Thursday, August 03, 2000

Bengals get city to ban scalpers, vendors

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By Robert Anglen
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Paul Brown Stadium is nearly game-ready. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

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        Ticket scalpers and street vendors aren't going to be allowed anywhere south of Third Street when the first Bengals game is played at Paul Brown Stadium Aug. 19.

        At the request of the football team, Cincinnati City Council approved emergency ordinances Wednesday prohibiting vendors and scalpers between Gest Street and Broadway south of Third, which is separated from the stadium by the chasm of Fort Washington Way.

        This greatly expands a similar exclusion zone that covered only the immediate area around Cinergy Field.

        “I voted for it as a safety issue,” Mayor Charlie Luken said Wednesday.

        City officials said street vendors would block traffic and their wares would bottleneck the few open walkways into the stadium.

        “The entire area around it is a construction area that would normally be a hard-hat zone,” said Police Chief Thomas Streicher. “The stadium itself has very limited access at this time.”

        The city already has ordinances prohibiting the sale of tickets in public areas around the immediate area of Cinergy Field. And one of the four ordinances adopted Wednesday establishes a similar boundary around the new Bengals stadium.

        Two others, however, broadened that zone to an area called “the Central Riverfront Construction Zone.”

        Another ordinance prohibits skateboarding in an area boardered by Second Street, Elm Street, Central Avenue and Mehring Way.

        In a letter to the council, City Solicitor Fay Dupuis said the ordinances should be considered temporary.

        “Once construction in the central riverfront is further along and we have gained experience with pedestrian and traffic flows to events at Paul Brown Stadium, it may be possible to identify additional sites where street sales can occur,” she said.

        That didn't sit well with several council members, who said no sunset clauses were written into the ordinances, and nothing indicated they weren't permanent.

        “I'm not sure why people shouldn't be allowed to sell tickets outside the stadium,” said Coun cilman Phil Heimlich.

        Because of these concerns, the ordinances failed when the council first voted. But they passed on a second go-around with members promising to bring up the issue when they next meet in September.

        There was no explanation why the Bengals waited until three weeks before the first game to request the new ordinances.

        No members of the team spoke Wednesday. Mike Brown and other team officials could not be reached for comment.

       

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