Win 35%, get a million dollar bonus

[TJJackson]

Looks like we have a general manager after all, and we're paying him big bonuses!

Who knew?

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090424/SPT02/304250001

Thank God, all the talk about needing a GM can end at long last :-)

[Bearcat1975]

Articles like that really pour salt into the wounds of Cincinnati sports fans.

I haven't said this in a long time, but I'll say it again after reading this:

Mike Brown is still a relatively young man. He's 68 I believe. But one day, probably after another 30 years of milking his franchise, he will finally kick the bucket. Whenever that day finally comes, I'm throwing a party.

A "ding dong the wicked bitch is dead" party. In my younger days, the climax of the party would be me defecating on his grave. But I have more respect for the dead now. A six-pack's worth of urine wizzed all over his tombstone still conveys the same emotion.

Seriously though... if he died, it would make my decade as a Cincinnati sports fan. It would be like winning the Super Bowl.

My only regret when he finally does pass, is that there won't be live video coverage of the ass-whipping his Dad is going to give him on the other side.

Dear Mike Brown,

You don't have to run the franchise on fumes in order to turn a healthy profit, you cocksucker.

-Bearcat1975

/end rant

[Kazkal]

So this is why Mike Brown won't hire a GM....

[Ickey44]

I would love for the other owners to vote him out, but since he normally gives those owners an easy W when they play the Bengals they'll never do that.

[ArmyBengal]

Three words for you:

Family Ran Business

Three more:

Never Gonna Change

Welcome to life as a Bengal fan !!!

[HairOnFire]

Be honest. When you read the amounts you were all suprised it wasn't more.

[TJJackson]

The amount was not a surprise

The way it was labeled/categorized as most assuredly a surprise

Kinda like if my annual performance evaluation came back with my job title listed as underwear model or NBA center

[Wraith]

Thats only his bonus folks! What do you think his salary is?

[Kazkal]

Well I'm sure thats only one of many bonuses he gives himself.

[HairOnFire]

And here's another article fresh of the presses. Read. Enjoy. Vent.

Court case reveals Bengals' millions

In a case that provides a rare glimpse into the closely held finances of the Cincinnati Bengals, the Ohio Supreme Court this month validated a stock deal that gave Mike Brown’s family unquestioned control of the NFL team.

The court upheld a 2007 ruling in a contentious Hamilton County lawsuit.

Through the years, Bengals’ finances have been so closely held that even informed guesses of the team’s value made by experts in the lawsuit varied widely – from $141 million to $1.18 billion.

The Enquirer analyzed transcripts of that trial that give tantalizing glimpses of the finances of the team and the Brown family.

Among details of the team’s finances that emerged from the case is that from 1994 to 2000 – as Brown campaigned for and got a new publicly funded stadium to remain solvent and stay in Cincinnati – the team paid Brown and his family in excess of $50 million.

That amount includes money the team paid to the Brown family as the team’s majority shareholders, as well as millions annually for their salaries and bonuses as team employees.

The numbers came from expert testimony given during the hard-fought 2007 Hamilton County Probate Court trial over the $300 million estate of Austin “Dutch” Knowlton, a Bengal founder who also was an owner of the Cincinnati Reds.

Knowlton died in 2003 at age 93, but left a will that excluded his adult children.

The children sued, saying they were improperly cut out of their father’s will, and blamed Knowlton’s lawyer – prominent Cincinnati attorney and Bengals shareholder Charles Lindberg.

They accused Lindberg of violating his duty as Knowlton’s lawyer and his interest as a trustee of Knowlton’s $300 million charitable trust because while he served as Knowlton’s personal lawyer, Lindberg was the managing partner of the Cincinnati law firm of Taft Stettinius & Hollister that also represented the Bengals and the Brown family in legal issues – including the stock deal in question.

The case went to trial in 2007, and Lindberg and Brown testified. A jury found the stock deal valid, a ruling upheld in an opinion authored by Judge Patrick Dinkelacker of the Ohio 1st District Court of Appeals. That was appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court, which declined April 8 to hear the case, effectively ending it.

Testimony revealed the contentious, often-bitter relationship between Brown and Knowlton, who feuded for years over many issues, including what Knowlton believed were exorbitant salaries paid by the team to the Brown family members in the front office.

The centerpiece of the lawsuit was a 1994 secret deal between Knowlton and Brown. Knowlton supposedly wanted cash to live on – even though he was multimillionaire – and Mike Brown wanted majority ownership of the team.

The agreement resulted in Knowlton selling 60 of his then-236 shares of the Bengals to the Brown family for $6 million – $100,000 per share – a price Knowlton’s children considered outrageously low. In exchange, the Brown family gained ownership of two-thirds of the team’s 586 shares and Brown agreed the team would pay shareholders the vast majority of team revenues.

The result was that Knowlton got $6 million for those shares and Brown agreed to pay shareholders $80 million, more than half of which – $48 million – went to the Brown family.

Trial evidence shows Mike Brown got unquestioned control of the team and the right to determine how much the team would pay his family members employed there.

The Bengals declined to comment for this story, and also declined to confirm the validity of the finances testified to during that 2007 trial. The Enquirer presented the finances used in this story to the Bengals and asked if the numbers were accurate, but the team declined comment.

“The information requested by The Enquirer from the Bengals is proprietary and will not be made public by the Club,” Bengals spokesman Jack Brennan wrote in an e-mail to The Enquirer.

At about the same time Brown and Knowlton made the deal between themselves, Brown was leading a campaign – ultimately successful – to have Hamilton County voters approve a sales tax increase that would pay for a new football stadium, named for Brown’s father, Hall-of-Fame coach Paul Brown.

