton County voters Nov. 3 to create a county charter in order to force county officials to build the new ballpark at Broadway and Reading Road.
Broadway backers were gathering signatures for the measure within days of the Reds inking a preliminary riverfront stadium deal with Hamilton County.
The Reds, Mr. Allen repeated Wednesday, are firmly committed to the riverfront site known as Baseball on Main or the "Wedge," adjacent to their current home at Cinergy Field.
The team plans to contribute a sum he won't disclose to the Move Greater Cincinnati Forward! campaign to defeat Issue 11, he said. "We strongly feel that we have less risk and a much better chance to generate the revenues we need at the Baseball on Main site," he said.
The team also thinks the riverfront is where the fans want to be. In a survey of season-ticket holders late last year, 70 percent of respondents favored a riverfront site over Broadway, Mr. Allen said.
Hamilton County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus, a riverfront proponent, said he wasn't familiar with the survey results but that he could certainly understand the team's desire to please the fans.
"When you have a good recipe," he said, "stick with it." Mr. Portune said he couldn't respond to such a result without seeing the survey, but wouldn't be surprised if fans naturally resisted change.
"My guess is the season-ticket holders are comfortable in their current location," Mr. Portune said. "After a couple years at Broadway, they'd be comfortable there, too."
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