Speaker 1: Card Now let's continue. This is one of the great
Speaker 1: weekends in the history of Cincinnati when it comes to sports.
Speaker 1: So much going on. Of course tonight is the Cardinals
Speaker 1: against the Bearcats at Heritage Bank Arena. And then also
Speaker 1: tonight's a little game between Elder and Saint X and
Speaker 1: I'd say Rocky Boyman and maybe Jeff Birding showing disrespect
Speaker 1: to Elder, not in his case, but in Rocky's case.
Speaker 1: He stepped on the flag that Elder gave me two
Speaker 1: or three years ago. Rocky Boyman did. Then you got
Speaker 1: UC Bearcat football against BYU. Then you got the Bengals,
Speaker 1: Bengals and the Patriots going. Then you got Messy at
Speaker 1: five o'clock on Sunday trying to get a win against FC.
Speaker 1: Joining me now is the President, CEO and chief bottlewasher
Speaker 1: of FC. That is Jeff Birding and Jeff Birning. Welcome
Speaker 1: again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And Jeff, first of all,
Speaker 1: just in a general way, this came together out of nowhere.
Speaker 1: I don't think anybody saw all these events transpire. How
Speaker 1: unusual is it in Cincinnati? Did these events going on,
Speaker 1: including the Midies, including the Bluebirds, all playing high school
Speaker 1: football Trotwood Anderson. Isn't this special to be a Cincinnatian.
Speaker 2: It is. We love our sports, and we love our
Speaker 2: teams who represent us, and you know, it brings people together.
Speaker 2: It makes it more fun to live here. And I'll
Speaker 2: be down at pay Court tonight for Elder Saint X
Speaker 2: and I got my Bengals season tickets and you know,
Speaker 2: and then yeah, FC Cincinnati will take on the messy
Speaker 2: Mountain of Enter Miami on Sunday at five.
Speaker 1: Before we talk about MESSI and FC, there was a
Speaker 1: proposal a few days ago from the city Council to
Speaker 1: buy a plot of land right by w C eighteen
Speaker 1: forty eight. I know you have a hope, maybe a plan,
Speaker 1: maybe in the distance to build an arena there. We
Speaker 1: need a brand new arena. Everyone says that is that
Speaker 1: part of that plan or not not directly.
Speaker 2: What I would say, Bill is, you know, when I
Speaker 2: was on city council obviously fifteen plus years ago, we
Speaker 2: took possession of the block at Fifth and Race, and
Speaker 2: I thought, if we ever got controlled the Millennium, you
Speaker 2: could put an arena there, because at some point we're
Speaker 2: going to need to replace the arena on the Riverfront,
Speaker 2: put a hotel on top of it, tied into the
Speaker 2: convention Center, and that'd be a great development. I left
Speaker 2: city Council and the new group. That's where eighty four
Speaker 2: fifty one is, and that's no longer a potential site
Speaker 2: for an arena. And so I think what the mayor
Speaker 2: and council and the Port Authority have done here is
Speaker 2: to say, listen, this parcel the old freestore food bank
Speaker 2: that was offices that were abandoned a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: It's an empty building. There's going to be something great
Speaker 2: that we're going to build on this site, tied into
Speaker 2: the town Center garage. So now the public has full
Speaker 2: control of the site. The arena study has said that
Speaker 2: this is one of the best sites for a future arena.
Speaker 2: It's not the only one. There's other options, but it
Speaker 2: is one of them, and we need to preserve public
Speaker 2: control so that some speculator done by the property and
Speaker 2: then hold this community up for tens of millions of dollars,
Speaker 2: which is what the experience was, as you know, with
Speaker 2: the Millennium, and put it in a position where the
Speaker 2: arena couldn't go there because someone is holding this community up.
Speaker 2: So I think they showed good foresight to say, listen,
Speaker 2: we just want to put the site under public control.
Speaker 2: If it's an arena, fine, If it's not, it'll be
Speaker 2: a residential or commercial development of some sort that capitalizes
Speaker 2: on all the energy and success and over the line
Speaker 2: and what we're doing up at our stadium. This is
Speaker 2: a great site, and we want to make sure the
Speaker 2: public can control it.
Speaker 1: So you and Carl Linder control that large part of
Speaker 1: those parcels, along with four hundred million dollars of development
Speaker 1: happening as I speak, and so is wouldn't you prefer
Speaker 1: to have the brand new arena close to FC and TQL.
