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A solution to the Bearcats arena issue may be close at hand. There is a great deal of talk among fans and behind the scenes as well that the Cincinnati Bearcats could be playing their games downtown at a renovated US Bank Arena.
The rumor is that UC will pay a small part of the cost for bringing US Bank into this century, perhaps as little as 20 per cent of the cost. The rest will be picked up by a as yet unknown entity. For what it's worth there seems to be far more momentum behind this than there was when the idea was last floated about five years ago.
There are still a ton of things that have to be ironed out behind the scenes before a deal like this is set in stone and able to be announced to the public. Who should handle the maintenance of the facility? Are the bearcats the primary tenant, and thus control the scheduling of dates? How does UC go about compensating Fifth Third if they no longer play games in an arena bearing their name, an this depriving them of residual marketing value. There are a lot more questions and problems of that ilk that must be addressed before the project can move forward.
This is obviously still early days, and the course could change again in the coming weeks and months, but Bearcats Basketball moving back downtown is a true possibility.
