(09-21-2009 11:51 PM)faNATIc Wrote: You didn't hear? The Bengals won a game... no need for the Bearcats now.
While tongue in cheek, this really is true to a certain degree. For whatever reason (media coverage, history, etc)...this is a Bengals town. The sobering reality is that while we are light years ahead of where we were even 4 years ago, we are no where near a fan base level that can overcome any small issue that will affect attendance.....ie. weather, game time (sorry, but Noon games are the absolute worst for our current situation), opponent, alternative games on tv, etc. They Bengals "hype" is bad enough when they suck. If they somehow beat the Steelers, I hate to say it, but it will dominate everything in this town...no matter what we do.
I'm predicting a crowd of 27k-29k for Saturday. If there's bad weather, we'll be lucky to put 25k in the stadium. (Anybody see Auburn/WVU on Sat night? There was a deluge of rain and lightening and thousands of Auburn students refused to evacuate, but instead stayed in their seats and chanted the school's fight song).
Unfortunately,the type of true cultural change that will affect the fan base takes consistent winning over a 10+ year time period. Not 3-4 good years followed by a backslide. I truly believe if this game was at 7pm on Saturday night, we'd have a good chance to sell out.
No matter how you cut it, this is an complete indictment to the progam's potential, alumni, casual fans, and the culture that is Greater Cincinnati. BK has done EVERYTHING to sell this program. Go to the Orange Bowl, speak at 200+ public events, actually have people predicting Cincinnati could play Florida in the BCS championship. When he runs out of the tunnel on Saturday to big gaping holes of empty seats, that may have more impact in cementing his decision to bolt this town than anything to do with buidling the practice facility.