Ohio’s Hamilton County, long considered to have made the worst stadium deal ever for a municipality, voted for a relative win when it comes to the future of the Cincinnati Bengals in the city.

By a vote of 2-1, the county commissioners approved a short-term lease based on an April 22 memorandum of understanding (MOU) where the Bengals and the county will make $184.5 million worth of improvements to Paycor Stadium in the next year.

The Bengals, with a $60 million loan from the NFL, will put in $120 million while Hamilton County will pitch in the remaining $64.5 million.

This funding is going toward the first of four phases of stadium renovations, a project that is expected to total $830 million over the next four years. Phase one, set to begin in February 2026, will focus on suite and lounge improvements, as well as revamped concessions and new escalators.

The stadium already underwent around $39 million worth of changes paid for by Hamilton County last summer, featuring new club seats, a new TV system (with more than 1,600 TVs) and a new field.

Hamilton County commissioners Stephanie Summerow Dumas and Denise Driehaus voted in favor of the agreement, with Driehaus citing the NFL’s loan as reason for her vote.

“The taxpayers are on the hook for 94% of the upgrades right now, and none of us think that’s fair,” Driehaus said. “It would be a bad idea to not do this on time and forego $60M from the NFL. I don’t think that’s a good look for us. But it’s not only about that. It’s also about getting the project moving.

Hamilton County commissioner Alicia Reece voted against the deal, saying that there were not enough cost savings for taxpayers and that the renovations were focused on premium seating as opposed to lower-cost sections.

“I voted to send the people in to negotiate and what came back is a memo for some more money,” Reece said during the meeting.

Both the Bengals and Hamilton County have asked the state of Ohio to carve out $350 million in the state budget for the renovations. Gov. Mike DeWine has until the end of June to sign off on the budget. The original financing deal for Paycor was widely criticized as the worst-ever stadium deal by a municipality when it began in the late 1990s.

Hamilton County agreed to subsidize financing for two new stadiums for the Bengals and MLB’s Cincinnati Reds. For years, both teams complained about the lack of modern amenities at Riverfront Stadium, the infamous “cookie-cutter” multipurpose park that opened in 1970, compared to peers in their respective leagues.

What was originally called Paul Brown Stadium opened ahead of the 2000 NFL season thanks to $555 million in taxpayer subsidies—the largest ever given to build a sports stadium at the time—as construction went far above the original $280 million budget. Additionally, the original lease terms have been largely beneficial to the Bengals as the county would be on the hook for capital improvements—infamously including a “holographic replay machine,” a technology that does not exist yet—to keep Paycor “state of the art” compared to other NFL stadiums.

The Bengals are ranked last in Sportico’sNFL franchise valuations list at $4.71 billion and generated the third-lowest revenue among the 32 clubs at $554 million.

Although playing in a small market doesn’t necessarily limit the national appeal of NFL teams (see Green Bay), big-market teams and fans in Cincinnati have routinely criticized the Bengals for being slower to spend like their peers. Locking up their top receiver duo this offseason has been a surprising step toward changing that perception, though.

As detailed after NFL owners voted on new ownership rules that incorporate private equity, the Bengals have a lengthy history of voting against league proposals due to a certain level of protectionism.