Speaker 2: To be fair, We're sure we would because you got
Speaker 2: music Hall. We've invested in this community probably close to
Speaker 2: a billion dollars since we formed three CDC in two
Speaker 2: thousand and three. Over the last twenty years. You could
Speaker 2: offer that, you know, it's a pretty successful, vibrant entertainment
Speaker 2: district that combines a lot of the heritage of Cincinnati
Speaker 2: and the preserved architecture of Cincinnati's founding with a lot
Speaker 2: of really great new things that we're building up around it.
Speaker 2: And so you could offer this would be a very
Speaker 2: dynamic site. And I think the arena study that the
Speaker 2: Chamber of Commerce led concluded that this is a very
Speaker 2: viable site where the town Center garage is. But to
Speaker 2: be fair, there's a couple other opportunities that will be
Speaker 2: evaluated and Phil Castellini and I and Phil has his
Speaker 2: own vision about maybe keeping it on the existing side
Speaker 2: if that could work. Where he and I one hundred
Speaker 2: percent agree is this community needs to replace an obsolete
Speaker 2: arena on the riverfront. Everyone who's listening knows that we
Speaker 2: we all get in our cars and we go to
Speaker 2: Indy or Columbus or Lexington or Louisville to go to concerts,
Speaker 2: to go to shows and people and people send me
Speaker 2: the pictures of their experiences at the existing arena, and
Speaker 2: it feels unsafe and it is very obsolete. And in
Speaker 2: my opinion, that's what losing looks like. That's not what
Speaker 2: winning looks like. And so we need to solve this,
Speaker 2: and Phil and I agree, and so let's come up
Speaker 2: with based on Steve leapers and work. Steve's been asked
Speaker 2: by the city in the County three CDC to come
Speaker 2: up with a plan on how we can fund a
Speaker 2: new arena. Some private some public, and that work needs
Speaker 2: to continue and we need to all be joining hands
Speaker 2: to say that's the priority. How can we pay for
Speaker 2: this and come up with a plan that people feel,
Speaker 2: including everyone listening. Yeah, you know what, that seems pretty reasonable. Okay,
Speaker 2: we get a new arena out of this. We don't
Speaker 2: get to go. I have to get in our cars
Speaker 2: and other people get in their cars and come to Cincinnati. Again,
Speaker 2: that's winning. Then there will be a process side where
Speaker 2: the arena should go, and then Bill will assert his
Speaker 2: plan and we with others the city will assert ours.
Speaker 2: But that's premature. We shouldn't be debating the site right now.
Speaker 2: We should be coming together to say we need a
Speaker 2: plan that allows us to replace a very obsolete arena
Speaker 2: on the riverfront.
Speaker 1: You know, that's like Masters of the Universe. On one hand,
Speaker 1: you have the Castellinis, you have the banks, You have
Speaker 1: the interest of CBD Downtown, the Central Business District, against
Speaker 1: the lenders and against the farmers and against the Birdings
Speaker 1: and against TQL. So you have on one site. You
Speaker 1: got get it on the banks. I know Jim Mooring
Speaker 1: wants it there. Castellini's won it there. The Bengals won
Speaker 1: it there. On the other hand, you have the lenders,
Speaker 1: the farmers, the meg Whitman's, the tqls, the birdings want
Speaker 1: it up that way. This will be interesting to watch
Speaker 1: when will be concluded. I want to see the masters
Speaker 1: of the universe butt heads.
Speaker 2: To see for the next six months, we come up
Speaker 2: with a Bible plan where there's public hearings, public buy in,
Speaker 2: there will be government approvals, all of that will need
Speaker 2: to say we can do this. Then once that consensus
Speaker 2: has been established around the plan again with public hearings,
Speaker 2: then there will need to be a process on okay, now,
Speaker 2: what's the best place to build it? And I am
Speaker 2: confident that we'll come up with a process. And at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, Bill, I know you know this.
Speaker 2: I'm a Cincinnati guy. I want to see a new arena.
Speaker 2: If the best plan is to put it on the riverfront,
Speaker 2: you know, that's great, we get a new arena. If
Speaker 2: the best is to put it next door to over
Speaker 2: the Rhine of Music Hall and all the great entertainment
Speaker 2: and history of Cincinnati up in our neck of the woods,
Speaker 2: then that's great. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: what I don't want is that we continue to lose
Speaker 2: out as a community because we have among the top
Speaker 2: fifty cities in this country the worst arena. How are
Speaker 2: we going to bring the best talent, How are we
Speaker 2: going to bring more jobs, more popular? How are we
Speaker 2: going to be winning as a community when such a
Speaker 2: visible thing our arena is the worst of the top
Speaker 2: fifty cities in the country. Again, I'm tired of losing.
Speaker 2: I want to see us winning.
