Starting to Think We Go QB Early

[Shake n Blake]

(04-18-2019, 05:54 PM)fredtoast Wrote: This is getting silly.  No one bought a ticket to watch the Bengals in 2003 because of Carson Palmer because Palmer did not play a single snap.  Fans got excited and bought tickets in 2003 because we won more than he had in a decade.  They were excited with JON KITNA starting at QB.

People around here have been saying for years that they would get the excitement back when we got a new coach.  But now that we have a new coach it has become "We have to have a new QB to get excited and sell tickets."

A new QB won't sell any tickets unless he wins, and if Dalton wins he will sell just as many tickets.  

He didn't have to. That's how hype works. People were excited before the season began, because we hired a hyped HC candidate and drafted the consensus top QB and Heisman winner. Just knowing we had a franchise QB on the bench waiting to take over got people hyped. I can still vividly remember Carson's preseason debut against the Jets. People were stoked to see him for the first time. 

I bought my first Bengals tickets in 2003, when the Bengals were off to a 1-4 start. They weren't "winning", yet the ticket sales were already up by 4.1% over the previous year. Average attendance in the first 3 home games of 2002 was 58,279. Average attendance in the first 3 home games of 2003 was 60,656. 

2002 schedule:

Chargers
Bucs
Steelers

2003 schedule:

Broncos
Steelers
Ravens