Good points, all. At least the organization was wise enough to offer cheap tickets. If you want to foster interest in a flagging team, that's a great way to do it.

I live in cincinnati. And the Steelers game wasn't sold out 'partially' because of traveling steelers fan, it was sold out entirely because of traveling steeler fans (and pittsburgh transplants such as myself).
The fact is, the only winning team the Bengals beat was the Titans, and I believe the time they beat them they were a 500 team.

Now, as a Steelers fan, I can tell you that I'd love to see the Ravens lose, especially giving up home field to Pittsburgh by doing so, but the Bengals fans hate the ownership and won't ever fully support the team until Mike Brown steps down.

The Bengals were the first team to defeat the Bills (who were 3-0 at the time, their later record being partially due to injuries to a few key players such as Fred Jackson), beat the Titans when they were above .500, and beat the Cards who were .500 and needed the win to stay alive, so I don't think it was AS sucky as you say.

The Bengals have also only been beaten by more than 7 once.

From Cincy but have lived in Columbus for a long time ... I have been very into the team this year but have not gotten to a game, so I guess I'm part of the problem ...

why do they hate the owner fk?

Honestly, the owner is a bit of a douche. He tends to make vindictive decisions about players and will demand way more than they're worth in trade before considering shipping them out of town. It worked out with Carson Palmer, but only because the Raiders were so desperate to compete that they were willing to way overpay for him. It doesn't always work that well.

My friend is a Bengals fan and has been rooting against them this year since opening day. His rationale is that the team owners refuse to make major changes in team culture and the team, because every time it looks like it is needed the team has a decent season and the owner point to that as a reason to keep moving forward. He continue to root against them now.

It isn't that the team sucks, Bengals fans are purposefully not going to games even now. They are completely sick of the ownership

and its not only this guy, i know 3 Bengals fans and all 3 feel the same way

Why do Bengals fans hate Mike Brown? Here's just a few of the reasons...

1) He puts no money into the team (we have the smallest scouting department in the NFL with one full-time scout).

2) He puts no interest into the team (I forget which ESPN commentator told the story, but one of them relayed how, early in their career, they went to the Cincy Front Office to ask for press info on the players so they could write up a piece. The Front Office showed them a huge pile of Cincinnati Enquirers stacked up in the corner).

3) He runs the team to make money for his family and not to win games (Mike Brown is President, but Pete Brown is Sr. V.P., Paul Brown is V.P. of player personnel, Katie Blackburn (Mike's daughter) is Exec. V.P., and her husband Troy Blackburn (Mike's son-in-law) is another V.P.)

4) Mike Brown interferes with personnel decisions, but not in a good way (the only reason we got rookie sensation Andy Dalton is because Marvin Lewis and Jay Gruden argued endlessly that we should take him instead of the RB Brown wanted).

5) Brown refuses to spend money to keep key players (e.g. Warren Sapp in 2004 and Jonathan Joseph in 2011).

That's enough to start off the discussion.

He also famously asked the NFL to not schedule home games at the end of the season because he thought they wouldn't sell well (because the team is set up to tank at the end of the season, for the reasons BJ lists).

yeh, I don't like him because of a lot of the above, but for some reason I still love and follow the team through thick and thin, don't really know why

they all love the team, and are staying away in hopes changes are made to it

Also: This -

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/07/12/wall-st-journal-calls-bengals-stadium-deal-one-of-the-worst-ever-struck/

The stadium deal stings... I pay taxes here, so I've helped pay for the stadium... a stadium where the deal was brokered by a guy, who, after leaving the city planner job in shambles.... got hired by... you guessed it: Mike Brown and the Bengals. If that doesn't reek of corruption, you are blind.

Mike Brown takes the reigns from Al Davis as the craziest owner in the league, with a few exceptions:
1.) Mike Brown has never played nor coached
2.) Mike Brown never had a good draft
3.) Mike Brown has never been a part of a championship team, nor anything close
4.) Mike Brown didn't get crazy due to age... he started this way from the start.

Mike Brown is the son of legendary Paul Brown, however, he has no football skills of his dad, but tries to play the part. They have the smallest scout department in the NFL by a LOT (like 4 scouts, where most teams have 20-30), he meddles in the affairs of the team and coaches well beyond where even a GM should, he refuses to get a GM to run the team, even with Katie Blackburn's heavy desire and attempts (Katie is Mike's daughter and the heir to the franchise).
Mike does one thing extremely well: Line his pockets with money. Even though the team doesn't sell out, he still makes a heft profit. Why? ecause he has no overhead. He hires family, keeps around people that are loyal, regardless of how good they are at their position, never pays heavy money to players nor coaches, and depends on the collective bargaining agreements and profit sharing to fill up anything that is missing. If you look back in the past votes in the NFL, you'll see that Mike Brown is usually the head of any argument where profit sharing should be changed. It is his livelihood.

Any, honestly, if you looked at this as a businessman instead of a football fan, it is brilliant. In order to make a really successful team, you have to put loads of money down to get a playoff-quality team, sell out tickets, get profit that way... but if you have a high expectation and the team tanks, you'll end up with a loss. Mike always provides low expectations, depends on lack of ticket sales, so finds a means to keep profitability without the need for heavy investment in the team before the season starts.

Interesting. I'm an NFL owner in a state full of NFL owners, so we don't have to worry about shit like that. Long live Ted Thompson!

You know, the thing is...I think that it's possible to do a kind of "Moneyball" style NFL team and have it work out...IF you have good scouts and coaches. I mean, before the Bills put a lot of money into Ryan Fitzpatrick, they had a pretty low payroll and were winning (until Fred Jackson got hurt). There are plenty of relative unknowns hanging around that can be picked up for a song, and veterans who are coming back from injuries or had a poor fit elsewhere. Obviously that's not the way the Bengals roll, but I think it could be done.

Look at the Steelers. Kevin Colbert has a thing with making good early round picks, and rounding it out with several undraft free agents/late round picks.

The same could be said of the Pats. Only few high paid players, the rest low pay 'system' players.

Right, but those teams actually manage to make the playoffs every year.