Speaker 1: Bill the new Duke Energy Center supposed to open in January,
Speaker 1: I believe there's no hotel attacks to it. A little
Speaker 1: birdie told me that the Port Authority had difficulty getting
Speaker 1: financing from the Maria Group's going to operate it. But
Speaker 1: why is there not a big hotel opening along with
Speaker 1: the convention center.
Speaker 2: Well, I think the short is is that this three
Speaker 2: CDC has done excellent work advancing the convention center modernization.
Speaker 2: That work, that plan came together quickly, it was much
Speaker 2: less money, and we obviously went to work right away
Speaker 2: because we don't have a functional convention center right now
Speaker 2: until the work is done at the beginning part of
Speaker 2: twenty six. The hotel much more complicated, you know, an
Speaker 2: eight seven hundred and fifty eight hudred room hotel is
Speaker 2: much much more extensive. If there's some different financing pieces,
Speaker 2: some of the pieces involved the state, these things are
Speaker 2: just a little bit more challenging. My belief, Bill, is
Speaker 2: that we will have an announcement again led by three
Speaker 2: CDC in our you know, the city and the county
Speaker 2: here very soon on the hotel, and then that construction
Speaker 2: work will commence.
Speaker 1: That's going to be years away, years away.
Speaker 2: Probably at least twenty four months. Twenty four months is
Speaker 2: I think what it will take. So if we could
Speaker 2: get under way in early twenty six and you're talking
Speaker 2: about opening in early twenty eight, well.
Speaker 1: The convention center can't rip and roar until there's an attached,
Speaker 1: brand new hotel. It's just done work by itself. Now
Speaker 1: let's talk about soccer for a moment.
Speaker 2: What can I tell you, Bill, Sorry real quick, but
Speaker 2: you know what, once the cranes go up, you're telling groups.
Speaker 2: You're recruiting these groups to come to your convention center
Speaker 2: for big conventions a couple of years out anyway, Once
Speaker 2: the cranes go up, then you're showing a level of
Speaker 2: confidence and certainty to groups you're recruiting to come here
Speaker 2: and to bring their groups and to bring the people
Speaker 2: that are spent a lot of money, you have something
Speaker 2: to sell them for two years down the line anyway.
Speaker 1: Well, and then also, isn't it true that financing has
Speaker 1: been a problem.
Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of these final details. I
Speaker 2: would tell you. I think most of this deal, eighty
Speaker 2: ninety percent of the deal has been done for some time,
Speaker 2: and the final ten percent, as you know, is always
Speaker 2: the hardest.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about MESSI six or seven years ago,
Speaker 1: eight years ago, when I was with you and Gerber
Speaker 1: the commission at UC campus, there was a dream. I
Speaker 1: think the final vote on city Council was five to four,
Speaker 1: could have gone the other way, could have been four
Speaker 1: to five. If that went the other way, then we
Speaker 1: wouldn't have a franchise, There wouldn't be a TQL, there
Speaker 1: wouldn't be a convention center possibly there. There wouldn't be
Speaker 1: five hundred million dollar development happening as I speak. When
Speaker 1: you look back on that, do you kind of amuse
Speaker 1: by the fact that at least four members of council
Speaker 1: did not want to change zoning. Isn't that amazing?
Speaker 2: You know it is, But I'm not much of a
Speaker 2: look back guy. At the end of the day, we
Speaker 2: got it done. I'm focused on what do we still
Speaker 2: need to build, what do we still need to achieve
Speaker 2: as a community. At the end of the day, you know,
Speaker 2: there were some people who maybe didn't quite see the
Speaker 2: vision the way we saw it. I assure you that
Speaker 2: can I've talked to a bunch of them. You know
Speaker 2: they see it now. And that's all that really matters
Speaker 2: is people see that this has been a tremendous shot
Speaker 2: in the arm for our community.
Speaker 1: In the West End. Community Council is for it. Talk
Speaker 1: to me about Messy one hundred, talk about that because
Speaker 1: this argument because you when someone has to lose, that's
Speaker 1: not true.
Speaker 2: No. Look, I went door to door in the West
Speaker 2: End and listen and to hear what their concerns were.
Speaker 2: We did our the first ever community benefits agreement because
Speaker 2: to be fair, change had never been good for residents
Speaker 2: of the West End. They had suffered from decades of
Speaker 2: disinvestment in decline. I've said this, you know, I was
Speaker 2: on City Council for six years. I don't call a
Speaker 2: single meeting where we even talked about the West End.
Speaker 2: And so you know, we've delivered. We've and in return.
