09-16-2019, 01:32 AM
After attending today's game and dozens of others since PBS opened, it's extremely difficult to ignore the sad state of attendance and interest in this team. Small observations amount to a lot in regard to this, IMO. Here are a few that I've had after today:
I attended the Thursday night home opener last year and thought it was poorly attended for a prime time season opener. Today was much worse. The club level was barren as it has been for over a half decade, and if not for 49er fans in attendance, the canopy and lower Bowls would have been even sadder.
Speaking of 49ers fans, it was a surprise to see just how many were there. I've seen people comment on the defense chants coming from the stand when the Bengals were on offense. This didn't start late in the game when SF was looking dominant and the fans came out of their shells. It started literally immediately on the first drive of the game.
PBS is becoming a destination stadium for other NFL teams. We're used to seeing Steelers fans and lately even Browns fans taking over, but we're talking about droves of fans of a team that plays their home games 3000 miles from here owning it on opening freaking day. That's uh, something, I guess.
The Banks tailgate area was pretty poorly attended as well. In 2014 and 15 I avoided it because of crowding and difficulty getting to beer/food.restrooms. Today it was pretty wide open with the only line being for pizza, the only food offered outside of the restaurants. Almost no wait for beer or toilets.
Why does this matter? It speaks volumes about how apathetic this fanbase is and how done the casual football fan is with the ownership of this team. Attendance worsened a lot in 08 when they sucked and the economy was garbage. Early in the Palmer era, you paid through the nose for canopy seats on the secondary market. Now the team is forced to reduce ticket prices in a much better economy. The club level hasn't recovered to this day.
There's no shortage of bashing the Brown family for their approach to personnel acquisition here and anywhere else Bengals football is discussed. What's perhaps even worse is their lack of interest in growing their brand or expanding their profits by improving the fan experience at games. In the lower bowl where we sit, TVs are few and far between in the concourse. It's basically concrete and a couple of picnic tables with the same shitty concessions they've always had save for some buffalo sauce on the chicken fingers that they always seem to be out of. You have to do better than that in modern pro sports. The Reds have sucked for years and play in the same small market, but their fan experience is excellent. They make an effort.
The club level situation is an eyesore. It might as well not be there. It's pathetic that they can't generate corporate interest in the suites that have sat empty for such an extended period of time. It's not just individual fans that are done, it's local businesses as well. So lazy and such a waste.
It's going to take more than a new coach to change this. It will take years of sustained winning, and even then that might not be enough. I think it's a real possibility that this team isn't long for Cincinnati once the lease is up. People just don't give a shit anymore and they've seen enough of the family's act.
I attended the Thursday night home opener last year and thought it was poorly attended for a prime time season opener. Today was much worse. The club level was barren as it has been for over a half decade, and if not for 49er fans in attendance, the canopy and lower Bowls would have been even sadder.
Speaking of 49ers fans, it was a surprise to see just how many were there. I've seen people comment on the defense chants coming from the stand when the Bengals were on offense. This didn't start late in the game when SF was looking dominant and the fans came out of their shells. It started literally immediately on the first drive of the game.
PBS is becoming a destination stadium for other NFL teams. We're used to seeing Steelers fans and lately even Browns fans taking over, but we're talking about droves of fans of a team that plays their home games 3000 miles from here owning it on opening freaking day. That's uh, something, I guess.
The Banks tailgate area was pretty poorly attended as well. In 2014 and 15 I avoided it because of crowding and difficulty getting to beer/food.restrooms. Today it was pretty wide open with the only line being for pizza, the only food offered outside of the restaurants. Almost no wait for beer or toilets.
Why does this matter? It speaks volumes about how apathetic this fanbase is and how done the casual football fan is with the ownership of this team. Attendance worsened a lot in 08 when they sucked and the economy was garbage. Early in the Palmer era, you paid through the nose for canopy seats on the secondary market. Now the team is forced to reduce ticket prices in a much better economy. The club level hasn't recovered to this day.
There's no shortage of bashing the Brown family for their approach to personnel acquisition here and anywhere else Bengals football is discussed. What's perhaps even worse is their lack of interest in growing their brand or expanding their profits by improving the fan experience at games. In the lower bowl where we sit, TVs are few and far between in the concourse. It's basically concrete and a couple of picnic tables with the same shitty concessions they've always had save for some buffalo sauce on the chicken fingers that they always seem to be out of. You have to do better than that in modern pro sports. The Reds have sucked for years and play in the same small market, but their fan experience is excellent. They make an effort.
The club level situation is an eyesore. It might as well not be there. It's pathetic that they can't generate corporate interest in the suites that have sat empty for such an extended period of time. It's not just individual fans that are done, it's local businesses as well. So lazy and such a waste.
It's going to take more than a new coach to change this. It will take years of sustained winning, and even then that might not be enough. I think it's a real possibility that this team isn't long for Cincinnati once the lease is up. People just don't give a shit anymore and they've seen enough of the family's act.
