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With three home games in 12 days, Bengals are facing blackouts


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With three home games in 12 days, Bengals are facing blackouts
Posted by Mike Florio on October 21, 2014, 1:57 PM EDT

 

 

The Bengals, who have qualified for the playoffs in three straight years, have had trouble selling tickets this year.  In the midst of an 0-2-1 slump, the Bengals face arguably their biggest box-office test of the season; they’ve got three home games in a 12-day span.

“We still have tickets available for each of the three games and are working hard to sell as many as we can and get the games on TV,” Bengals ticket sales manager Andrew Brown said.

On Sunday, the Bengals host the Ravens.  The following Sunday, the Bengals host the Jaguars.  Four days later, the Browns come to town for a Thursday night game.

The Bengals decided before the season to reduce their non-premium ticket threshold to 85 percent to ensure that the games will be televised locally, but they’re still facing the possibility of one or more blackouts.

No NFL games have been blacked out on local TV yet this year.  Last month, the FCC voted to end government support for the blackout rule.  The league and the broadcast networks still have the ability to privately agree not to televise the games, if they aren’t sold out within 72 hours before kickoff.

If/when the NFL continues to black out games, Congress could intensify efforts to force the NFL to permit all games to be televised in the local market, regardless of the amount of tickets sold.

 

 

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/10/21/bengals-facing-three-home-games-in-12-days/

 

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The team stinks, ...they're horrible.

 

Go ahead let it be a blackout and then either win this game or at the very least make a game of it and they should see some of those sales back again. 

 

Until you field at least a competitive team, ...blackouts will be common, ...nobody wants to go see a team that stinks.

 

What's worse is that this teams acts like they don't care that they stink.

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Is it really a surprise that there is a risk of blackouts for this three game stretch? I think the risk is there for the balance of the season as well. When you
can't sellout, not 85%, your stadium when your team is on a three game winning streak speaks volumes. There isn't a strong and loyal enough fan base to overcome all of the failures on Mike Brown's part in the past. The lost decade of the 90's when he lost a complete generation of fans, his incompetence since he has been GM is legend. While most other teams have a waiting list for season tickets, the Bengals don't. All of the excuses about the economy are just that excuses. This ownership doesn't deserve loyalty from its fan base, especially not from its season ticket holders. Katie, Troy and Paul Jr. are seeing first hand the sins of thefather coming back to bite them in the as* now.
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They dont deserve sellout crowds.
 
And blackouts will save all the people in the area from wasting 4 hours of their time like the past three weeks.


Seriously? Dude, this is the quintessential bandwagon fan comment. Seriously, this could we 2001 again and is be fine watching them play every week. Its called being a fan. You watch then because you love them.
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Seriously? Dude, this is the quintessential bandwagon fan comment. Seriously, this could we 2001 again and is be fine watching them play every week. Its called being a fan. You watch then because you love them.

 

I'm 36 years old, Ive been a fan my entire life. The term bandwagon gets tossed around so lightly here and is completely illogical to call someone that spends hours of their life each day reading and reacting on message boards. Bandwagon is a Steelers fan that has no ties to Pittsburgh, or a Heat fan that never lived in Miami. I still watched every game during the lost decade, several years of which at crazy times of day and night because I was serving overseas. Being a fan isnt a competition to see who can defend terrible football better than the other. Watching games also does not make you more of a fan than someone else... I watch them all, and go WAY out of my way than to simply tune to channel 12 from my living room to see them. That doesnt mean that after games like this past week, 4 hours of my life was not wasted (it was), plus another hour and a half total driving from the beach to where my Bengals fan group watch the games and back.

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Is it really a surprise that there is a risk of blackouts for this three game stretch? I think the risk is there for the balance of the season as well. When you
can't sellout, not 85%, your stadium when your team is on a three game winning streak speaks volumes. There isn't a strong and loyal enough fan base to overcome all of the failures on Mike Brown's part in the past. The lost decade of the 90's when he lost a complete generation of fans, his incompetence since he has been GM is legend. While most other teams have a waiting list for season tickets, the Bengals don't. All of the excuses about the economy are just that excuses. This ownership doesn't deserve loyalty from its fan base, especially not from its season ticket holders. Katie, Troy and Paul Jr. are seeing first hand the sins of thefather coming back to bite them in the as* now.

The economic factor IS in fact a legitimate excuse. Going to the games is CRAZY expensive, so I don't know why you'd say that, in spite of the fact that your other reason(s) are valid for some disgruntled fans. Plus the TV experience is lights out compared to what it was even 10-15 years ago.

 


Not even worth worrying about. They haven't lost a regular season game since 2012, so if people think they don't deserve sell out that's their own ignorance.

They lost a regular season game just last Sunday!

