WhoDeyRevolution

Project Mayhem Ticket Boycott Update: Bask in the Glory of a Fed Up Suite Owner

Playing the role of constant cynic about the Bengals can be wearisome.  None of us at WDR take any pleasure in the historic misery that Mike Brown and family inflict upon our city year after year.  We just want to root for our favorite team without any of this nonsense.

But getting rid of the nonsense will require fans to make sacrifices.  Hard ones.  Like not buying tickets to games and then being unable to watch games at home due to blackouts (more on blackouts later, but for now WDR official policy:  an unfortunate but necessary part of the boycott, but it's amazing what you can find on the interwebs these days...).

So as you sacrifice, loyal Bengals fan, it's nice to know you're not in the fight alone.  In fact, The Man is fighting with you this time, not holding you down.  Comrade Bieniemy mentioned in an earlier post that while it's easy to see what's happening with regular season tickets sales (they are collapsing), it's harder to figure out what's going on with Club/Luxury Suite sales, which are typically owned by The Man (i.e., corporations).

Well, we obtained a copy of an email that a suite owner sent to both Troy Blackburn and Jeff Berding about his decision to renew.  With passages like this, needless to say, it's a must read:

If I help him (Mike Brown) by purchasing a suite I am enabling him to continue his ways which is the same as me giving money to a person with a drug problem.

Colorful and encouraging stuff.  All suite revenue goes to Mikey, it's not part of shared revenue.  He cannot afford to get hit here.  The entire letter can be read after the jump.  I suggest you go do that.  Post haste.

Keep up the boycott, Comrades.

Bengals Down to 2 Game Packs

First, the Bengals announced they would be selling season tickets to the general public, for the first time since 2006.  Then it was down to 4-game packs.  When that didn't go well, the team offered 2 game packs to season ticket holders.

Now the Bengals have announced that 2 game packs will be sold to the general public.  

They have packaged the Steelers game with the Texans game and put the Browns game with the season opener against the Broncos - the Bengals are clearly hoping that Steelers and Browns fans will be willing to buy the 2 game packs to see their team, probably with the hope to unload the extra game on StubHub or Ebay.

Based on the lack of excitement so far, I am not so sure that would be a wise investment. 

Comrades, you must continue your boycott.  Do NOT buy tickets.  Bengals fans are recognizing that their hard earned money is better spent elsewhere.  We will not see changes on the Bengals until we hit the team in the pocket.  Keep up the pressure.

Mike Brown to Season-Ticket Holders: Good Seats Still Available

Several fellow revolutionaries have sent in emails today saying that the Bengals have sent an email to their season ticket holders making available the two-game ticket packs.  They did this up until 2006 when they finally were able to garner season-ticket sellouts for all of the games like the other 31 NFL franchises are able to do.  

The Bengals are not including the pre-season game like they have in season past.  This is a smart move by the team.  Forcing season-ticket holder to buy pre-season games is adding insult to the injury that is paying full price for a pre-season game to watch Carson, Chad, and the gang stand around in their jerseys for a few hours while a bunch of guys try to make the club.  

Clearly the season tickets sales are not where the team needs them to be if they are making these tickets available for purchase (even if it is only to season-ticket holders).  Maybe Mikey will figure out that winning four games the season before the economy tanks and changing nothing isn't exactly the best way to woo fans.  The Bengals are obviously trying to sneakily get to a season sell-out and declare that all is well with the franchise.  But WDR isn't letting news like this go by without showing the fans who want change in the team that they care about that the team is suffering.

Once again, no one person sent the email, it is generically signed by, "Cincinnati Bengals Ticket Office."

The email that was sent to the season ticket holders in available after the jump.  

Bengals Ticket Sales Continue to Falter

The Bengals announced yesterday that 4-game ticket packs will go on sale to the general public on Monday.  This comes on the heels that they have exhausted the much ballyhooed "season ticket waiting list," which was first reported here at WDR.  As the Bengals announcement states, if they don't sell out games through the 4-game ticket packs, 2 game packs or individual tickets will soon be available.  WDR would like to take out a Subprime mortgage and bet the house that the Bengals do not sell out the season on 4-game packages.

