The Bengals' buy-one, get-one-free promo for season-ticket holders for Sunday's game against the Ravens worked, as the game "will be a sellout” for only the second time this season, according to Joe Reedy of the CINCINNATI ENQUIRER. Bengals Dir of Sales & Public Affairs Jeff Berding said that the team “moved 18,000 seats on Monday and Tuesday” and “some club and single-seat tickets remain available but the team has satisfied the league’s definition of a sellout.” In order for a television blackout to be lifted, “all non-club, suite and non-obstructed view tickets have to be sold.” Berding said, “It was an extraordinary two days with the demand from our season-ticket holders.” Reedy reported demand was “unprecedented as the club set single-day sales records on Monday and Tuesday.” Bengals Exec VP Katie Blackburn in a statement said, “Our fans have made a tremendous response this week to our sales efforts, and we thank the entire community for its support.” Reedy noted through seven home games, the Bengals have drawn “an average of 47,224, which is 72.1 percent of capacity.” And prior to this game, the "only sellout was for the Nov. 13 game with Pittsburgh due to many Steelers fans buying tickets” (CINCINNATI.com, 12/28).
WHO IS TO BLAME? CBSSPORTS.com’s Ray Ratto wrote moving tickets in a tough economy is "tough, and providing years of uninteresting product makes it worse.” The Bengals are “reaping their own whirlwind, and credit goes both to those fans who have stuck it out, and those who have stopped attending, for both groups are voting with their feet, every single week.” If the Bengals “can't convince enough people to attend, that is wholly, solely and completely the fault of the Bengals” and no matter “what happens, that will always be true” (CBSSPORTS.com, 12/28). CBSSPORTS.com’s Gregg Doyel wrote as a football man, Bengals Owner Mike Brown is “incompetent and tone-deaf, a pitiable combination that means Brown has no idea how bad he is at his job -- or why Bengals fans are staying away.” Fans are “staying away because of Mike Brown.” Doyel: “This is not Cincinnati's fault. Bengals fans are not bad fans. … This is a franchise that, until last season, sold out 57 consecutive home games.” Since Brown assumed control of the club in ‘91, the Bengals “haven't won a single playoff game.” Bengals fans have “made a principled stand, but not against the 53 players on roster.” They have made their stand “against Mike Brown, who used this area's passion for football against it, getting a stadium deal that hasn't enriched the area but has helped cripple it” (CBSSPORTS.com, 12/28).
