Twenty-six years after it opened on Cincinnati’s riverfront, Paycor Stadium is midway through the most extensive renovation programme in its history. Phase One lands in time for the Bengals’ 2026 season and the club’s fans are the clear winners.
Home of the Cincinnati Bengals since 2000, Paycor Stadium has had incremental upgrades over the years; new video displays here, refreshed concessions there. But the current programme, triggered by a new lease agreed last year between Hamilton County and the Bengals, is different in scale and ambition. Phase One, substantially complete ahead of both the Cincinnati Music Festival and the new NFL season, touches almost every part of the fan journey, from the restrooms to the pro shop to the control room running the video boards.
The renovation brief was deliberately broad rather than boutique: prioritise the improvements that touch the most fans, most often. That has meant a full overhaul of every restroom, with brighter lighting and modernised finishes, plus dedicated nursing rooms for mothers with young children. Concession areas on the canopy level have been reworked around speed of service, with new grab-and-go “Go Route” kiosks and self-checkout points designed to shrink queues and free up concourse space.
The most visible transformation is upstairs. Club lounges have been expanded and reimagined with a “modern jungle” aesthetic – floor-to-ceiling copper tiger-stripe columns, leaf-patterned flooring – alongside new bars, more points of sale and additional escalators and stairs to ease entry and exit. Every suite in the building has been redesigned too, with expanded lounges, new furniture and full-size refrigerators replacing the old mini-bar setups.
Behind the scenes, the scoreboard control room has been expanded and rebuilt around an IP-based 4K system, adding cameras and replay feeds ahead of future technology upgrades. More than 1,000 new signs have gone in across the concourses to improve wayfinding, and less glamorous but no less important work – concrete repairs, waterproofing – lift modernisation has continued throughout.
None of this is happening in isolation. The Banks, the riverfront district Paycor Stadium anchors, generates more than $2.5 billion in annual economic impact, over $1 billion of it driven by the Bengals alone. Warm Construction, the club’s official building partner, delivered much of the fan-facing work, including the lounges, suites, concessions and pro shop.
Looking ahead, 2027 promises the next big-ticket items: new escalators, a full seat replacement across the bowl, and a larger videoboard with what the Bengals describe as enhanced technology. Coming after a phase focused on comfort and flow, that suggests a second phase built around spectacle, a fitting way to keep a 26-year-old stadium feeling current for years to come.
