CINCINNATI — With the news of Cincinnati now forming a sports commission, many wonder why the Queen City is the only top 50 metro city without one, until now.
Besides not having a sports commission, the city’s biggest challenges in landing major sporting events that cities like Cleveland and Columbus keep drawing.
Until the commission is named, Cincinnati doesn’t have a group of dedicated people focused each day to bring events like March Madness to the city. The other big problem is the downtown arena.
The Heritage Bank Center is Cincinnati’s only downtown arena. It’s 50 years old and holds less than 18,000 people. The arena has not been utilized for large sporting events, like Nationwide Arena in Columbus or Rocket Arena in Cleveland. Which is why leaders here are pushing for a new arena as the sports commission comes to fruition.
The Heritage Bank Center has been a source of contention for many Cincinnati leaders, including Co-CEO of FC Cincinnati, Jeff Berding.
“We have fallen behind our peers,” said Berding. “We have an arena that has been obsolete for 25 years. Tt was obsolete in 2000, it’s still obsolete 25 years later. I think fortunately there seems to be a growing consensus that it is time to settle, once and for all the future for the Cincinnati arena.”
A recent feasibility study on the Cincinnati arena came to several conclusions:
That the current site of the arena is not ideal for a renovated arena, that a new arena will allow the city to better compete for concerts, sporting events and political events with other major markets like Columbus, Indianapolis, Louisville and Lexington and a new arena of similar size will cost upwards of $650 million.
While a new site for the arena is still being determined, Berding said it will only help Cincinnati compete.
“At the end of the day, I just want Cincinnati to win,” Berding said. “And having a new arena gets us there. Columbus has done good things, Cleveland has done good things. Look, Cincinnati, we have to carry our end of the stick.”
Nationwide Arena opened 25 years ago and has created a district of different sports teams (Spectrum News 1/Katie Kapusta)
But Cincinnati has a lot to learn from its peers here in Ohio, particularly with the development of Nationwide Arena, which opened 25 years ago. While that arena is home to the Blue Jackets, and Cincinnati’s arena would most likely not have a major league anchor tenant, the arena has been a difference maker for the area.
“To see the district grow so much and to start out with the NHL franchise, Huntington Park then moved over, opened and then, of course, saving the Crew and Lower.com Field all being added to what we sometimes nicknamed Sports Street,” said Linda Logan the CEO and President of the Columbus Sports Commission.
Cleveland also understands the challenges that they face, but recognized Cincinnati has some unique strengths they can play toward.
Cleveland’s Rocket Arena hosted the Women’s Final Four last year and brought in $33 million to the area
“You mentioned the challenges with an arena, but you also have a lot of great existing facilities,” said Mike Mulhall the Senior VP of Business Development with the Cleveland Sports Commission. “I think having two Division I, NCAA institutions located in your downtown (area) is a big advantage. You know, that’s more than, you know, certainly more than Cleveland has. So it’s like play to your strengths.”
While Cincinnati is actively working on hiring a CEO for its newly formed sports commission, leaders are already hoping for big events to come in the next few years. A big goal is the NFL Draft.
The NFL Draft is a big event city leaders are hoping to host in Cincinnati in the next few years (Spectrum News 1/Katie Kapusta)
Now that the sports commission is a reality, leaders in the Queen City are eager to bid on these events and bring more people to the area.
“Having a sports commission will help us go after those events and go after winning them to actually put them on in a very successful fashion,” Berding said.
So what’s next for the Cincinnati sports commission? There is a temporary board that is working to hire the CEO who will then hire out the rest of the commission, which will also consist of appointments by both city council and the Hamilton County Commission.
As for the arena, that’s still in the very early stages, but two ideal sites have been identified, and the hope is the new commission will help move the project forward.
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