That sales tax hike convinced Brown to keep the team in Cincinnati – with lease terms that critics say are far too favorable for the team. Hamilton County went to court in 2003 to amend lease terms, claiming the lease was “grossly one-sided in the Bengals’ favor.” That claim was eventually disallowed by the courts.

Part of the team’s lease with the county is for stadium maintenance. Hamilton County records show that since Paul Brown Stadium opened in 2000, the public has paid $96.3 million for stadium maintenance, including a projected $10.7 million bill this year.

Shareholder finances were just some of the team’s finances it and the Brown family fiercely guard.

Edward VonderBrink, an accountant hired to review the team’s audited financial reports as part of the trial, had to sign a confidentiality agreement to reveal none of that financial information except in court.

During his trial testimony, Brown often refused to answer questions about team finances and his lawyers fought to prevent him from answering finance questions.

Others findings include:

• Mike Brown received millions in “general manager” bonuses, even though the team has no such title.

VonderBrink testified the team paid a “general manager” bonus of $1,237,000 in 1999 and $1,947,695 in 2001. Brown testified in the trial he received a bonus every year since he took over running the team in 1991.

• The $48 million paid to the Brown family came as the team also paid five Brown family members annual average salaries of more than $700,000, court documents note. The family members in addition to Mike Brown are: Brown’s brother, Pete Brown; Brown’s son, Paul Brown; Brown’s daughter, Katie Blackburn; and her husband, Troy Blackburn.

Those five family members, VonderBrink testified, were paid combined salaries of $3,926,000 in 1999 – an average salary of $785,200 – and $3,613,000 in 2001, an average salary of $722,600.

Because VonderBrink testified about specific years, pay amounts weren’t provided during the trial for the Brown family members for all years.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090424/SPT02/304240022

[HAPPYJAQ]

There no amount of cash that would compensate for the agonizing stress that Mr. Brown endures on a yearly basis in making questionable picks in the draft or signing players at above market value. Hell, he should be paid an additional 500K for his Redeemer role, alone. We should all be lucky to have a man that is not only football genious in making the roster decisions that have enabled us to be perennial playoff and Super Bowl contenders since '91, but a man that has the concerns of the community as a whole in mind in providing employment opportunites to many who are considered to be in the "at-risk" category.

[HairOnFire]

Here's a true story very few of you will believe.

One of my very best friends from my college days used to get free Bengal tickets which he often shared with me and others. Great seats, too. When I asked him how he managed this neat and presumably expensive trick he answered his mother was the mistress of one of the Bengals owners. I laughed it off by trying to guess which Brown family member he might be talking about. So after trolling through names like Pete Brown, Pete Brown Junior, Pete Brown III, Pete Brown IV, Skippy Brown, Frisbee Brown, Sweet Georgia Brown....(ahem)....I finally exhausted all of the obvious options and threw out the name Austin Knowlton.

Ding!

Naturally I called bulls**t, pointing out to my friend how old and dusty Knowlton was (Circa 1981?) while at the same time casually remarking upon the still stunning hottness of his mother. Besides, we were all living in Columbus at the time. Wouldn't a guy like Knowlton shop closer to home, I asked? So he says...."If you don't believe me go ask her." So I promptly did just that.

Ding!

Not only does his mother admit to being Knowlton's mistress, but she laughed off my remarks about his age by claiming she was just one of several mistresses on his "payroll". Furthermore, she claimed she hadn't actually seen the guy in almost two years. But she claimed he still sent her gifts on a fairly regular basis, including Bengal tickets. So we laughed and laughed, and then before I made my exit I hit on her a little.....as I always did.

Anyways, decades later, I now read the article detailing how when Austin Knowlton died his will excluded all of his adult children....thereby making them bitter and angry. And I read how it was Knowlton who made a deal with the devil that resulted in Mike Brown gaining full control of my beloved Bengals.....thereby making thousand of people bitter and angry. I've got to admit it all makes me laugh.

And the reason I'm laughing is because I still remember just how hot Tom's mother was.

[Kazkal]

Hahaha nice story Hair.

PS,Katie is mikes only child right? Paul Brown jr is pete's son?

[Dadraftnick]

Articles like that really pour salt into the wounds of Cincinnati sports fans.

I haven't said this in a long time, but I'll say it again after reading this:

Mike Brown is still a relatively young man. He's 68 I believe. But one day, probably after another 30 years of milking his franchise, he will finally kick the bucket. Whenever that day finally comes, I'm throwing a party.

A "ding dong the wicked bitch is dead" party. In my younger days, the climax of the party would be me defecating on his grave. But I have more respect for the dead now. A six-pack's worth of urine wizzed all over his tombstone still conveys the same emotion.

Seriously though... if he died, it would make my decade as a Cincinnati sports fan. It would be like winning the Super Bowl.

My only regret when he finally does pass, is that there won't be live video coverage of the ass-whipping his Dad is going to give him on the other side.

Dear Mike Brown,

You don't have to run the franchise on fumes in order to turn a healthy profit, you cocksucker.

-Bearcat1975

/end rant

First of all ,Bearcat, or should I call you Mr. 1975 , I have no idea how you got that word past the sensors.

You should have that party, I may even have a similar party but, what you have to remember is that while, Paul Brown was one of the greatest football coaches that ever lived, he was very stingy tighwad of an owner, in part because he had to be.

While, Paul Brown was a bigtime tightwad he gave us two Super Bowls because, he had a great football mind.

He begat Mikey who, didnt bother to learn any of the football stuff ,he just learned the tighwad stuff and multiplyed it by 10.

Mikey had begat Katie Blackburn who has never played the game.

Will Katie be even worse?

Becareful what you wish for.