FC Cincinnati General Manager Jeff Berding and former mayor Mark Mallory made a pitch to the West End Community Council’s executive board last night for putting FCC's stadium in the neighborhood. Berding gave mostly the same pitch he gave the night before to Cincinnati Public Schools, which is that the team would like to swap land and rebuild Taft High School’s Stargel Stadium to make their own soccer stadium happen.
The council had some tough questions for FCC, including again asking what kind of taxes the team would pay on its privately financed $200 million stadium, especially to Cincinnati Public Schools.
"Every single aspect of a deal with CPS, they would be held harmless," Berding said. "Any tax dollars where the stadium would be, they would get that much or more. They will not get less. What the dollar amount is going to be, I don't know yet."
There were also questions about traffic — FCC commissioned a traffic study last week for the West End, Berding says — and big changes that could come to the neighborhood due to the large development. Berding has pledged the team will sign a community benefits agreement based on the wishes of the neighborhood when it comes to housing (FCC has a purchase option on 66 vacant plots currently owned by the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority which the team says it would like to see housing built on), economic development, local jobs and more.
Mallory, one member of a prominent West End family, tried his best to promote the idea to the crowd and the council.
"The bottom line is, if FC Cincinnati hears a majority of residents saying they don't want a stadium here, it won't be here," the former mayor said, to applause from some in audience. He continued. "Gone with it will be an opportunity to reinvest in the West End."
The stadium isn’t as popular with other members of the influential Mallory clan. The former mayor’s brother Joe Mallory, vice president of Cincinnati's NAACP branch, opposes the stadium in the neighborhood.
Some members of the council's executive board, including president Keith Blake, seemed open to FCC's pitch; others appeared much more skeptical. The crowd of residents in attendance, too, had mixed opinions, though input from the public wasn't formally taken at the meeting.
"If it is clear that people who live in the West End don't want it, I would never bring a $350-$400 million investment there," Berding told the Council. Some in audience applauded. "Good," one woman said. Another man spoke loudly against the stadium as he left the meeting early, getting into a momentary back and forth with council president Blake.
An older man who sat in the front row and identified himself as a resident, however, had opposite feelings.
"I've been waiting for something like this for years," he said. "Bring the millions in here."
Public input sessions Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Seven Hills Community Houses and Feb. 20 at the community council's full meeting will reveal more about how people in the neighborhood feel.
