Doc: 'The Cincinnati Bengals belong to you, the fans'

[Bengalholic]

Paul Daugherty: The Cincinnati Bengals belong to you, the fans

It’s your team. Let’s start with that.

Technically and financially, it’s Mike Brown’s team. He owns the Cincinnati Bengals. His money runs them, he can decide to move them if he feels the business isn’t doing well enough.

Emotionally, you deserve your cut. Your passion is your equity. It needs to be recognized.

The Nippert seasons, Greg Cook, the Freezer Bowl, the strike season, ya don’t live in Cleveland. The Lost Decade, 2005, 2015 and every moment before and after.

Anthony and Kenny and Boomer and Sam. Dave. Marvin, Chad, Nine and 14. Adriel Jeremiah Green. Whit.

All yours.

We are a small place by pro sports standards. If you like the NFL but not the Bengals, you can’t defect to the team across town. Our size limits our choices, and our points of civic pride. No one in New York is sweating the annual nightmare that is the Jets.

San Francisco could lose every pro sports franchise it had, and it’d still be San Francisco.

Because we are small, pro sports are a bigger part of who we are. We take them personally. Who that was born here doesn’t feel something down deep for the Reds? A hundred years from now, the Big Red Machine will still have meaning. Relatives of the 500,000 or so fans who claimed to have been at the Freezer Bowl will still be able to summon that memory.

You’ve given the Brown family the gifts of your loyalty, trust and passion. And oh yeah, your money. Where’s your return on investment?

No team owner gets rich and famous listening to fans and sportswriters. Business-by-emotions is a bad idea. Knee-jerking to appease people who know less about your business than you do is a good way to lose your business.

That’s not what we’re talking about here.

Sometime next week, sooner than later, the BrownTrust will decide what it wants its team to be. Time waits for no one. It can be suggested, fairly, that time has once again passed the Bengals by. The Family’s patience is legendary, its loyalty to its workers can never be questioned.

To what end?

The Bengals legacy as postseason failures is cemented. As the blow-hardy Stephen A. Smith noted recently on ESPN, “SIXTEEN YEARS!" The Family’s loyalty and stubbornness, er, steadfastness, is regarded favorably inside the family gates. Everywhere else, it’s seen as excessive and detrimental.

Mike Brown says he has a “comfortable" relationship with Marvin Lewis. Comfort is not a word normally associated with successful NFL teams. Brown inhabits a space where excuses are reasons and hope is a plan. Hope is not a plan.

The Factory of Sameness down by the river reliably churns out mediocrity mixed with the occasional January heartbreak, yet those responsible aren’t accountable. Does anyone else see the irony in Lewis imploring his workers to Do Your Job?

Because he is Original School, Mike Brown is feeling the attendance blues being sung at Practically Barren Stadium. NFL teams don’t really need butts-in-seats to make money. (Butts in suites is another matter. That’s revenue that isn’t shared.) But NFL owners with egos don’t want acres of empty seats loitering on TV screens, either.

I’m not good at making apocalyptic, hit-seeking statements. Life is gray. So I won’t say the Bengals franchise is at a crossroads. I will say in 31 years here, I’ve never seen a fan base more poised to jump ship. Once it does, try getting it back.

The BrownTrust makes a case that, eventually, the Bengals will return to the financial situation they faced before we built them PBS. Even with revenue sharing and a salary cap, they won’t have the income to stay profitable. Cynics and conspiracy theorists will contend that is the Family’s aim: Run the franchise into the ground, cry poverty, bolt town.

I don’t believe that. I can’t blame those that do.

Now would be a good time for the Family to realize its team belongs to you, in an intangible, yet vital way. And to act accordingly. It’s not too late for that revelation to dawn, but it’s getting there.

Next week, the Family has a chance to inspire hope in a forgiving fan base. It can acknowledge its obligation to this region, a duty that involves more than simply fielding a team and opening the gates.

It’s time the Brown family does right by you. Before it stops mattering.

[McC]

If they are trying to run it into the ground, they are doing some exemplary work.

Doc--if you're saying this as an appeal to the Brown family, don't waste your breath. If anything, railing against Mike just makes him more determined to screw us all.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

Good read though i must say, thanks Holic.

[Bengalsrob]

I'm thinking he's saying (in a very nice way) the very same things we are saying and thinking on this very board. In a nutshell, we deserve more than what we've been getting from our team. Mike Brown, c'mon man; throw us a bone. It's as he said, we're a very forgiving fanbase, and I think (and Mike Brown has to know) that merely turning this coaching staff over would give us hope, and really that's what we need most right now. Would it really make a difference, I don't know; but doing the same thing and getting the same mediocre results surely isn't working. Geez, even the Reds got rid of Dusty Baker, and when that didn't produce the desired results, they're trying something else and...they're in a sport where the competitive balance when it comes to a level playing field is not there like it is in football. I'm starting to understand what it's like for the Browns fans all these years, and now they actually have hope...we don't. As far as moving the team, if things don't change they might as well; I still have fond memories of the Royals and Oscar Robertson maybe it's better that way than to suffer through this. But that wouldn't solve the Bengals problems, people want to back a winner anywhere you go,and the Bengals have the rep of not being one, as well as not trying very hard to be one as well. I truly believe if Marvin isn't gone AND/OR Hue Jackson is his replacement we all might as well throw in the towel and essentially boycott this team until changes are made. If you're child is on a poorly managed Little League or Pee Wee team, you HAVE to suffer through that, but THIS we don't!

[*bengalfan74*]

Everything he says is true.

[THE PISTONS]

"The BrownTrust makes a case that, eventually, the Bengals will return to the financial situation they faced before we built them PBS. Even with revenue sharing and a salary cap, they won’t have the income to stay profitable."

So hypothetically, if I was running a subsidized business and I thought that the subsidy was going to eventually go away. (Revenue sharing is essentially a subsidy.) The best way to respond would be to make the highest quality product possible for the consumers. That would entail changing management team which would be hiring a GM and competent coaches.

To think that the Bengals respond to fear that their financial situation will get bad and not be profitable by being cheap...shows a lot.

IF you don't think you can make it in the NFL with revenue sharing and a salary cap that is a percentage of total revenue...you probably shouldn't own an NFL team.

[THE PISTONS]

(12-28-2018, 07:47 PM)Bengalsrob Wrote: I'm thinking he's saying (in a very nice way) the very same things we are saying and thinking on this very board. In a nutshell, we deserve more than what we've been getting from our team. Mike Brown, c'mon man; throw us a bone. It's as he said, we're a very forgiving fanbase, and I think (and Mike Brown has to know) that merely turning this coaching staff over would give us hope, and really that's what we need most right now. Would it really make a difference, I don't know; but doing the same thing and getting the same mediocre results surely isn't working. Geez, even the Reds got rid of Dusty Baker, and when that didn't produce the desired results, they're trying something else and...they're in a sport where the competitive balance when it comes to a level playing field is not there like it is in football. I'm starting to understand what it's like for the Browns fans all these years, and now they actually have hope...we don't. As far as moving the team, if things don't change they might as well; I still have fond memories of the Royals and Oscar Robertson maybe it's better that way than to suffer through this. But that wouldn't solve the Bengals problems, people want to back a winner anywhere you go,and the Bengals have the rep of not being one, as well as not trying very hard to be one as well. I truly believe if Marvin isn't gone AND/OR Hue Jackson is his replacement we all might as well throw in the towel and essentially boycott this team until changes are made. If you're child is on a poorly managed Little League or Pee Wee team, you HAVE to suffer through that, but THIS we don't!

Little league and teams poorly managed are temporary.

The Bengals have a de facto GM that hasn't won a single playoff game in 26+ years. And, they refuse to bring in a GM.

I could bring up articles from the early 90's that would still ring true today. Coughlin supposedly wanted to hire more scouts and presumably a GM to come here or be the GM. He questioned whether he could win under this structure. The structure is  basically still the same.

[BengalFanInNJ]

Isn't it true that every owner is about to get a check for $250 million?

[grampahol]

MUST....DRAFT....NADA ..actually 53 Nada's  (from the cult classic film They Live) with every game opening with the famous line, "I have come here to chew bubble gum and to kick ass ....and I'm all out of bubble gum!" 
If you have never watched They Live you MUST IMMEDIATELY! 
Roddy Piper as our HC, QB AND Mike! 
Expose Mike Brown and family for the alien elite they are.. of course Marvin would make Nada sit on  the bench for 3 years. 

[BengalsRocker]

If they actually cared they'd hire McCarthy and let him hire his whole staff.

Mike Brown gets out of the way, and it shows they want to change.

It would probably put more asses in seats and instill some hope.

Even if they fired McCarthy after 3 seasons if it fails.

It would give the family a chance to run the team without worrying about the football aspects and they can say they tried.

They'll never do it though.

[grampahol]

Be honest .who here could get all in on the clickbait article titled, Where is he today? If it talked about Mike Brown's fall from grace as a team owner to some lonely old dude panhandling nickles and dimes on the streets of some run down Midwestern city ?

[GodFather]

Very good read....unfortunately Brown will read that and respond:

"I know whats best even though my track record has proven otherwise, and let Marvin stay on for another year."

Fans from other cites will laugh in wonder how this happens and us Bengal fans will shake our heads and have this same conversation this time next year

[THE PISTONS]

What other teams fanbases would accept the whole Compensatory picks are gold thing we are given? We can't sign free agents because it hurts us getting compensatory picks.

That strategy alone may have destroyed this team over the past 3-4 years.

Could you imagine Robert Kraft telling the Patriots fanbase that?

[*bengalfan74*]

(12-29-2018, 12:43 AM)THE PISTONS Wrote: What other teams fanbases would accept the whole Compensatory picks are gold thing we are given? We can't sign free agents because it hurts us getting compensatory picks.

That strategy alone may have destroyed this team over the past 3-4 years.

Could you imagine Robert Kraft telling the Patriots fanbase that?

It's one of the bigger cracks in the Mike Brown cheap way. How many comp picks over the last several years have we had that have made any significant impact ? perhaps 1 ? How many have had any regular playing time ? a couple ?

The bulk = nothing at all yet, we base our entire strategy around it. It's just another disguise for MB to be cheap.

[fredtoast]

(12-29-2018, 12:43 AM)THE PISTONS Wrote: Could you imagine Robert Kraft telling the Patriots fanbase that?

Robert Kraft does not give a shit about pleasing his fan base.  He has repeatedly unpset them by trading/releasing fan favorite players because he felt they were getting too old or expensive.

The only difference between Robert Kraft and Mike Brown is that Kraft is much better at his job than Brown.

Bengal fans need to stop acting like Mike Brown's incompetence is actually a personal attack on them.  He doesn't hate Bengal fans.  He is not evil,  mean, or heartless.  He just is not good at his job.

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(12-29-2018, 01:43 AM)fredtoast Wrote: Robert Kraft does not give a shit about pleasing his fan base.  He has repeatedly unpset them by trading/releasing fan favorite players because he felt they were getting too old or expensive.

The only difference between Robert Kraft and Mike Brown is that Kraft is much better at his job than Brown.

Bengal fans need to stop acting like Mike Brown's incompetence is actually a personal attack on them.  He doesn't hate Bengal fans.  He is not evil,  mean, or heartless.  He just is not good at his job.

Then he is stupid. Get someone else to do it.

[Gamma Ray Tan]

(12-29-2018, 01:43 AM)fredtoast Wrote: Robert Kraft does not give a shit about pleasing his fan base.  He has repeatedly unpset them by trading/releasing fan favorite players because he felt they were getting too old or expensive.

The only difference between Robert Kraft and Mike Brown is that Kraft is much better at his job than Brown.

Bengal fans need to stop acting like Mike Brown's incompetence is actually a personal attack on them.  He doesn't hate Bengal fans.  He is not evil,  mean, or heartless.  He just is not good at his job.

You know, I’ve heard Bob Kraft praise his fans and apologize to Patriots fans for losing the Super Bowl last year......All I hear from Mike Brown is the belittling of us, the fans. I believe last season he blamed “Judgmental Fans” for the empty stadium....not the performance of a losing team. I’ve never heard Mike Brown say: Our fans deserve better than how we are performing....never. Maybe he has....I just can’t recall it.

[I_C_DeadPeople]

Kraft strives to win championships which is the ultimate way to please your fans. As usual, Fred is wrong. Mikey could care less about winning thus he could care less about the fans.

[fredtoast]

(12-29-2018, 02:15 AM)Gamma Ray Tan Wrote: .All I hear from Mike Brown is the belittling of us, the fans. 

I have never heard Mike Brown belittle the fans.



Below is the letter that season ticket holders received from the Bengals’ owner and president.

Quote:An Open Letter to Bengals Fans -
This season will mark the Bengals' 50th season in Cincinnati. Since we were formed in 1968, we have enjoyed great support - first at Nippert Stadium, then at Riverfront Stadium, and now at Paul Brown Stadium. Throughout all those years, there has been one constant: you, our fans. We appreciate your support, and I say "thank you" on behalf of the entire organization. We look forward to celebrating our team's history with you this season.
Memories of our first 49 years are too many to mention, but through all the good times and bad, our fans have been right there with us. Our fans got us started on the right foot with a successful expansion franchise. We made the playoffs in our third season, an NFL record at the time. You cheered us on to our first Super Bowl in 1981 - after enduring a memorable Freezer Bowl along the way - and then supported us to a second Super Bowl that ended 34 seconds too late. You have shown us the way to six playoff appearances in the past eight years, including three AFC North division crowns. You have been there for hundreds of other games. Some good, some agonizing, some too cold to recall, but we have always felt your presence and appreciated your support.
While we have had many good steps along the way, this 50th season reminds me that we have more steps that we want to take. My passion is to bring Cincinnati a much-deserved NFL championship and you have my pledge that our organization is hard at work with this goal in mind. I care deeply about this town. I raised my kids here, and I have an abiding appreciation for the support you have lent us through the years.
I don't know what our 50th season will hold for us. We have a good team, yet the NFL is a tough league. Will this be our season? I hope so. If I had my choice, our 50th season would give you a lifetime of memories, much as you have given me a lifetime of memories. I am thankful to you, and though the simple words "thank you" seem inadequate, for me they really say it all.
Sincerely,
Mike Brown
President

[fredtoast]

(12-29-2018, 02:17 AM)I_C_DeadPeople Wrote: Kraft strives to win championships which is the ultimate way to please your fans. As usual, Fred is wrong. Mikey could care less about winning thus he could care less about the fans.

No.  You are wrong.  Mike Brown has no other business success to brag about.  The Bengals team defines his family.  That is why the Bengals play in "Paul Brown Stadium" instead of "This Year's Sponser Stadium".

He cares about winning.  He is just very bad at running a football team.