 

:ninja:

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I'm 36 years old, Ive been a fan my entire life. The term bandwagon gets tossed around so lightly here and is completely illogical to call someone that spends hours of their life each day reading and reacting on message boards. Bandwagon is a Stealers fan that has no ties to Pittsburgh, or a Heat fan that never lived in Miami. I still watched every game during the lost decade, several years of which at crazy times of day and night because I was serving overseas. Being a fan isnt a competition to see who can defend terrible football better than the other. Watching games also does not make you more of a fan than someone else... I watch them all, and go WAY out of my way than to simply tune to channel 12 from my living room to see them. That doesnt mean that after games like this past week, 4 hours of my life was not wasted (it was), plus another hour and a half total driving from the beach to where my Bengals fan group watch the games and back.

 

Sorry dude.   Bandwagon is completely applicable when talking about fans that decide to attend or not attend based on perception of the team.

 

The reality is being on a message board, sitting on your couch is a form of fandom but not one that really counts for anything. 

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The economic factor IS in fact a legitimate excuse. Going to the games is CRAZY expensive, so I don't know why you'd say that, in spite of the fact that your other reason(s) are valid for some disgruntled fans. Plus the TV experience is lights out compared to what it was even 10-15 years ago.

 

 

 

It's mixed bag.    Bengals have pissed people off they simply do not have the ticket buying base they need. Alot of that reverts back to 2010.   The Bengals haven't done the "fluff" stuff to the stadium to really make ticket buying fans feel they are valued or stuff that build pride in the organization since then. 

 

The TV product is awesome and not mentioned the Sports Bar product has invested heavyily in improving their experience.   However,  you can't just leave it at that.   The Bengals haven't matched.    They dump millions of improvements on multiple occasions into team facilities improvements.   I applaud those.    They haven't done that for fan experience improvements.

 

When you take a tour of the team lockeroom.  It screams team history, pride etc.   All that stuff that supposedly Paul Brown didn't like.   Really the organization doesn't like boasting about parts of their history if it means dumping a couple hundred thousand into the concourse when there is no tangible benefit to the team.

 

Going to Lucas Oil last weekend was sickening because of the game, but it was also sickening to be reminded that a Colts fanbase that was shitty for so many years and has been built up into an awesome atmosphere and pretty much dominates the Bengals PBS experience in the same manner their defense did our offense. 

 

I'm sure someone is going to point out the Colts difficulty in selling tickets.   Completely different.    First the hole to avoid blackout was much less.   They have a ticket base in Indy.   Their trouble selling out for the playoff game was born out of ticket holders not wanting to put money down and not buying their seats.

 

The Bengals problem was they didn't have anybody to sell those tickets too.   The entire 2013 avoidance of blackouts was smoke and mirrors because they had the Packers, Pats, Steeler, and Colts that drew a bunch of visiting fans and those were packaged with another game that increased those sales but often were left on stub hub and unused the no shows were huge last year. 

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What is the parking cost at your stadium? Fed Ex charges at least $40 to park, and it varies by lot on the cost.  

The other option we have here is taking Metro and walking about a mile to the stadium. 

 

Not sure what the stadium controlled lots are these days.  Season parking pass pending the lot could run you 30-50 per game, I think.

 

A few block walk and you are looking at 15-25.

 

In NKY, 10.  (But you have to swim across the river if you are afraid of boats or bridges)

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Sorry dude.   Bandwagon is completely applicable when talking about fans that decide to attend or not attend based on perception of the team.

 

The reality is being on a message board, sitting on your couch is a form of fandom but not one that really counts for anything. 

 

No its not. Its a significant financial expenditure for many people- so if the team they follow is putting forth no effort on the field and blatently has no desire to win- of course a family isnt going to go spend $300-400 on a game, or a single guy isnt going to go spend $100 on a game. I think true fans should be exceptionally upset that we are stuck in year 12 with Marvin Lewis and still have zero playoff wins, and no one is even trying to fix that- its status quo year after year. Fans vote with their wallets, and this team deserves very few positive votes. Often in sports, the only thing that enacts forward change is fan unrest and unwillingness to spend on the shit product on the field/court.

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No its not. Its a significant financial expenditure for many people- so if the team they follow is putting forth no effort on the field and blatently has no desire to win- of course a family isnt going to go spend $300-400 on a game, or a single guy isnt going to go spend $100 on a game. I think true fans should be exceptionally upset that we are stuck in year 12 with Marvin Lewis and still have zero playoff wins, and no one is even trying to fix that- its status quo year after year. Fans vote with their wallets, and this team deserves very few positive votes. Often in sports, the only thing that enacts forward change is fan unrest and unwillingness to spend on the shit product on the field/court.

 

Hmmmm no effort and no desire to win certainly explains how they haven't lost a home game since 2012.    Make sense.

