Bengals ticket sales=NFL doghouse

[*pally*]

At the end of August, at a preseason owners video meeting the NFL called out 5 teams, among them the Bengals for bad ticket sales. Each team at an average of 15,000 tickets available per home game. Also named were the WFT, Jets, Jacksonville, and Detroit

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2021/10/25/Upfront/NFL-tickets.aspx

Quote:There was no explicit chastisement, but there didn’t have to be. To some league veterans, the slide spoke volumes — it was interpreted as Commissioner Roger Goodell calling out certain owners in front of their peers for business underperformance. While owners have challenged each other semi-publicly in the past, this was unprecedented.

Quote:That’s just it. The slide, sources said, came as Goodell grows more frustrated with NFL teams that are not optimizing the unprecedented strength and stability of the league — or taking advantage of the systems the NFL has built to help them if they cannot.

“I know Roger’s getting more and more frustrated with teams that don’t invest,” another longtime team executive said.

Quote:Goodell is looking for other places to optimize revenue, one source said, and it’s clear to him not all owners are truly doing all they can, despite a league emphasis in recent years on helping teams become more professional through the creation of the Club Business Development program.

“There’s more of a feeling that during the pandemic, some teams really invested and worked hard at keeping the business moving forward and keeping fans engaged, and other people turtled,” that source said, describing his perception of Goodell’s mindset. “I think there’s more of a feeling that shouldn’t be allowed, and that we have an obligation to each other to work hard at this.”

This wrinkle does not carry a small-market versus big-market dynamic. In fact, insiders say Park Avenue’s main issue is with large-market teams failing to optimize their position, because the delta between reality and potential is so vast compared to the small markets

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The positive is that we know from watching Elizabeth Blackburn is that her department has been working on improving fan engagement since she started in her job. We also know that winning cures a lot of what ails them. The Bengals are the only one of the 5 teams with a 2021 winning record and are the only one of the 5 teams to have shown attendance improvement. In 2019 they averaged 47719 ranking 31. So far in 2021, they are averaging 61,306 ranking 26th (also have the 26th ranked capacity with 65,515). Looking ahead
Browns game is sold out with essentially the only tickets available on the resale market. The Steelers, Ravens, and Chiefs should get there but there is still work to be done. There are a lot of tickets still available for the 49ers and Chargers.