By John Byczkowski
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Plenty of seats availble at the start of the game against Jacksonville. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

As difficult as it is to watch the Cincinnati Bengals go 1-13 on TV for free, it's worse watching them do it when you've paid $4,200 for the privilege.

That's what Mary Layman of Sidney, Ohio, shelled out for four club seats at Paul Brown Stadium this season. And she won't do it again. She said she's canceling her season tickets after this year.

"The talent we have on this team, there's no reason we should be 1-and-12," she said before last week's loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

If many more season ticket holders share her view, it could be bad news for the Brown family, which controls the Bengals. Fewer fans means less revenue from Paul Brown Stadium, and that's where the team earns most of its profit.

The Bengals already have lost some of the more than 43,000 season ticket holders they had when Paul Brown Stadium opened in 2000. The defections could grow after this season, in perhaps the best indication yet of widespread fan discontent over the team's perennially poor performance.

The Enquirer interviewed some three dozen season ticket holders and found more than half were planning to cancel their tickets or cut back the number they buy after this year. Others were undecided, saying they'll wait to see what changes team president Mike Brown makes before deciding to spend the money.

"If (Mr. Brown) is going to keep the status quo, that would be a disaster," said Tom Olberding of White Oak, who owns two season tickets on the 30-yard line. Chances are 50-50 he'll renew, but he added that of those people sitting around him, he knows two who won't and two more who say they probably won't.

From left (see zoom view) Bruce, Mike and Chris McCarty are season ticket holders for the Bengals. Chris McCarty is shown in this thumbnail image. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

An unscientific survey on the Enquirer's Web site found that of 359 people who identified themselves as season ticket holders, 156 said they wouldn't renew their tickets and 97 said they'd wait until the season ends to make up their minds.

The McCarty family has nine seats in three sections at Paul Brown Stadium, but next year they'll get rid of the two $200-a-game club seats. "We're paying $200 dollars to watch that crap," said Bruce McCarty of Westwood.

"We can't give them away," said brother Chris, of the West End.

Gary Link of Columbus has had season tickets since 1970. "I'm a diehard," he said, finishing off a three-way in the lounge at Paul Brown Stadium. In the past when the team lost, "I used to get sick till Tuesday morning." But three of his four seats went unused last Sunday because he couldn't convince any of his family to come watch the Bengals. "They don't want to come. No reason to," he said.

So, next year, he'll trade his four end-zone seats for two more-expensive club seats. Though the size of the check he writes for his tickets won't change much, that's two fewer people eating hot dogs and drinking beer at PBS, and that's what could hurt the Bengals. Though NFL teams gets 70 percent of their revenue from the national TV contracts with CBS, Fox and ABC, they generate most of their profits from inside their stadiums. That's because the TV revenue is used almost entirely to pay players. This year, $77 million in TV money will offset the average NFL team payroll of about $71 million.

After paying salaries, teams still have to pay for travel, equipment, coaches, staff, insurance and more, so the teams need to make money in their stadiums to be profitable. That's what led the Brown family in 1993 to threaten to pull the Bengals out of Cincinnati if they didn't get a new home venue.

NFL ATTENDANCE

Only two teams fare worse than the Bengals in terms of home attendance. See this chart for details on every team.

"That's why there was such a push in Cincinnati, in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, everywhere else, to get a new stadium so that you could have the revenue streams available to provide the money needed to pay the players," said Troy Blackburn, the Bengals' head of business development and Mr. Brown's son-in-law.

But since Paul Brown Stadium opened in 2000, the Bengals have won just 11 of their 46 games and just seven of their 23 home games. They are 0-7 at home this year, and they could be 0-8 by Sunday night. The Bengals are seven-point underdogs to the 9-5 New Orleans Saints, who are fighting for a playoff spot.

Losing has already taken a toll on attendance. The Bengals' average of 54,099 tickets distributed per game this year is third worst among the NFL's 32 teams. They are ahead of only the San Diego Chargers and Arizona Cardinals, both of which play in stadiums that are more than 30 years old.

The Bengals moved into Paul Brown Stadium with more than 43,000 season tickets sold. Last week, the Bengals distributed 42,092 tickets for the Jacksonville Jaguars game - the smallest number since the Bengals moved from Cinergy Field - indicating the season ticket base has shrunk. Actual attendance for the game was well below that. Club-level sections at the 50-yard line were barely a third full.

A strong season ticket base is vital to any sports franchise, said Don Schumacher, a Cincinnati sports marketing consultant who helped sell personal seat licenses and season tickets at Paul Brown Stadium in 1997. "Those people are the only people you can depend on year in and year out, and if you start losing them you've got a big battle bringing them back," he said.

Mr. Schumacher himself gave up four season tickets after the 2000 season. "I think reasonable people could agree they're seeing an erosion of season ticket sales. I don't think there's any question about that," he said.

The team doesn't disclose season ticket sales, but Mr. Blackburn said "the number is not materially different than the number when we opened the stadium."

About 100 of the stadium's 114 luxury suites are rented, the same as in 2000. Club seat sales are down and season ticket sales for main seating bowl and upper deck are about flat, the team said.

This year, however, the Bengals have played themselves into last place in the NFL and a prominent spot in Jay Leno's nightly monologues on The Tonight Show.

Many season ticket holders can't take it anymore. They're tired of losing and have lost confidence in the team's management, they said. There are also lingering bad feelings about Mr. Brown's threats to move the team, the stadium's high cost, the generous stadium lease and the locations that the season ticket holders were given in the new stadium.

"I lived and died with these guys. I can't stomach it any more," said 20-year season ticket holder Tim Potter of Fort Wright. "I can still see (Mike Brown) saying, 'In order to field a competitive team, we need a new stadium.' And this is not competitive."

