Run Doc out of town!

[Jet23]

Here is something you might not have known: It is difficult to be one of 32 monopolists in the most successful, highly profitable league in the history of American sports. It is hard making ends meet in a free stadium that is absolutely filled every time it opens for an NFL game. You think it's easy, scraping by on the proceeds from $8 bottles of beer?

While owners of 30 of the NFL's 32 teams on Monday agreed to share even more money among themselves, Bengals owner Mike Brown voted against it. (The other no vote came from Jacksonville's Wayne Weaver.) It isn't that the Bengals aren't profiting from revenue-sharing; it's that they aren't profiting enough.

The Cincinnati Bengals' logo should not be a tiger; it should be an outstretched hand, palm upturned.

Understand: This was a "supplemental" plan for revenue-sharing. This was sharing on top of sharing. Karl Marx's league just became more generous.

The Bengals don't even know yet how much extra money they'll get on top of the money they already get. All they know is, it's not enough. With the Bengals, it never is.

Because I am not an economist, a capologist or an expert on socialist corporations, maybe I'm not qualified to comment on the Bengals' ongoing cries of poverty. But here's what I do know about our starving little football team:

They sell every seat for every game.

They sell every luxury box, and they keep all the money.

They sell lots of $8 beers, and they keep most of the money.

They're the proud possessors of a Manhattan-for-beads lease that makes them lords of Cincinnati's central riverfront.

The public built them a $600 million stadium our children will be paying for.

And, oh yeah, they've had one winning season in 17 years.

Imagine another business in the free world complaining about this arrangement.

The Bengals' argument boils down to this:

The salary cap is based on a fixed percentage of what the NFL calls gross designated revenues. They come from the national TV contract, ticket and merchandise sales and local sources such as stadium naming rights and advertising. Because the Bengals are in the bottom third of revenues in the league, every time a Washington, New England or New York increases its revenues, the cap rises and the Bengals have to spend a greater portion of their revenues on salaries.

No one should fault Brown for getting the best deal he can. He has to answer to shareholders, even if most of them are related to him. He also feels he has legitimate issues about the long-term financial health of his team.

But consider this:

The Bengals are privately owned. They don't show us their books. They say they're lagging financially and we have to take their word for it.

The list of people sharing in their "poverty" is very short.

If you choose to own a team in a place like Cincinnati, don't expect to make the kind of cash you would in New York. Some owners aren't as wealthy as others, if only because they're located in smaller places and/or they don't work as hard.

So it is that Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, whose team plays in a relatively new stadium that was not publicly funded, gives some of his revenues to an owner like Mike Brown, who has a free stadium. So it is that Jerry Jones, who worked hard to revive the Dallas Cowboys brand, shares equally his merchandise revenues with Brown, who works not at all selling his.

So it is that on Monday, the 15 biggest revenue producers voted to give even more money to the 17 smallest revenue producers. Everyone but Brown and Weaver was fine with that. Again: Fifteen owners agreed to write checks, and two owners said the checks won't be big enough.

Even if I agreed with the Bengals' position that they're heading toward the financial rocks, their constant more-more-more-ing after so much public generosity, faith and good will - and in an industry subsidized like few others, even if you stink - makes me want to lie down in a cool place.

The Reds don't receive nearly the shared revenues the Bengals do. I don't hear Bob Castellini complaining.

E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com

It's blasphemy I tell ya, absolute blasphemy. Oh no you didn't Doc! Mike Brown is our savior. What is our resident Mike Brown apologist going to think? I included his email address Hair. This way you can call him a futgard and such...

[Spor_tees]

But hey, during the last 17 years the Bengals have atleast given the city of Cincinnati several winning seasons and a Championship.

[Stripes]

I remember reading similar articles after Mike Brown and Ralph Wilson rejected the current CBA deal, before the rest of the owners in the league gradually began to regret jumping into it without enough deliberation.

Mike Brown isn't trying to score more money from revenue sharing just for the sake of being an overgrown, greedy mooch. He views his actions as being in the best interest of his NFL franchise, and apparently Wayne Weaver feels the same way. If Paul Daugherty doesn't like it, then maybe he should empty his piggy bank and start a franchise of his own.

Nearly everything this guy writes irks me to the core.

