Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2011 > September > 25 > Entry
Empty seats everywhere at Bengals home opener
CINCINNATI - The most noticeable thing at the start of the Cincinnati Bengals home opener Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium Sunday was the emptiness. Tens of thousands of seats were empty.
There was one section of upper level seating - in sections that held close to 200 chairbacks — that was completely empty. Another had just two people sitting in it. Another had 11.
From the press box today I can look across the field at the east side luxury boxes. There are 48 of them and 20 are dark and empty.
Sunday’s announced crowd of 43,363 is the second smallest ever for a regular season game at Paul Brown Stadium, which holds 65,515. It’s the smallest home opener crowd for the Bengals in 30 years — going all the way back to the 1981 opener against the Seattle that drew 41,177 to Riverfront Stadium.
The sweeping absenteeism isn’t so much a reflection on the players - last week’s brushes with the law by Cedric Benson and Jerome Simpson aside - as it is a damning referendum on Mike Brown’s ownership of the team.
Many Bengals fans are fed up by disparity of the product he’s put on the field in recent years and the amount of money he’s made. And so a lot of folks didn’t show up Sunday.
If you’re a Bengals fan though that had to be a tough call because there are some things to really like about this year’s team. The rookie connection of quarterback Andy Dalton and receiver A.J. Green are the perfect antidote for the departure of disenchanted quarterback Carson Palmer and prima donna receivers Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens.
Even so people are tired of making Brown richer, while he has given then little in return be it success on the field or forward thinking in the front office.
Permalink | Comments (28) | Post your comment |
Tweet
Comments
By BrownsFan
September 27, 2011 4:49 PM | Link to this
I am a Browns fan, I always have been. But I dont hate the Bengals, never did. It is a damn travesty what Mike Brown has done, is doing, and will continue to do to the organization. They have a great stadium and fans…but even the diehard fans are running away in droves. It is just sad. How can you be the only northern team with out a covered practice field. The Palmer fiasco said it all. Here is a guy that was a national champion/heisman trophy winner and he gave up 50 MILLION DOLLARS to not play. I would play for the Osama Bin Laden allstars for that kind of money. Unreal
By Joegia
September 26, 2011 8:10 PM | Link to this
Mr. Brown, We play football to win. What in the HECK are YOU doing? Either sh!t or get off the pot!
By Barak Obama
September 26, 2011 6:24 PM | Link to this
It’s ALL George W. Bush’s fault!
By Mikey's Sheep
September 26, 2011 5:01 PM | Link to this
I just wish TrooperHook and all the other mean guys would stop laughing at us. People point and make ridiculous jokes every time we go by. Look, if God did’t want us to be sheep, he wouldn’t have given us wool. It’s just so humiliating to be sheared in public, merely because we drool at the chance to drink Mikey’s Kool Aid. Baaaaaaaaa Baaaaaaaaa. We’re so sad and miserable. Please stop laughing.
By johnbrisker
September 26, 2011 1:16 PM | Link to this
Look if you want to support the Bengals, great. But some of us who have been fans since inception also have the right to say that this franchise is an embarrassment to taxpayers and the community as a whole. If my HS team was as inept and an embarrassment to the school, yes I would stop rooting for them. This area of the universe seems to accept more crappy sports teams than any other place I can think of. The Reds have had only one winning season in the last nine, the Bengals are the worst run organization in the NFL, the Dragons lose 29 in a row and still sell out every game, and the Dayton Flyers win 20 games every year against a bunch of nobodies and flame out in whatever pathetic tournament they get invited to. Expect more from your investment in time and money and stop loving ineptitude. You deserve better, demand it for a change
By nyc
September 26, 2011 12:43 PM | Link to this
i didnt know the bungals actually had real fans????…..why????…for what possible reason????
By tax hawk
September 26, 2011 11:05 AM | Link to this
More than any other factor, the empty seats are a result of the ever worsening unemployment problem.
By TrooperHook
September 26, 2011 10:52 AM | Link to this
When I say laugh at idiocy, please laugh at me. It’s the only attention I get.
By Bruce
September 26, 2011 10:13 AM | Link to this
Trooperhook: that moron kills me!
By Joe
September 26, 2011 9:46 AM | Link to this
It will be interesting when the Steelers come to town. They will probably outnumber Bengal fans in PBS. I wonder if that even bothers Mike Brown? Personally I’m tired of ALL NFL teams and their need to feed off of taxpayer money for stadiums while they rake in 100s of millions of dollars each year.
By fergison
September 26, 2011 8:48 AM | Link to this
Folks,doesnt matter what this so called team does,they aint goin to move!!! no other town would put up with Mikey and his lack of football managing knowledge!!!! wont happen!!!
By Send 'em all up the River
September 26, 2011 8:32 AM | Link to this
Bengals are proven losers. Crooks & convicts playing still.
By ohiodale
September 26, 2011 8:03 AM | Link to this
The Bengals may be crap but they beat the Browns so therefore the Browns are also crap? To not support your local team could mean Cincy will not have a professional football team, since the Bengals could move to LA. I for one like having a local professional team for which to root for. I cannot see myself rooting for another city. Football is about supporting your geographical area not an owner. So if some of you anti Bengal’s fanatics did not like your HS school football coach did you root for another HS?
