I Wear Pants;571358 wrote:This is a dumb way to think IMO.
I agree. So now the validity of a fanbase is reflected by how many games they sell out. FWIW, the Bengals had a larger attendance this week than the Rams did. Does that mean the Rams deserve to have a shitty team forever also? Two weeks ago when the Bengals hosted the Steelers and the Browns hosted the Patriots, the Browns had 600ish more fans show up than the Bengals did, so it's not like this is the story of the season.
My viewpoint is that I wouldn't go to a game if they were giving away free tickets and I lived 5 minutes away. It's not that I stopped supporting my team - I still watch the games when they're on TV, wear my Bengals shirts, and am on here arguing about them. But I refuse to sacrifice the several hours involved to watch a bunch of players who don't care. They don't care, why should I? I actually went to my first game last season (I acquired tickets in July, long before the season started and they were exceeding expectations) - it was the Texans game. The whole process actually was a pain in the ass - two hours of driving, getting into Cincinnati, paying an arm and a leg for the parking, tickets, beer, sitting in the stadium an hour before the game started, then the time it took to get out of Cincinnati. And the Bengals played with the same bonehead style they still do. Decent at times, but in the second half the defense fell apart, the offense was awful, Marvin challenged dumb plays (usually it's the opposite, normally he's challenging 2nd & 1 conversions with 13 minutes left in the half) My point is, I get that the expensive, pain in the ass process is the same for any stadium in America, and it's part of being a fan. But if I had done all that yesterday, only to watch them give up 35 points to the Bills? I would have started a fucking riot. It's not a one-way street. I don't just show up and pay the money to watch a bunch of pricks who don't care. That has nothing to do with loyalty.
The take-home message is that Bengals fans are hardly fair-weather. The team has been awful for 20 years. There is no good. Not many other teams can boast that. Usually they have a season or two of success or promising, young players. No, not the Bengals. The team AND coaching staff is old and washed up.
Your comments are amusing being a Browns fan, though. I'm the last guy you'll find here doubting the Browns as a fanbase. I know a lot of fans and they're always strong in support. But my how the tone of this place changes through the season. When the season started and they were 1-5 or whatever, it was nothing but gloom & doom. Fans promising to give up, stop caring, who will the Browns draft with the #1 pick, they could very well go 0-16, etc. If I cared enough I'd look up the Jets thread from last week and see how optimism changed to the sky is falling over the course of a few hours. And I realize that's just calling it as it is, but if you wanna talk about fair-weather. People are always threatening to stop caring when the Browns are down, but when they win a few games, their threads are suddenly so popular.