 

Bandwagon fits.    

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Hmmmm no effort and no desire to win certainly explains how they haven't lost a home game since 2012.    Make sense.

 

Bandwagon fits.    

So the new benchmark for the Bengals is winning home games now?   I was under the impression that his was the year (although I am pretty sure the same thing was said last year) the Bengals were going to make a run in the playoffs.

 

What every fan capable of honestly looking at this franchise realizes is that we  still just have an average to slightly above average team.  They realize that staying out of the FA market (like always)  and not trying to bring in a difference maker will once again cement our spot as a low teens club.

 

We lost more talent in FA than we got in return (like always) and we once again drafted a guy in the first round who doesn't make the club noticeably  better THIS YEAR.  5 CBs chosen in the first round this year, which one has the lowest number of snaps and tackles?  Ours of course.  Oh I know, its the Bengals way not to start rookies at corner. Denver has started Roby all year next to Pro Bowler Talib (FA of course).   Jason Verrett has started the last 4 games in San Diego.  Our strategy is to stockpile 1st round CB picks in preparation for the 2016 season.

 

Perhaps the most troubling thing is we spend a 2nd round pick on a running back we hardly use. We could have just kept BJGE or there were plenty of options in FA.  Instead we use another early pick to stockpile for the future.

 

Here is what a franchise trying to win does: http://www.si.com/nfl/audibles/2014/06/10/denver-broncos-offseason-report-card
 

Here is what a franchise shooting for average does: http://www.si.com/nfl/audibles/2014/06/04/cincinnati-bengals-offseason-report-card

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So the new benchmark for the Bengals is winning home games now?   I was under the impression that his was the year (although I am pretty sure the same thing was said last year) the Bengals were going to make a run in the playoffs.
 
What every fan capable of honestly looking at this franchise realizes is that we  still just have an average to slightly above average team.  They realize that staying out of the FA market (like always)  and not trying to bring in a difference maker will once again cement our spot as a low teens club.
 
We lost more talent in FA than we got in return (like always) and we once again drafted a guy in the first round who doesn't make the club noticeably  better THIS YEAR.  5 CBs chosen in the first round this year, which one has the lowest number of snaps and tackles?  Ours of course.  Oh I know, its the Bengals way not to start rookies at corner. Denver has started Roby all year next to Pro Bowler Talib (FA of course).   Jason Verrett has started the last 4 games in San Diego.  Our strategy is to stockpile 1st round CB picks in preparation for the 2016 season.
 
Perhaps the most troubling thing is we spend a 2nd round pick on a running back we hardly use. We could have just kept BJGE or there were plenty of options in FA.  Instead we use another early pick to stockpile for the future.
 
Here is what a franchise trying to win does: http://www.si.com/nfl/audibles/2014/06/10/denver-broncos-offseason-report-card
 
Here is what a franchise shooting for average does: http://www.si.com/nfl/audibles/2014/06/04/cincinnati-bengals-offseason-report-card


Exactly.
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So the new benchmark for the Bengals is winning home games now? 

 

Fuck yeah.    When the topic is selling out HOME regular season games.   I think the benchmark for their performance in those games is relevant. 

 

 I was under the impression that his was the year (although I am pretty sure the same thing was said last year) the Bengals were going to make a run in the playoffs.

 

.

That doesn't have shit to do with selling out the next 3 home games.   They CAN'T win a PLAYOFF game in OCTOBER/NOVEMBER.    But don't you have to win games in the regular season to have a chance to win a playoff game? 

 

So you are not going to buy a regular season ticket because they haven't won a playoff game, yet?  Makes perfect sense, I guess.

 

What every fan capable of honestly looking at this franchise realizes is that we still just have an average to slightly above average team. They realize that staying out of the FA market (like always) and not trying to bring in a difference maker will once again cement our spot as a low teens club.

 

 

 

 

Sorry.   Honestly looking?  Really?   We haven't been a low teens club since 2010.    You are not looking at it honestly.   Your statement proves it.      There are only 12 teams, 6 from each conference that get playoff bids.   Low teens?  LOL.

 

What  alot of Bengal fans are capable of doing is jumping ship and making excuses to support their lame reasons they'd rather play on a message board and sit on their couch whining about blackouts.

 

There is nothing wrong with that by the way,  enjoy your Bengals how you want to.   However that is bandwagon.   It's also a shitty fan base.   I don't disagree the Bengals deserve some of it but it's still shitty. 

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Hypothetical.    Bengals want new stadium or major upgrades to PBS or they move.

 

Do you think very many people outside Bengal nation is going to give two shits about the bandwagon rationalization?  No.    They are gonna say those fuckers don't support a winner and laugh like they do now.

 

That's the simple truth.   We have shitty fans.  

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