I also find it absurd to suggest (indirectly) that the Bengals owe their fans success anymore than any other team simply because a certain minority of them agreed to pay a few extra cents to build a stadium. Even more absurd than that is to suggest that the Bengals haven't tried to find that success.

[Jet23]

I remember reading similar articles after Mike Brown and Ralph Wilson rejected the current CBA deal, before the rest of the owners in the league gradually began to regret jumping into it without enough deliberation.

Mike Brown isn't trying to score more money from revenue sharing just for the sake of being an overgrown, greedy mooch. He views his actions as being in the best interest of his NFL franchise, and apparently Wayne Weaver feels the same way. If Paul Daugherty doesn't like it, then maybe he should empty his piggy bank and start a franchise of his own.

Nearly everything this guy writes irks me to the core.

I also find it absurd to suggest (indirectly) that the Bengals owe their fans success anymore than any other team simply because a certain minority of them agreed to pay a few extra cents to build a stadium. Even more absurd than that is to suggest that the Bengals haven't tried to find that success.

Do you really think Mike Brown emptied his piggy bank to pay for anything? Nope, it was wrapped up in a nice little bow and placed right in his lap. And he is squeezing every last penny from this gift. If he spent half his time trying to improve the team, as opposed to chasing nickels, we would be working on a dynasty here. Ask yourself one question. What is Mike Brown's motivation? If your answer is anything other than money (and lots of it) your head is buried deep in the sand.

[The PatternMaster]

It seems as if the line has been drawn in the sand between the Bengals organization and the local sport writers. First they were all bashing Marvin because he didn't want to answer every one of their asinine questions with a grin on his face, now they're back at the favorite target, Mike Brown, the most hated man in Southwest Ohio outside of Ben Toothlessburger.

Isn't Daughtery the same miserable soul who wrote the article bashing the city before the MNF game in 2003? I don't know what crawled up his ass and died but he needs some type of therapy to get over is obessive hate for the Bengals. Why does the local media have to be so negative all the time, it's like they feed of off negativity.

[DC_Bengals_Fan]

"If you choose to own a team in a place like Cincinnati, don't expect to make the kind of cash you would in New York. Some owners aren't as wealthy as others, if only because they're located in smaller places and/or they don't work as hard."

The other side of that is, if you're a small town like Cincinnati and you expect to have a team, you'd better be ready to spend more per capita than cities like New York to keep the team from moving to a larger market.

Of course, since I was previously a resident of N. KY., it's easy for me to say, wasn't ever my tax money.

[The PatternMaster]

I remember reading similar articles after Mike Brown and Ralph Wilson rejected the current CBA deal, before the rest of the owners in the league gradually began to regret jumping into it without enough deliberation.

Mike Brown isn't trying to score more money from revenue sharing just for the sake of being an overgrown, greedy mooch. He views his actions as being in the best interest of his NFL franchise, and apparently Wayne Weaver feels the same way. If Paul Daugherty doesn't like it, then maybe he should empty his piggy bank and start a franchise of his own.

Nearly everything this guy writes irks me to the core.

I also find it absurd to suggest (indirectly) that the Bengals owe their fans success anymore than any other team simply because a certain minority of them agreed to pay a few extra cents to build a stadium. Even more absurd than that is to suggest that the Bengals haven't tried to find that success.

Do you really think Mike Brown emptied his piggy bank to pay for anything? Nope, it was wrapped up in a nice little bow and placed right in his lap. And he is squeezing every last penny from this gift. If he spent half his time trying to improve the team, as opposed to chasing nickels, we would be working on a dynasty here. Ask yourself one question. What is Mike Brown's motivation? If your answer is anything other than money (and lots of it) your head is buried deep in the sand.

Sweet Jesus man, what do think they been doing for the past 4 going on 5 years???? C'mon people did you expect Marvin to win back to back SuperBowls in his first 4 years on the job. It's amazing how many fans act as if this franchise hasn't made any progress all because of a 8-8 season in which everything that could possibly go wrong did.

Mike Brown has spent a tremedous amount of money upgrading this franchise and I'm sure he will spend even more in the future, I know the NFL is a business but winning is high on the priority list for the Bengals organization, if you can't or won't believe that then your the one whose head is in the sand.

[ShulaSteakhouse]

Mike Brown is the worst football man in charge of a team in the NFL by far.

