The Cincinnati stadium deal is up in 2026.

Could the National Football League put a second team in Chicago? Chicago once had two NFL franchises but that ended in 1959 when the Bidwill family decided to leave town for St. Louis. But an NBC sports analyst Mike Florio thinks the ownership of the Cincinnati Bengals franchise should just pick up and leave Cincinnati and head to Chicago and help the McCaskey family’s Bears ownership in its attempt to build a stadium in either Chicago or the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights. The Bengals franchise ownership’s stadium deal with Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio, ends in 2026. The sides are negotiating but the talks seems to be moving at a snail’s pace and Bengals business  Vice President Katie Blackburn  said “We could, I guess, go wherever we wanted after this year.”

The McCaskey family would like to leave its present Chicago home stadium for a spot located in the present home stadium’s south parking lot or move to team to Arlington Heights where the McCaskey family has enough property for a stadium-village. Illinois politicians have not been impressed with the McCaskey’s want of over a billion dollars’ worth of taxpayers’ money to help pay the cost of a stadium and surrounding businesses. In Cincinnati, what to do with the stadium is a complex question. For instance should Hamilton County, Cincinnati and Ohio taxpayers kick in to help fund the cost of putting a dome on the stadium? That is one concept that Hamilton County officials are discussing. The cost of putting a lid on the stadium? Roughly one billion dollars. Cincinnati and Hamilton County officials claim they are ready to negotiate. But there have been a number of years of negotiations. Back in Chicago, Bears ownership had hoped to have a shovel in the ground by now and that has not happened. The stadium game continues.

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TAMPA (AP) — Alex Bregman went 5 for 5 with two home runs and four RBIs, Jarren Duran added a two-run homer and the Boston Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays 7-4 on Tuesday night.

Bregman fell a triple shy of the cycle and had his seventh two-homer game. Kameron Misner nearly robbed him of the second one, but the ball fell out of the rookie’s glove and over the right-center fence.

The Red Sox got three hits in the first off Ryan Pepiot (1-2), one more than they had in six innings against Shane Baz in a 16-1 loss on Monday.

Boston starter Walker Buehler (2-1) allowed three hits and two runs over five innings. He walked three and struck out three. Aroldis Chapman fanned Brandon Lowe for his fourth save.

Jonathan Aranda, who entered leading the majors with a .395 average, was 2 for 3 with a homer and an RBI for Tampa Bay.

A high-pitched ringing delayed the game for nearly two minutes in the bottom of the second with Jake Mangum at bat. Then in the fifth, the left-field video board briefly went black as play continued. The Rays have sold out all 14 home games at Steinbrenner Field (10,046) after Hurricane Milton heavily damaged Tropicana Field in October.

Key moment

Buehler, who hadn’t walked more than one in any of his previous five starts, issued two in the fourth inning to load the bases. After Misner’s sacrifice fly scored Junior Caminero, Ceddanne Rafaela’s diving catch got Buehler out of the jam.

Key stat

Bregman’s seventh-inning shot was the 40th homer already at Steinbrenner Field this season. Entering Tuesday, only Yankee Stadium (40) had as many home runs in 2025.

Up next

In the series finale Wednesday, Tampa Bay’s Zack Littell (0-3, 6.88 ERA) bids for his first win. Boston has not announced a starter.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Brayden Point had a goal and two assists to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 5-1 victory against the Florida Panthers on Thursday.

Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assists and Yanni Gourde added two assists. Conor Geekie, Jake Guentzel and Darren Raddysh also scored for Tampa Bay. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 23 shots.

Brad Marchand scored for Florida, which finished its regular season schedule. Vitek Vanecek finished with 26 saves.

The teams will meet in the opening round of the playoffs starting this weekend.

Tampa Bay scored three goals in the first period, with Point scoring 1:32 into the game. Geekie made it 2-0 with 4:35 left before Guentzel scored shorthanded with 1:51 to play in the period.

Kucherov made it 4-0 almost five minutes into the second, but Marchand answered about a minute later.

Raddysh scored a 5-on-3 power=play goal with 8:38 to play moments after Florida’s Jesse Puljujarvi was assessed a match penalty for an illegal check to the head to Mitchell Chaffee.

Takeaways

Panthers: Florida played without regulars Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Gustav Forsling, Anton Lundell and A.J. Greer. … Marchand’s goal is his second since joining the Panthers.

Lightning: Geekie has two goals in two games since being recalled from AHL Syracuse. … Victor Hedman recorded his fourth 50-assisst season. … Anthony Cirelli recorded his 23rd career shorthanded point.

Key moment

Tampa Bay was up 2-0 late in the first period when Brandon Hagel took a double-minor to negate a Lightning power play. But seven seconds into the Florida power play, Cirelli won a puck battle against Seth Jones and fed Guentzel in front for a short-handed goal to make it 3-0.

Key stat

Kucherov reached the 120-point mark for the second consecutive season and third time in his career to become just the 14th player in NHL history with three-or-more seasons of at least 120 points.

Up Next

The Lightning finish the regular season at the New York Rangers on Thursday while the Panthers await Game 1 of their opening-round series against Tampa Bay.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl