Leave Cincinnati - Bengals

[Ravage]

(10-01-2019, 01:51 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Here's how I look at it:

The Bengals have been here my whole life (32 years) and Ive never seen them win a damn thing. If they left tomorrow, would anything really change?

If they left, then there's a chance a new team and ownership comes to the city - so there's that.

To answer your question - would I mind if they left? No, I wouldnt.

(10-01-2019, 02:10 PM)Catmandude123 Wrote: Maybe we get an expansion team and MB is gone. The NFL felt sorry for Cleveland and gave them one. I think we put up with MB for years so we also deserve a PITY FRANCHISE. The only problem is where is MB going to go? We need to search for a landing spot for MB. There is a place in the Cayman Islands called HELL. MB could just go to HELL.

I posted this in a different thread but it applies here as well and I'll make a few additions:

I'm not a Cincinnati native, never lived in or around the city, only visited. Closest I ever have been was living in Lexington while at UK. So the civic pride element of the team is non-existent for me in the first place. That being said, I'd much prefer to see the Bengals stay in Cincinnati than move elsewhere. I enjoy Cincinnati as a city, it's a great place to visit, and without the Bengals as a lure I doubt I'd ever find myself in Cincinnati again. Montgomery Inn ribs are fantastic, but they're not "Drive 6 hours each way" fantastic.

Cincinnati would not get another team if the Bengals left. The NFL is unlikely to expand again anytime soon. 32 teams allows for a nice even 4 teams per division and the NFL's dominance on the American pro sporting scene has seemingly peaked & is potentially in decline. Even if the NFL did decide to expand, St. Louis and San Diego would almost assuredly be way in front of Cincinnati when it comes to getting an expansion franchise just among cities that had a team and had them move. Not Oakland though, until they really get it in gear on funding for a new stadium. I know San Diego and to a lesser extent St. Louis had the same issue with being held hostage for a new stadium but I don't think either was as acrimonious as Oakland was.

Among what I'd think to be potential expansion cities for the NFL within the U.S.A, St. Louis, San Diego, Portland, and San Antonio all have larger TV markets than Cincinnati does, then there's Oklahoma City (smaller market than Cincinnati) who has shown an ability to sustain a professional team and is in a football obsessed state without an NFL team. Add in international cities like London & Mexico City (regardless of how ludicrous a London team would be), never mind any potential expansion into Canada and the odds get even longer for Cincinnati to get a team again.  

Don't kid yourself into thinking Cincinnati would get some kind of pity expansion team like Cleveland did when the Browns left. If there haven't been any rumbles about new franchises for the people of St. Louis or San Diego at all, there sure as hell won't be any for the people of Cincinnati. San Diego despite not winning anything either was still one of the NFL's more marquee teams and cities, and St. Louis did win a Super Bowl while the Rams were there. The people of St. Louis didn't outright tell the Rams to F-off either, they put out a $1.1 billion stadium plan but Kroenke still hijacked them outta town because he wanted to. The Bengals have, for one reason or another, been a national laughingstock between the Lost Decade, the mid-2000's crime wave, and most recently Burfict's attempts to be a human guillotine. Even when the team was good the Bengals would struggle to sell out the stadium, that isn't a city the NFL would be dying to re-visit.

Plus, after the last time, do you really expect the county, city, or voters to shell out for another new football stadium? Because that'd be item #1 for any expansion team, a shiny new stadium. Without at least funding and a plan for a new stadium in place the city of Cincinnati wouldn't even get in the front door when it came around to expansion talk. While PBS isn't "old" it isn't "new" either. Using MLB as a template the Braves abandoned Turner Field three years ago and Turner Field opened only 3 years before PBS did. Same thing for the Rangers who are leaving The Ballpark at Arlington which opened in 1994 for a new park. PBS would have to go and plans & funding for some new mega-church to the football gods would have to be built in its place for any expansion talk to even get started. 

No, if the Bengals leave it'll be the Reds and FC Cincinnati and that's it. The NBA still hasn't come back to Cincinnati and it's been close to 50 years. If the Bengals leave it'll be a long time, if ever, until the NFL decides to return. 

[TheUberHuber]

I have not lived in Cincinnati for 10 years so I could care less. The problem is not what city they are in, the problem is the brown family. I also highly doubt cincy will get another nfl team if mb takes the bengals somewhere else.

[grampahol]

Cincinnati would benefit from having a pro Chutes and Ladders team (Maybe Candyland) comprised of only the best 7 year old girls money can buy. Just imagine the die hard fans piling into the Chutes and Ladders stadium every Sunday. The testosterone would just ooze from everyone's pores with face paintings that couldn't be rivaled by any other team sport.
The Challenge is ON!   Kick out the bengals in favor of the Candylanders! (Chutes and Ladderers just doesn't have the same ring to it.) And nobody could claim this board wouldn't fit into PBS.. ...and note the kids in the picture for Candyland..A young Andy and his wife! A match made in heaven! Sixtyfive years of GREAT family fun.. and no other major metropolitan area could lay claim to being the first pro Candyland franchise if Cincinnati beat em to it.. 

But it's still a tough call between the two.. You pick.. C&L's or CL? And just think.. We'd never have to relinquish choking since both have choking hazard warnings JUST LIKE the Bengals! 

 

[WhodeyRay]

I am not sure if my main issue with not caring as much as previous years is do to the bengals sucking for 3 yrs, the fact that I see no end to it or the nfl is just getting plain hard to watch. College is really peaking my interest as it seems to flow better.

[scorp1974]

Sell the team, move to San Antonio where I live.

[Cicero]

I’d still follow them but would hate to see them leave. I am old enough to have some great Bengal memories. My Dad became a fan in 1968 when he came back from Southeast Asia. My first game was vs the Oilers and it was Sam Wyche’s finest game outside of the Super Bowl year. I have never lived in a Cincinnati but it is one of my favorite cities.

[R3stangs]

If leaving meant the Brown family sold the team to a new owner then I'd say please as soon as possible.

If they just took the team and left I really don't care. They can mismanage this team from wherever they want and I prefer it not be near me.

[BengalRed]

I grew up in N. Ky and now live in Lexington. I love Cincy and would hate for the Bengals to leave partly because of civic pride. Having an NFL team is something some cities that don't would kill for. I love it that Cincy has three pro teams. But like some others here I wish MB would sell the team to someone who knew how to run it and produce a consistent winner.

[*psychdoctor*]

I do not want the Bengals to leave. They are my team. If the Bengals do leave, Cincinnati likely would not get another NFL team. Los Angeles went years without a franchise. I doubt San Diego will ever get another NFL team.

Hell no. Mike Brown's days are numbered. He is 84 years of age. I know some if not most fans are down on the entire front office.

There is no reason to think things will change if Mike Brown left total and absolute control of the organization to the existing Front office. But in my eyes there would be hope that things would change. And as a Bengal fan, hope is an exponentially rare commodity.

[Nati#1]

Mike Brown can leave.. the son of one the most famous figures in football history. Paul Brown would be ashamed of you Mike.

[*Awful Llama*]

Someone said earlier about not being afraid anymore of them leaving. I guess that's kinda where I am at this point. I'd be sad, but sadness at what this franchise once was and meant to me in years past, not because a crap team is moving.

This is my 20th season as a STH, coinciding with PBS opening, and lately I'm thinking that's just about run it's course. I had a buddy going with me Sunday, but he had to cancel. Another guy that goes with me to games sometimes can't go, and no one else I've asked is interested. So, I posted my tickets for sale. Quite a bit below face, actually.

With driving time, stopping to eat, and the game, it's a 7-8 hour commitment. No one seems to want to do that, and I can't blame them.

[lone bengal]

I grew up in New England so I'm sure that effects my opinion on the team leaving versus fans who grew up in Cincinnati. I'm assuming local resident fans would have a sense of pride if a winning team represented the area that they grew up in. I'm not sure how the whole keeping the team name thing works but If they left Cincinnati and moved to another city and keep the Bengals name logo and helmets the same I would still root for them and not care to much what city they played in even tho it would be weird. I think it would be weird rooting for a new team in Cincinnati with a different name ,uniforms, and no history, like and expansion team. Like if I was a Rams fan when the Rams left Saint Louis for L.A. I would just become an L.A. Rams fan because that's still my team with the same logo, history and players.