Fun?

[HoosierCat]

http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinna...8107600^1740217

OK, I can see the other one, but..."fun?"

[DesperateDerelict]

But (Mike) Brown was mystified by the public perception of his team as one that maximizes profits.

“Profit is not a bad thing. It’s a good thing,” he said. “It’s good for the fans to have a healthy business. I should point out that we have been down here at Paul Brown Stadium for, what, this is our ninth year. Over that whole time, we have not paid out any of our profit to shareholders beyond what is necessary to pay taxes. Every penny of the rest has been put back into the team.

“I don’t know that we can catch up to this kind of criticism.”

Catch up? WTF???

Gee whiz, Mike - if you can't 'catch up' to the criticism, perhaps there's no point in addressing it at all!

(Note to moderators - we need a :kissmyass: emoticon.)

[Dadraftnick]

"We understand it’

Bengals owner Mike Brown declined to discuss any particular incidents that might have deflated fan perceptions about the team"

I wonder what would have deflated fan perceptions?

Could it have been those nearly 20 years with only one winning season to show for it?????????????

Could it have been some of those Mike Brown decisions, such as to pass up on another teams entire draft plus 1st and 3rd rnd picks for 2 more years for one draft choice inorder to take Akili Smith????????

Could it be the insane drafts the team has made under Brown??????

Could it be some of the coaching hires that Brown has made,such as Dave Shula and Dick LeBeau????

Could it be that winning has never seemed to be in Mikes vocabulary????

[Walrus]

But (Mike) Brown was mystified by the public perception of his team as one that maximizes profits.

“Profit is not a bad thing. It’s a good thing,” he said. “It’s good for the fans to have a healthy business. I should point out that we have been down here at Paul Brown Stadium for, what, this is our ninth year. Over that whole time, we have not paid out any of our profit to shareholders beyond what is necessary to pay taxes. Every penny of the rest has been put back into the team.

“I don’t know that we can catch up to this kind of criticism.”

Catch up? WTF???

Gee whiz, Mike - if you can't 'catch up' to the criticism, perhaps there's no point in addressing it at all!

(Note to moderators - we need a :kissmyass: emoticon.)

Can somebody clear this up for me -- is he claiming here that they're spending absolutely every cent they earn on the team, therefore they couldn't possibly afford to hire even an additional parking lot attendant, much less a GM, trainers, scouts, etc? How could that possibly be true for an NFL franchise in this day and age?

[DesperateDerelict]

Can somebody clear this up for me -- is he claiming here that they're spending absolutely every cent they earn on the team, therefore they couldn't possibly afford to hire even an additional parking lot attendant, much less a GM, trainers, scouts, etc? How could that possibly be true for an NFL franchise in this day and age?

The shareholders are, by and large, Mikey, his immediate family, and his father's original partners...John Sawyer and Austin Knowlton...who Mikey despises. So, since Mikey, Katie, Troy, Pete, and Paul II all draw VERY handsome salaries, it would be counter-productive to pay out shareholders dividends - the minority owners won't sell if they're making money.

It's the oldest trick in the book...pay yourselves BIG salaries, and have the company (an S-Corp) lose money to dodge taxes.

The Brown's financial shenanigans are detailed in this article, if you really want to know. Brown family concedes years of conservative spending hurt team

[preyer]

great article. i wish it was current, but a great view into the inner machinations of a football team's finances. i wonder how much the team is worth now?

the 'oldest trick' does help us small fry business owners out a lot, though. if we weren't able to write off new equipment and/or upgrades against our income taxes, growth would be smaller than it already is. i imagine the idea here is the same, just on a vastly larger scale and a lot more fancier dancing being done.

[COB]

It's the oldest trick in the book...pay yourselves BIG salaries, and have the company (an S-Corp) lose money to dodge taxes.

I am shocked to read that none of the Bengals shareholders have taken dividends since PBS opened. If that is true, then any talk of the Bengals failures being due to profit-taking are wrong.

Is anyone certain that the Bengals are an S-Corp? Because I'd be shocked if they were. Surely the Bengals need to retain earnings year to year to operate, and S-Corps are designed to pay everything out at the end of the fiscal year.

You aren't dodging any taxes by paying only salary, you are paying more in taxes. One of the great advantages to S-Corp form for an owner who also draws a salary is that he can take a going-rate salary, then pay himself the rest of his S-Corporation's earnings in dividends. I believe Mike and family would only have to pay capital gains taxes on the dividends, while they pay the significantly higher income tax rate on salary.

I would like to know how the salaries of Mike and the rest of his family members compare to those of employees who fill those jobs on other teams. I'm not talking about how well they do those jobs compared to others, just how their salaries compare. NFL teams pay very well. I would not be shocked to find other organizations pay their people comparable salaries. But then, I don't know what the Browns pay themselves.

If they were just sucking money out of the Bengals they'd be doing it with dividends. Doing so with salary would be tax suicide.

And since I will accept on its face the statement that no shareholders are getting paid as such, I can only conclude that the Bengals' horrific record under Mike doesn't have a whole lot to do with profit taking.

Instead, the only thing I can look at are his judgment and the way he handles personnel. His football acumen, if you will.

Finally, I find it very amusing how Mike emerges when the fans start freaking out over yet another lost season (I seem to recall an interview like this last year), and tries to calm the waters with some sage advice from the top. His superior perspective on all things Bengal does little to reassure me. Though I envision him receiving rave reviews down at the sycophant farm he runs at PBS.