I challenge any of you to argue otherwise with anything other than your own opinion. I base mine solely on his track record as owner and GM, which are black and white facts you can't argue.

His franchise is one of the most profitable in all of professional sports - across all professional leagues. As Daugherty said, if you want to own a team in Cincinnati, you can't expect to operate like the big boys.

Can any of you tell me why smaller market teams such as Indy or Pittsburgh don't vote with Brown, huh?

Can any of you tell me why those two smaller market teams have SuperBowl rings in the last 3 years, and the Bengals' not even one playoff win, and only one appearance, in 17 consecutive seasons?

The Bengals' have better stadium deals than both of those teams, and are also more profitable.

Maybe it's time Brown quit sticking it to the fans and the city, and start diversifying his business, investing in other markets, and doing something else with his $, other than collect NFL revenue and do the minimum required to operate a team.

I'm sick of the old bastard and tired of hearing the blinded fans on here make excuses for him, who can't even provide a solid argument for their position, other than pure subjective opinion, which means nothing ultimately.

[fattyjay]

Living in a city far removed from the local media microscope put on Cincinnati, I can tell you that the perception of the Bengals as a franchise has nothing to do with the owner. Growing up there I know that its different when you are there. The negativity never ceased about how poorly the franchise was run. Now that I have an uncorrupted view, I would say that the national perception of the Bengals is that they are still on the rise. They are loaded with talented players, and are lucky enough to have one of the best coaches in the league. They fell on some hard times with the suspensions, the injury to Palmer, and subsequent injuries to a number of other players that took a toll on their season and still were close enough to make the playoffs. Was it frustrating? Emphatically yes. The tone of the MIW crowd is that things have gone back to the 90's way of thinking. This includes the perception of the owner who is only voicing a dissenting opinion because he doesn't want the salary cap to jump by leaps and bounds. Is he frugal and conservative in terms of how he runs the team? Well, he is an Ohio native isn't he? I guess I just don't see the reason for all the agnst when we have a playoff caliber team, and a Superbowl caliber quarterback. How many other teams are looking at the Bengals and saying "Gee, I wish we had the type of talent they have"? Probably more than a few. Do you think that Detroit, Buffalo, Kansas City, Miami, Oakland, Minnesota, Arizona, Houston, Green Bay, etc. aren't looking at us in envy? For all the crying that went on towards the end of the "Dark Ages" about how the Bengals were one of the worst franchises in professional sports, where's the gratitude for what they have accomplished in the past couple of years?

[The PatternMaster]

Living in a city far removed from the local media microscope put on Cincinnati, I can tell you that the perception of the Bengals as a franchise has nothing to do with the owner. Growing up there I know that its different when you are there. The negativity never ceased about how poorly the franchise was run. Now that I have an uncorrupted view, I would say that the national perception of the Bengals is that they are still on the rise. They are loaded with talented players, and are lucky enough to have one of the best coaches in the league. They fell on some hard times with the suspensions, the injury to Palmer, and subsequent injuries to a number of other players that took a toll on their season and still were close enough to make the playoffs. Was it frustrating? Emphatically yes. The tone of the MIW crowd is that things have gone back to the 90's way of thinking. This includes the perception of the owner who is only voicing a dissenting opinion because he doesn't want the salary cap to jump by leaps and bounds. Is he frugal and conservative in terms of how he runs the team? Well, he is an Ohio native isn't he? I guess I just don't see the reason for all the agnst when we have a playoff caliber team, and a Superbowl caliber quarterback. How many other teams are looking at the Bengals and saying "Gee, I wish we had the type of talent they have"? Probably more than a few. Do you think that Detroit, Buffalo, Kansas City, Miami, Oakland, Minnesota, Arizona, Houston, Green Bay, etc. aren't looking at us in envy? For all the crying that went on towards the end of the "Dark Ages" about how the Bengals were one of the worst franchises in professional sports, where's the gratitude for what they have accomplished in the past couple of years?

[HoosierCat]

Nothing much I can argue with in Doc's piece (except that the league doesn't use designated gross revenues anymore, the new CBA substituted a pair of new measures). The idea that Mikey is fixated on profits is hardly radical. Last time I checked, most businessmen are. But the contribution of Mikey's "cheapness" to the bengals' poor performance is small compared to the FO's abysmal decision-making in personnel over the years. In other words, it wasn't that they didn't spend money. It's that the spent it on Klingler and Akili and Frerotte and Wilkinson and Ki-Jana and Hardy and on and on.