He said he'd renew his tickets only if Mr. Brown hires a general manager to run the team.

Al Boerger spent serious money on the Bengals. The retired founder of Recker & Boerger Inc. heating and air-conditioning first bought season tickets in 1970.

When the new stadium opened, he bought 14 club seats and six parking passes, at a cost of $30,000 a year.

"That is an awful lot of money," he said. But watching the Bengals finish 4-12 in 2000 was no fun, so Mr. Boerger wrote Mike Brown a two-page letter, suggesting he expand the Bengals scouting and step down as president of the team.

"He sent me back, in my opinion, a very terse reply. ... He just said, 'I'm sorry you feel that way and we are trying.' That was it," Mr. Boerger said. "I thought for 30,000 damned dollars, this is stupid."

He canceled 10 of his 14 club seats then, and the last four of his club seats will be canceled after this season.

Mr. Blackburn said the team's play isn't helping sell tickets. "We obviously have not had a strong season," he said. "... We understand that fans are going to take that into consideration when they're looking toward the 2003 season."

Club seat holders already have received invoices for next season's tickets and must pay 50 percent by Jan. 10, though the Bengals have said they'll be flexible on that deadline. Invoices for other season ticket holders go out Feb. 1. Mr. Blackburn said it's likely the Bengals won't increase ticket prices for next season.

Choosing to cancel a season ticket won't be an easy decision. The bulk of season ticket holders, in the stadium's lower seating bowl and the upper deck, paid up to $1,500 per seat for a seat license, or "charter ownership agreement" (COA) as the Bengals called them. These give fans the right to buy a season ticket in a particular location in the stadium. They can be transferred or sold.

But the COA is also nonrefundable, and fans that stop buying tickets lose the money they paid for the COA. Sales of COAs raised more than $26.2 million toward the cost of construction of the stadium.

Richard Kessler of Colerain Township paid $1,500 for two seat licenses. "I'm one of those suckers who thought he was doing his civic duty," he said.

Now he's debating canceling his season tickets and forfeiting his $1,500. He said in his mind he's averaging the cost. After three years, it's only $500 a year, and that's easier to walk away from than $1,500 after one year.

He said the odds of his renewing his tickets are "not good. I've been debating it with my wife."

Rich Ehemann of Milford put his 20-yard-line seat licenses up for sale last week on eBay. He said he's tired of watching the Bengals lose. "The $2,400 we put out for the seat licenses, that's a lot of money," he said. He hopes to get $2,000 for the licenses.

The cost of seat licenses complicates the Bengals' efforts to sell new season tickets, because their cost makes the first year's tickets more expensive by hundreds or thousands of dollars. The Bengals' seat licenses on club seats run four to 10 years, but they cost less than the licenses on other seats - which run forever, as long as you keep buying tickets.

Bengals officials admit the cost of the licenses works against selling season tickets, but the team isn't interested in abandoning them, Mr. Blackburn said.

Club seat owners buy licenses and also sign contracts obligating them to buy tickets for up to 10 years. If they stop buying tickets, they forfeit their $150 licenses and deposits worth 25 percent of the annual cost of the tickets.

The team also has the right to seek payment of the unpaid balance of the contract. So far, the team hasn't done that, but it reserves the right to do so.

That's the only thing that keeps Tom Gault of Middletown spending $2,100 a year for two club seats. He signed a 10-year contract.

"If it wasn't for that, I'd quit in a minute. It's disgusting to come down here," he said.

The Bengals, however, have let many club seat owners walk away from their contracts. One is retired Bengals' Pro-Bowl offensive tackle Joe Walter.

"I was fed up with it," he said. Mr. Walter was spending $4,000 on his club seats, plus parking and concessions. "That's a vacation to Disneyland," he said.

He said the Bengals reminded him he'd signed a 10-year contract for the seats. "If they'd like me to (pay the unpaid balance of the contract), they can try that, but no, I'm not going to pay," he said, adding it would be "a PR nightmare" if the team started chasing disaffected club seat owners.

The Bengals demanded high-priced club seats and luxury suites be part of a new stadium in order to tap into corporate Cincinnati.

But the entertainment value of Bengals' games for business has dropped as the team's record has slid. "It's embarrassing for any of us to champion the Bengals," said season-ticket holder Larry Thompson of Chillicothe, who heads an agricultural association.

Ted Cook, CEO of Pro-Copy business equipment in Blue Ash, said getting clients to come to his 20-yard-line suite depends largely on whether they're fans of the visiting teams.

He said he has no trouble getting clients to come see the Cleveland Browns or the Pittsburgh Steelers. But for the game against Jacksonville, his suite of 16 had just two clients. The rest were employees and friends.

Mr. Boerger said the Bengals' losing ways are keeping executives away from the stadium. "You expect up in that lounge you're going to see a lot of business leaders, a lot of civic leaders," he said. "You ought to see how that's dropped in the last several years. (Companies) are sending their Christmas help, and they're giving the tickets away or scalping them."

Maxim Crane Works of Wilder has two suites and 14 club seats - 46 seats in all - and spends more than $200,000 a year with the Bengals. Senior vice president Bryan Carlisle joked that when the Bengals play well, clients spend too much time watching the game and not enough time talking business.

"By fielding teams that are very poor, and by having noncompetitive games, we get a lot of quality time with our customers," he said, laughing.

If attendance falls, there might be a silver lining for some fans. Carl Harover of West Union in Adams County was part of a group of six friends who bought season tickets when the new stadium opened. Three dropped out last year because they were tired of watching the Bengals lose.

Mr. Harover is, however, planning to renew for 2003. He said if enough fans cancel their tickets, "maybe I can get a better seat next year."

E-mail johnb@enquirer.com

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