Speaker 2: We've earned their trust and we're good neighbors and they're
Speaker 2: good neighbors to us, and it's been a great thing.
Speaker 2: Our mixed use development, which was approved by the City
Speaker 2: Planning Commission today unanimously, approved by the West End Community
Speaker 2: Council unanimously, was approved in its first iteration largely still
Speaker 2: the same by City Council unanimously. I mean, that's pretty
Speaker 2: rare these days in politics.
Speaker 1: Two winners, not a loser, and a winter. Lastly, about Messy.
Speaker 1: If somebody could have told you five or six years
Speaker 1: ago that MESSI would come to TQL at five o'clock
Speaker 1: on Sunday and actually get beaten by FC, you would
Speaker 1: not have believed it. It was impossible. He'd be like you
Speaker 1: signing Ronaldo, which is still down the road, I hope.
Speaker 1: Talk about the historical aspects of the greatest of all
Speaker 1: time coming to the West End to play soccer against
Speaker 1: your team.
Speaker 2: Talk about that, well, The thing I would say is
Speaker 2: people need to appreciate that soccer is the biggest sport
Speaker 2: in the world. It's not in our country, of course,
Speaker 2: football is in the history of baseball, but it is
Speaker 2: and this weekend, the biggest soccer game on the planet
Speaker 2: is in Cincinnati at Tiquo Stadium, because the whole world
Speaker 2: is watching to see if Cincinnati sends Messi and Miami home.
Speaker 2: And you know, there's two legends of Barcelona, Sergio Busquettes
Speaker 2: and Jordi Alva, that have been playing with Messi these
Speaker 2: last couple of years at Miami. They announced the retirement
Speaker 2: at the end of the regular season, so this could
Speaker 2: be their last game. And you know, we have fared
Speaker 2: very well against Miami. We didn't lose to them this year.
Speaker 2: We have it in our two games. We didn't even
Speaker 2: concede a goal to them. We match up with them
Speaker 2: pretty well. Obviously, they have some of the best players
Speaker 2: and with Messi probably the goat. And so it's going
Speaker 2: to be a great environment. We still have a few tickets,
Speaker 2: but ultimately it'll be sold out. It's going to be
Speaker 2: you know, a lot of fireworks, a lot of music,
Speaker 2: some incredible fan energy and of course Bill worldlie.
Speaker 1: No question, all right, give our best to the Lender family.
Speaker 1: They're suffering and at this point, your family like that
Speaker 1: needs compliments and warmth and they need a big thank you.
Speaker 1: I could not imagine our communities without the Lender families
Speaker 1: participating and giving so much over these decades. And once again,
Speaker 1: Jeff Birding, it's a big weekend in sports. It's all
Speaker 1: going to be five o'clock on Sunday at the end.
Speaker 1: And may God bless you, and God bless the Lender
Speaker 1: family and Jeff Birding. Thank you, very thank you, God
Speaker 1: bless you, thank you. Let's continue with more if a
Speaker 1: line becomes available five one, three, seven, four, nine, seven thousand.
Speaker 1: I don't know too many communities anywhere in the world
Speaker 1: that has this lineup of activities, including the Jonas Brothers.
Speaker 1: I know Jeff Birding is a great fan of the
Speaker 1: Jonas Brothers. I think they're playing tonight. But to have
Speaker 1: all this happening coming together is a testament to all
Speaker 1: of the kind of community that we can be in
Speaker 1: the count of community that we are. And I could
Speaker 1: not imagine the Old West End not having these developments.
Speaker 1: The last five or six or seven years. It was
Speaker 1: right down and the Crapper. And at this point it's
Speaker 1: win win win every which way. And if you have time,
Speaker 1: drive through Central Parkway take a look at what's happening
Speaker 1: adjacent to TQL Stadium. A four hundred million dollar investment
Speaker 1: and to have on one side of the ring the
Speaker 1: Castellini's and Jim Mooring and the John Barretts and the
Speaker 1: Procter and Gambles and the Bengals saying we want the
Speaker 1: new Indoor Stateument to be here. On the other side,
Speaker 1: you have the lenders, you have Meg Whitman, you have
Speaker 1: the farmers, you have the Jeff birdingsd the TQL saying no,
Speaker 1: we want it over here, and the masters of the
Speaker 1: universe will decide what to do. Let's continue with more
Speaker 1: and so much to do in the tries did over
Speaker 1: the next few days. I think to an extent, we
Speaker 1: criticize ourselves so much, but the world has his eyes
Speaker 1: trained on Cincinnati this weekend, and I'm picking Elder to
Speaker 1: kick ass tonight, all on news radio seven hundred WLW