Hamilton County vs. Cincinnati Bengals'

Hamilton County can pursue a lawsuit challenging the Cincinnati Bengals' lease for the stadium that county taxpayers paid to build, a federal judge ruled Monday.
The lawsuit alleges that the Bengals and the National Football League used their monopoly and the Bengals' threat to move to another city to coerce construction of the 65,000-seat stadium and to extract highly favorable lease terms.
The $458 million stadium opened in 2000. It was built with proceeds from a half-cent sales tax increase that county voters approved in 1996.
The Bengals and the NFL have denied wrongdoing and are fighting the lawsuit. The team had no comment on the judge's ruling, spokesman P.J. Combs said. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello also declined comment.
In February, the judge rejected a request by the NFL and the Bengals to dismiss the lawsuit.
The county's lawyer, Stanley Chesley, said Monday he plans to seek financial records from the Bengals and take statements from team officials, including owner Mike Brown. Chesley said he also would seek to take a statement from Bob Bedinghaus, a former Hamilton County commissioner who backed the stadium sales tax increase and now works for the Bengals after losing a re-election campaign in 2000.
A judge dismissed the case in state court, but Spiegel said the case should be heard in federal court. The county will replace Davis as the plaintiff.
Portune and fellow county commissioner Phil Heimlich voted in March to have the county pursue the lawsuit.

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