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'A crown jewel' Public gets first look at new Bengals stadium
CINCINNATI (AP) -- The Cincinnati Bengals expected about 20,000 people to attend an open house for the team's new home, but instead an estimated 100,000 showed up for the first public view of Paul Brown Stadium. So many people showed up Wednesday that a second open house will be planned sometime in the next couple of weeks, said stadium spokeswoman Brooke Hill. "People are still pouring in here," Hill said as the six-hour open house was drawing to a close about 10 p.m. Wednesday night. The size of the crowd that jammed many downtown streets around the stadium stunned Hamilton County Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus, who pushed for a sales tax increase to pay for new riverfront stadiums for the Bengals and the Cincinnati Reds. "Clearly, this exceeds our expectations, several times over," Bedinghaus said. "And many of these people aren't ticket holders. This is truly a community event -- just people coming out to see what we've been talking about." County taxpayers in 1996 approved a half-cent sales tax increase to build the new 66,500-seat stadium and the nearby baseball park. Bengals owner Mike Brown had threatened to move his team to another city if he wasn't given a new stadium.
Brown said Wednesday that he was happy that the team was able to stay in Cincinnati. "It might have been easier to move the team, but it wouldn't have been better," Brown said. "The Bengals started here and they belong to the people of this community." Fans seemed enthusiastic Wednesday night as they toured the $453.2 million facility. "Cincinnati is such a conservative town, and now we have something that is so modern," Elizabeth Skillman said. "It's so futuristic." She and her husband, William, planned to buy season tickets. Bernard Smith, 39, also was impressed with the new stadium. "It's like a crown jewel, man," he said. "It makes you proud to be a Cincinnatian."
City officials agreed Wednesday to open new areas near the football stadium to vendors who want to sell peanuts, T-shirts, hats or other merchandise. Cincinnati City Manager John Shirey said about 10 of the city's 30 licensed merchandise vendors were displaced because of construction surrounding the stadium. Those vendors will get first choice in the newly opened areas. The new agreement also will open all of downtown north of Fourth Street to all vendors selling game tickets. That area previously was off-limits.
"This is a temporary solution; we'll evaluate it after a couple of weeks," Shirey said. Some vendors were happy with the compromise, and some were not. Tyrone Smith, 49, said the Bengals should have given up a little space near their riverfront practice fields for vendors since the practice fields were paid for with tax dollars. Vendor Linda Norwell, however, believed the compromise was a good one. "Now we'll be throughout the city," Norwell said. The Bengals begin their new era Saturday with a preseason game against the Chicago Bears.
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