8-8 :nohead:
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<!--PRINTER FRIENDLY ARTICLE-->[FONT=verdana,arial]October 14, 2008
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[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Fans lose heart, sell tickets[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Serif]Bengals coach Lewis apologizes for 0-6: 'Hang on'
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By Dustin Dow
ddow@enquirer.com [/FONT]Six games into a winless 2008 season, thousands of tickets to Bengals home games are up for sale even as head coach Marvin Lewis asks fans for their patience and apologizes for their disappointment.
Bengals games are officially sold out at Paul Brown Stadium through the regular season, but more than 3,000 tickets are available for Sunday's game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at the online ticket agency StubHub.com.
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For the Nov. 2 game against Jacksonville, more than 4,100 tickets are on the market. More than 5,000 tickets are currently available for each game against Baltimore, Washington and Kansas City.
Some season-ticket holders aren't looking for a profit. For the Jacksonville game, 377 tickets were available Monday on StubHub priced from $24 to $50. That's well below the lowest possible face value of $64.
Bargain prices can also be found for the Pittsburgh game, which usually draws many Steelers fans. For instance, a pair of tickets with a face value of $72 each is being offered for $46 apiece. Riverfront Choice LLC, a licensed ticket broker, is selling Bengals-Ravens tickets originally worth $64 for $52.
Sunday's 26-14 loss to the New York Jets prompted Steve Carr to even abandon watching the team on TV.
"It's not worth it," said Carr, a longtime fan from Walnut Hills. Sunday, "I was yelling at the TV watching that game."
Three years ago, fans cheered the playoff-bound team. But since the postseason loss Jan. 8, 2006, the club has steadily declined, going 8-8 in 2006 and 7-9 in 2007. The Bengals are currently 0-6.
"There's disbelief, but there's more disappointment because people thought by now, this team would be in the Super Bowl after the 2005 season," said Mo Egger, a sports radio talk show host for WCKY-AM (1530). "Think back to 2005: Marvin Lewis owned this city. Now, we're almost homesick for that year and the swagger this city had because of it."
Lance McAlister, also a talk show host at WCKY, said some listeners are criticizing him for spending too much time talking about the Bengals.
"People are weary of the same old stuff," McAlister said. "I call it spinning the wheel of blame. We pound on one person or aspect of the team, get bored and move onto the next. My challenge is trying to slice and dice it, and serve it a different way."
McAlister said he's ready for another Reds season.
"Pitchers and catchers can't report soon enough."
Lewis said Monday that he feels "100 percent" responsible for the fans' frustrations. But be patient, he asked. Better times are coming.
"Everybody wants to win, and I'm sorry they're disappointed," Lewis said. "So am I. But unfortunately, that's where we are right now. But hang on; you're going to see something special here."
It's hard to blame those fans who don't see much value in holding on to their Bengals tickets.
Larry Budde of Westwood is angry, but said he's accepted that the Bengals aren't likely to return to the winning ways of 2005, at least not this year.
Budde's family had season tickets for 13 years until canceling them after 2001, the second season inside Paul Brown Stadium. While he regretted that move during 2005, Budde doesn't regret missing games now, though he tunes in by television when he can.
"There is still a little bit of hope in me; hope that (Bengals president) Mike Brown will sell the team ... or hire a general manager that actually knows something about football," Budde said.
But, Budde added, "Failure is almost expected at this point."
[FONT=arial, helvetica]
<!--PRINTER FRIENDLY ARTICLE-->[FONT=verdana,arial]October 14, 2008
[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Fans lose heart, sell tickets[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Serif]Bengals coach Lewis apologizes for 0-6: 'Hang on'
[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]
By Dustin Dow
ddow@enquirer.com [/FONT]Six games into a winless 2008 season, thousands of tickets to Bengals home games are up for sale even as head coach Marvin Lewis asks fans for their patience and apologizes for their disappointment.
Bengals games are officially sold out at Paul Brown Stadium through the regular season, but more than 3,000 tickets are available for Sunday's game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at the online ticket agency StubHub.com.
[/FONT]
For the Nov. 2 game against Jacksonville, more than 4,100 tickets are on the market. More than 5,000 tickets are currently available for each game against Baltimore, Washington and Kansas City.
Some season-ticket holders aren't looking for a profit. For the Jacksonville game, 377 tickets were available Monday on StubHub priced from $24 to $50. That's well below the lowest possible face value of $64.
Bargain prices can also be found for the Pittsburgh game, which usually draws many Steelers fans. For instance, a pair of tickets with a face value of $72 each is being offered for $46 apiece. Riverfront Choice LLC, a licensed ticket broker, is selling Bengals-Ravens tickets originally worth $64 for $52.
Sunday's 26-14 loss to the New York Jets prompted Steve Carr to even abandon watching the team on TV.
"It's not worth it," said Carr, a longtime fan from Walnut Hills. Sunday, "I was yelling at the TV watching that game."
Three years ago, fans cheered the playoff-bound team. But since the postseason loss Jan. 8, 2006, the club has steadily declined, going 8-8 in 2006 and 7-9 in 2007. The Bengals are currently 0-6.
"There's disbelief, but there's more disappointment because people thought by now, this team would be in the Super Bowl after the 2005 season," said Mo Egger, a sports radio talk show host for WCKY-AM (1530). "Think back to 2005: Marvin Lewis owned this city. Now, we're almost homesick for that year and the swagger this city had because of it."
Lance McAlister, also a talk show host at WCKY, said some listeners are criticizing him for spending too much time talking about the Bengals.
"People are weary of the same old stuff," McAlister said. "I call it spinning the wheel of blame. We pound on one person or aspect of the team, get bored and move onto the next. My challenge is trying to slice and dice it, and serve it a different way."
McAlister said he's ready for another Reds season.
"Pitchers and catchers can't report soon enough."
Lewis said Monday that he feels "100 percent" responsible for the fans' frustrations. But be patient, he asked. Better times are coming.
"Everybody wants to win, and I'm sorry they're disappointed," Lewis said. "So am I. But unfortunately, that's where we are right now. But hang on; you're going to see something special here."
It's hard to blame those fans who don't see much value in holding on to their Bengals tickets.
Larry Budde of Westwood is angry, but said he's accepted that the Bengals aren't likely to return to the winning ways of 2005, at least not this year.
Budde's family had season tickets for 13 years until canceling them after 2001, the second season inside Paul Brown Stadium. While he regretted that move during 2005, Budde doesn't regret missing games now, though he tunes in by television when he can.
"There is still a little bit of hope in me; hope that (Bengals president) Mike Brown will sell the team ... or hire a general manager that actually knows something about football," Budde said.
But, Budde added, "Failure is almost expected at this point."
