The effort to force  a stadium naming-rights deal between the Cincinnati Bengals and Paycor was so secret it had not one, but two code names.

Internally Paycor called the deal Project SoFi, a nod to the name of the stadium where the Bengals played in the 2022 Super Bowl. Norwood-based Paycor was already a team sponsor, so talking about the Bengals' Super Bowl appearance wouldn't seem out of the ordinary. 

Meanwhile, the Bengals' internal code name for the deal was Project Lightening, a name Elizabeth Blackburn, the team's director of strategy and engagement, came up with. It's a nod to Paycor's competitor, Paycom, which has the naming rights to the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder Paycom Center. (Get it? Thunder and lightning.) And it references just how quickly the deal came together.

Holmes and Carly Graman, Paycor's marketing and communications manager, revealed the code names and much more about how the deal came together on The Enquirer's "That's So Cincinnati" podcast.