[CarsonCity]

Living in a city far removed from the local media microscope put on Cincinnati, I can tell you that the perception of the Bengals as a franchise has nothing to do with the owner. Growing up there I know that its different when you are there. The negativity never ceased about how poorly the franchise was run. Now that I have an uncorrupted view, I would say that the national perception of the Bengals is that they are still on the rise. They are loaded with talented players, and are lucky enough to have one of the best coaches in the league. They fell on some hard times with the suspensions, the injury to Palmer, and subsequent injuries to a number of other players that took a toll on their season and still were close enough to make the playoffs. Was it frustrating? Emphatically yes. The tone of the MIW crowd is that things have gone back to the 90's way of thinking. This includes the perception of the owner who is only voicing a dissenting opinion because he doesn't want the salary cap to jump by leaps and bounds. Is he frugal and conservative in terms of how he runs the team? Well, he is an Ohio native isn't he? I guess I just don't see the reason for all the agnst when we have a playoff caliber team, and a Superbowl caliber quarterback. How many other teams are looking at the Bengals and saying "Gee, I wish we had the type of talent they have"? Probably more than a few. Do you think that Detroit, Buffalo, Kansas City, Miami, Oakland, Minnesota, Arizona, Houston, Green Bay, etc. aren't looking at us in envy? For all the crying that went on towards the end of the "Dark Ages" about how the Bengals were one of the worst franchises in professional sports, where's the gratitude for what they have accomplished in the past couple of years?

Agreed. As much as I hated Mike Brown for so long, I love what he and Marvin have turned the Bengals into (even with the arrests).

[TJJackson]

Mike Brown is the worst football man in charge of a team in the NFL by far.

Err, there is a man whose last name also begins with a B who owns a NFL franchise currently located in Arizona who is probably Mikey's equal in terms of sheer incompetence....but yeah, absolutely 100% correct

[Kirkendall]

Why does the local media have to be so negative all the time, it's like they feed of off negativity.

...just like BengalsZone?

[Jet23]

Mike Brown is the worst football man in charge of a team in the NFL by far.

Err, there is a man whose last name also ends with a B who owns this team in Arizona who is probably he equal in terms of sheer incompetence....but yeah, absolutely 100% correct

No doubt, Bill Bidwell is also horrible. But, if you put a gun to my head and asked me who is worse, I honestly couldn't tell you. However, there is little doubt that they are the two worst in all of professional sports.

In response to another post, there are teams that envy their talent. Talent is what several years of futility will yet you. It's called the NFL draft, which is weighted in favor of the teams that suck. The Bengals have Carson Palmer for one reason, they totally sucked the prior year. No matter how pathetic a GM is, they will eventually fall into some talent somewhere along the line.

[HairOnFire]

Because I am not an economist, a capologist or an expert on socialist corporations, maybe I'm not qualified to comment on the Bengals' ongoing cries of poverty.

There it is.

The Bengals' argument boils down to this:

The salary cap is based on a fixed percentage of what the NFL calls gross designated revenues. They come from the national TV contract, ticket and merchandise sales and local sources such as stadium naming rights and advertising. Because the Bengals are in the bottom third of revenues in the league, every time a Washington, New England or New York increases its revenues, the cap rises and the Bengals have to spend a greater portion of their revenues on salaries.

And there it is again. The unwashed masses can complain about the evil rich all they want, but the Bengals argument is absolutely 100% correct. And it's idiotic to claim that Mike Brown is screaming poverty. What he's pointing to is an unbalanced competitive playing field that puts him at a disadvantage even when given all of the perks that Doc complains about. And again, there's the rub as Cincy is clearly a minor league city that quickly recoils from buyers remorse whenever they attempt to compete with the so-called Big Boys.

It's blasphemy I tell ya, absolute blasphemy. Oh no you didn't Doc! Mike Brown is our savior. What is our resident Mike Brown apologist going to think? I included his email address Hair. This way you can call him a futgard and such...

There's a small part of me that wishes the Bengals had moved away from Cincy when it had the chance. The Bengals franchise would probably be better for having done so, and Cincy could use for education whatever money it's meager economy allows. As for the local sportswriters, they could use their small town skills writing about horse racing and tractor pulls.

[fattyjay]

Mike Brown is the worst football man in charge of a team in the NFL by far.

Err, there is a man whose last name also ends with a B who owns this team in Arizona who is probably he equal in terms of sheer incompetence....but yeah, absolutely 100% correct

No doubt, Bill Bidwell is also horrible. But, if you put a gun to my head and asked me who is worse, I honestly couldn't tell you. However, there is little doubt that they are the two worst in all of professional sports.

In response to another post, there are teams that envy their talent. Talent is what several years of futility will yet you. It's called the NFL draft, which is weighted in favor of the teams that suck. The Bengals have Carson Palmer for one reason, they totally sucked the prior year. No matter how pathetic a GM is, they will eventually fall into some talent somewhere along the line.

Nice. More negativity. How about the talent they found in later rounds i.e. Housh, Tab Perry, Madieu, Peko, Landon, etc. Why look at how we got Carson instead of aren't we fortunate to have him? Other teams in the same time frame as Marvin's reign have had the #1 draft picks too, how have they turned out? 2006-Mario Williams-definitely questionable pick, 2005-Alex Smith-still waiting to see the return on that investment, 2004-Eli Manning-traded immediately, most are questioning if he's a franchise QB. My point is just because a team has the first pick doesn't mean they automatically get the best player, which we all should know from being long-time Bengals fans. Getting back to the topic of Mike Brown being the worst owner in the league, don't you think luck has something to do with it as well? Yes they made some poor personnel choices, but so has every other team. Even the great Ozzie Newsome, who is widely regarded as the best drafting GM in the league, has made some mistakes (Kyle Boller). I just don't think that we need to be on Mike's back every time we have an offseason that lacks what some fans regard as excitement by jumping into the big spending of FA. Honestly, would any of you be complaining about the owner if he went out and got an Adalius Thomas? The answer is obviously no. But if he (Brown) sticks to the method that most experts agree works, by not overspending in FA, and keeping the core of the team together, everyone gets bent out of shape. But who are we to believe the experts, right?

[HoosierCat]

There's a small part of me that wishes the Bengals had moved away from Cincy when it had the chance. The Bengals franchise would probably be better for having done so

Almost certainly. For obvious reasons, tho, that's no longer an option. There's a small (but growing) part of me that believes the only answer to the Bengals' conundrum may lie in the NFL splitting back into two leagues. Ultimately, the current numbers reach a point that makes operations unprofitable for some teams, but the solutions proposed -- that the players reduce their share of the take, and/or that the big market teams give more money to the small market clubs -- both seem to me to be nonstarters. The players aren't going to cut their salaries, and the rich owners arent going to give one dime more than it would take to keep the small clubs at a profit/loss of zero. If that. So, either the league as presently constituted contracts by several small market teams -- or it breaks into two leagues along revenue lines.

[HairOnFire]

There's a small part of me that wishes the Bengals had moved away from Cincy when it had the chance. The Bengals franchise would probably be better for having done so

Almost certainly. For obvious reasons, tho, that's no longer an option.

Maybe, maybe not. Local idiot Todd Portune is attempting to get the Bengals lease declared invalid so who says the Bengals have to stay if he succeeds? Granted, there's probably something in writing that would prevent it from actually happening, but wouldn't it be better for everyone if the hated figure of Mike Brown was allowed to move his team elsewhere...freeing Cincinnati to lay the groundwork for a new NFL team being placed in Cincinnati, headed by better ownership.

Oh sure, the idea that Cincinnati could attract another NFL team is totally laughable, the odds of it happening have to be less than zero, but just because the citizens of Cincinnati can't do better than Mike Brown is no reason for them to restrain themselves from pretending that they might.

[HoosierCat]

Oh sure, the idea that Cincinnati could attract another NFL team is totally laughable, the odds of it happening have to be less than zero, but just because the citizens of Cincinnati can't do better than Mike Brown is no reason for them to restrain themselves from pretending that they might.

