Quote:
Originally Posted by rfaulk34
lol. When Mike Brown took over in '91, there was a span of 12 years, let me repeat that, 12 consecutive years , where the Bengals were ran like a mom and pop shop and were the absolute door mats and laughing stocks of the NFL. Not just by the fans, but by anyone associated with the NFL.
Stop for just a second and imagine what the next 12 years, from right now, would be like if the Chiefs had to endure that. The list of Bengals players that wanted out after their first contract is astounding.
When Marvin Lewis came on board, they started winning and fans came right back. From November of '03 until November of '10, they had 57 straight sellouts. ESPN has attendance figures from 2006-now and from '06 to '10, the Bengals had a higher percentage of home tickets sold than the Chiefs. Chances are that it was the same for a couple years prior to that as well. Higher percentage in '12 and last year as well. To follow that 12 years of Mike Brown ineptitude with a few years of success, then watch MarvLew get about 8 more years than he should have, while going 0-7 in the playoffs, with 5 straight years of one-and-done, is more than any living, breathing fan should have to endure. Zac Taylor came around and immediately went 6-25-1 in his first 2 years but as soon as they started winning again, fans were right back, as rabid as ever. Attendance was never an issue when Paul Brown was in charge.
If it wasn't for Mahomes, the Chiefs would still be drawing about the same as they did from '06-'16 where they never got higher than 18th in percentage of tickets sold to capacity.
That's the most i'll type on this subject because it's laughable for anyone outside of a Bengals fan to question their fandom. Like my previous post, it will just be lol's because no one short of Cleveland and the Saints have any idea what it's like to root for a team that inept for that long and still be loyal--albeit not spending as much hard-earned cash--and then come right back in droves at the first sight of any competitiveness.
You're right, numbers don't lie. The only problem is, the numbers aren't saying what you think they're saying.
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The numbers don’t lie. Bengals sell tickets when they win, as they did when they had an electric team with Carson Palmer and ochocinco. They don’t sell tickets when they’re losing. Their underperforming years are hilariously correlated with wildly low attendance. It is usually a 1-year lag because when bengals fans have a losing season they don’t get season tickets the next year. With a capacity of 60k let’s look at their losing seasons the past 15 years….
2010 - bengals go 4-12. Next years attendance is 49k
2016 - 2020 - losing seasons
- 2017 53k
- 2018 - 51k
- 2019 - 48k
- 2020 (covid)
The bills had 9 straight seasons below .500. Chiefs had a stretch of 5 of 6 seasons under .500. The browns and lions have had historically disgustingly bad runs for decades. NONE of these teams had more than 1 season under 60k attendance the past decade. Many of my friends are browns fans. I can promise you I’ve watched a gazillion games in Ohio where the bars are packed with browns and Steelers fans with barely a bengals jersey in sight. Until joe burrow came to town.