By Dan
September 26, 2011 7:17 AM | Link to this
Everyone needs to boycot the Bengals games.The only way Mike Brown will change is if he is not making the money he is used to making. bengals fans need to make the situation so glaring that the league has to step in and try to do something about it but I doubt they will because the money is still being made throughout the league.
By TrooperHook
September 26, 2011 6:37 AM | Link to this
Hey WhooDey: who “hates” this team? I certainly don’t. I just simply don’t take it seriously as a professional organization. It’s a mixture of Three Stooges zanies, incompetent owners and Sheepish fans. But that doesn’t add up to hate. It’s comedic. It’s totally enjoyable. You just have to expand your perspective. Life is short. Never miss a chance to laugh at idiocy.
By Matt
September 26, 2011 12:08 AM | Link to this
The Bengals are like $39 million under the salary cap, anyone who spends a $1 on this organization or watches a minute of a game is a fool. People and fans want to support the team but are done wasting their time and money. Enough is enough.
By WHODEY???
September 25, 2011 11:58 PM | Link to this
To all the Bengal haters out there: Duck Off. If you’re not a fan, why are you wasting time writing about my team. If you are a true fan, keep supporting your squad, just not with $. I love my Bengals, but I too believe Brown should have been gone, or at least hire a GM and have his horrible kids stop running the team. But to all the haters, stop wasting your time writing about my Bengals if you hate them so much.
By johnbrisker
September 25, 2011 10:24 PM | Link to this
Bad deal for the taxpayers compounded by a bad deal for fans. If they leave, good riddance and please destroy the stadium so this never happens again. And don’t bother ro point out how many jobs will be lost. How much are taxpayers paying to support these jobs?
By Bungles
September 25, 2011 10:02 PM | Link to this
Obviously it takes more than a moron with a football pedigree to run a team. I couldn’t care less what happens with this ridiculous franchise. It just bothers me that 8 weeks a year we are forced to watch them when they are away. Luckily they can no longer sell out PBS so at least the other 8 weeks we get a chance to see a meaningful game.
By Dawn
September 25, 2011 8:28 PM | Link to this
There’s more heart coming from my nephews pee-wee team. And it’s only 2 bucks to get in!
By Used to be a Fan
September 25, 2011 8:14 PM | Link to this
Mike Brown has run this franchise into the ground,took a while but he did it. They are never going to be competitive as long as he owns the team, never. I am done, been a fan since his dad founded it, no more, enough for me, i’ll drive to Indy and watch the Colts, or stay home and watch someone else. The Carson fiasco says it all, the guy never complained once, he finally broke like most everyone else. Who can blame him? not me, takes a lot of courage to make a stand when that kind of money is involved. Marvin has turned out to be another bust as well, the latest in a long line of coaching failures, but certainly not the last.
By Bull Elk
September 25, 2011 7:01 PM | Link to this
Going to a high school football game is really more enjoyable to watch than the bungles and the ticket is only $7.
By Don Cahill
September 25, 2011 6:52 PM | Link to this
As long as Mike Brown controls the Bengals they will never be a winner, He thinks he is as smart as his Dad but doesn’t come close. All he is interested in is making money at the expence of Bengal fans
By TrooperHook
September 25, 2011 5:59 PM | Link to this
Look, I don’t want them to leave, merely because I have so much fun laughing at them and the legions of Kool Aid Drinking, Sheepish zombies that enable Mike Brown. But how can anyone figure that losing the Bungs would be a disaster to Hamilton County? Cincinnati is already in the toilet. It has a crumbling infrastructure, crime is rampant, schools are going bankrupt, police and fire departments are going bankrupt, etc. And through it all the Sheep want to keep feeding Mike Brown more corporate wellfare? That’s crazy. I’d miss the laughs, but I couldn’t blame sane Cincinnatians an iota for flushing this toxic waste dump of an organization.
By nullandvoid
September 25, 2011 5:31 PM | Link to this
Tomas, Be careful what you wish for. The Bengals have a lease with Hamilton County that runs until 2026. In 2010 debt service on Paul Brown Stadium cost the taxpayers of Hamilton County $35.6 million, or roughly 16% of the county budget. The Bengals want an additional 43.6 million over the next ten years on maintenance from the county which they are contractually obligated to do but can’t afford….You may rest assured that if attendance deteriorates, Mike Brown could find a way to break the lease and move. This would be a financial disaster for Hamilton County.
By Bengal Fan only when not playing Steelers
September 25, 2011 5:23 PM | Link to this
The fee may people have dished out for PSL requiring tickets to be purchased is probably the only reason they had that many in attendance.
By Inept Bengals
September 25, 2011 5:10 PM | Link to this
Never liked the cheesy little fleamarket team since 1968. The franchise has never learned to develop talent, has been an assembly point for thugs in recent years and was the most entertaining during the Dick LeBeau/Bruce Coslet years. Never have recovered from that time. Marvin Lewis has just about exhausted his time here, hasn’t he? The article is correct. The franchise will never be considered a serious contender until Brown sells the team. Until then, Bengal fans are destined to live with futility.
By Tomas
September 25, 2011 4:34 PM | Link to this
That is great. Move them to Los Angeles where they will draw in the new stadium being built there. Good riddance!