Whether they would do any better than Mikey is an open question. Whether they could get another franchise...well, Cleveland got one, and Houston got one, and there's scuttlebutt in the whole Bills-to-Toronto rumor that such a move would include a Cleveland-like deal in which the Bills name and unis and all that stay in Buffalo for a new franchise there. So who knows? In the end, if the city and citizens of Cincy show themselves as willing as the Cleveburgers to empty their wallets into the NFLs coffers, the league will be only too happy to oblige. But I don't think either Portune's lawsuit or the bengals are going anywhere anytime soon.

[HairOnFire]

Whether they would do any better than Mikey is an open question. Whether they could get another franchise...well, Cleveland got one, and Houston got one, and there's scuttlebutt in the whole Bills-to-Toronto rumor that such a move would include a Cleveland-like deal in which the Bills name and unis and all that stay in Buffalo for a new franchise there. So who knows? In the end, if the city and citizens of Cincy show themselves as willing as the Cleveburgers to empty their wallets into the NFLs coffers, the league will be only too happy to oblige.

That's exactly the type of pretending that I was talking about. Meanwhile, we both know that if the Bengals ever left Cincinnati the NFL wouldn't give the city a second sniff...leaving River City to spend it's money promoting itself as the tractor pulling mecca of the tri-state area.

Heady stuff.

[Jet23]

Whether they would do any better than Mikey is an open question. Whether they could get another franchise...well, Cleveland got one, and Houston got one, and there's scuttlebutt in the whole Bills-to-Toronto rumor that such a move would include a Cleveland-like deal in which the Bills name and unis and all that stay in Buffalo for a new franchise there. So who knows? In the end, if the city and citizens of Cincy show themselves as willing as the Cleveburgers to empty their wallets into the NFLs coffers, the league will be only too happy to oblige.

That's exactly the type of pretending that I was talking about. Meanwhile, we both know that if the Bengals ever left Cincinnati the NFL wouldn't give the city a second sniff...leaving River City to spend it's money promoting itself as the tractor pulling mecca of the tri-state area.

Heady stuff.

Cincinnati would NEVER get another franchise, which is why I voted for the stadium and would do it again. I did so, however, with the full understanding that I was helping to pad the pockets of one of the worst owners in all of sports. I believe that having an NFL franchise is invaluable. But, I certainly don't find the need to canonize the guy that exploited this fact. Apparently you do.

[Stripes]

Ask yourself one question. What is Mike Brown's motivation? If your answer is anything other than money (and lots of it) your head is buried deep in the sand.

Well that's just it, isn't it? I agree that his chief motivation is money. I'd say the same thing about the rest of the owners in the NFL.

Now you ask yourself one question.

Is anyone, Mike Brown included, enough of an idiot to think that profit can be maximized without fielding a consistent winner?

[HairOnFire]

Cincinnati would NEVER get another franchise, which is why I voted for the stadium and would do it again. I did so, however, with the full understanding that I was helping to pad the pockets of one of the worst owners in all of sports. I believe that having an NFL franchise is invaluable. But, I certainly don't find the need to canonize the guy that exploited this fact. Apparently you do.

I doubt you fully understand anything, including how you wee-wee works...let alone a complicated stadium lease or tax laws. That said, the fact that you'd willingly repeat doing something that you can't stop complaining about just makes it painfully clear what a sad and pathetic creature you are. By your own admission much of your own feelings of self worth are based upon trying to link yourself in any way possible to someone elses property...an experiennce you claim is invaluable. Funnier still, none of this seems to give you any enjoyment.

Last, I've never attempted to canonize Mike Brown. Far from it. However, without Mike Brown it's very likely that Cincinnati wouldn't have gotten an AFL franchise in the 60's. Or aren't you aware that his father used him as a frontman and legal advisor who scouted potential cities where the Brown family could become partial owners? In addition, without Mike Brown Cincinnati would never have gotten a chance several decades later to make financial promises it apparently no longer wants to honor. And since you admit that if the Bengals were to leave Cincinnati would never get another NFL franchise I'd say that buys the man some slack.

[HoosierCat]

Meanwhile, we both know that if the Bengals ever left Cincinnati the NFL wouldn't give the city a second sniff...

Neither you nor I know any such thing. What we both do know is that it's all about money. If the town and people offered sufficient pocket-lining, the NFL would happily take their money. They'd put a team in Timbuktu if they were paid enough.