Comrades, keep up your resolve.  Do NOT buy tickets.  If you are tempted, remember - our Week 1 offensive line starters could include Jonathan Luigs, Anthony Collins and Nate Livings.

Bengals Season Ticket Update

As reported on WDR back in March and finally announced on Friday, the Bengals are selling season ticket's to the public for the first time since 2006 after the team's "waiting list" was exhausted due to more tickets being canceled than new orders or names on the "list."  Check out Joe Reedy's column from Sunday for more information about this development. 

WDR reported that the team hired 3 new employees in the ticket office to prepare to sell these newly available tickets, which went on sale Monday.  According to the Bengals.com website, however, it seems that only Club seats are available.  So I called the Bengals ticket office to see what is available and was told that all sections have seats available, except for the lower level sideline seats (Green Zone).

Doc is asking fans to give the team a message and not buy tickets. WDR clearly agrees.  We want the Bengals to win football games and the current management structure has proven that it is incapable of this task.  If Mike Brown and Co. were as successful as Robert Kraft and Co., WDR wouldn't be calling for a new GM or for a boycott.  But after 18 years of hard evidence (wins and losses) proving otherwise, a good offseason on paper is not going to deter our efforts.  

Please, for the future of the Bengals, do not buy tickets.

WDR Report of Bengals Exhausting "Waiting List" Proven Correct

You heard it here and only here folks - WDR reported back in March that the rate of ticket cancellations was far outpacing the remaining season ticket "waiting list."  A source at the Bengals told us that the team had hired 3 additional salesman in the Ticket Office to prepare to sell individual tickets and game packages for the upcoming season. 

Today, the Bengals have announced that season ticket packages will available for public sale on May 18th.

It seems that Project Mayhem Task #8 is having an effect (a poor economy and the Bengals lackluster performance on the field MIGHT have also played a role).  Keep fighting on Comrades - do NOT let your or your friends and family be fooled into buying these tickets.  We must join together and fight back to  change the management structure on OUR Bengals. 

Comrades, march onwards!

UPDATE: Thanks to Joe Reedy from the Enquirer for giving credit where credit is due.  

Project Mayhem on Hard Knocks

So the Bengals will be on HBO's Hard Knocks during the pre-season.  HBO will film the entire BEngals training camp.  As Joe Reedy writes, "The series will be five one-hour episodes, starting from the time players leave their families until the final roster cutdown. A 50-person crew from NFL Films will shoot the series and will have more than 1,000 hours of footage. The crew will be given all access to the players’ and coaches’ meeting rooms, training rooms, dormitories and practice fields at Georgetown College and PBS.

At each practice, six players or coaches will be miked."

In summary, HELL YES.  Bengals fans will get the ultimate inside information on what really goes on behind closed doors on player personnel decisions.  But, just as important, this allows WDR another nationwide medium to spread our manifesto and launch another Project Mayhem task.

The WDR writers are throwing around some ideas, but we want to open this to all our fellow comrades.  More billboards?  A rally at a practice?  Please post your ideas in the comments or send them to us at whodeyrevolution@gmail.com.

WDR in NYC: NFL Draft Recap

As you may have noticed, it's difficult to organize Project Mayhem Tasks in the offseason. So what better venue to get the momentum back than at the NFL Draft, we thought. The Draft, after all, is perhaps the one event more than any other in football that encapsulates so perfectly the shortcomings of the Bengals organization.

Here was the plan:

1. Get a large group of Bengals revolutionaries to attend the Draft live at Radio City (free tickets baby)

2. Have these fans wear jerseys of failed past draft picks (or something creative made themselves with a similar theme)

3. Sneak in signs saying "Draft a GM" (the 3 word simplification of our entire manifesto)

4. Leading up to our 6th pick, start a loud and un-ignorable (not a word) chant of "Draft a GM" to hopefully force the ESPN crew to acknowledge the cause

Good plan in theory. Hard plan to execute in practice. Turns out securing seating as a group in a place anywhere near the action is virtually impossible. Also, there are only so many folks who can make the draft in NYC. So la Revolucion could not manage to disrupt the draft itself, however, the guys who went still did manage to make a ruckus and gain sympathy for the cause - notably through a brief TV interview as they walked in and via a discussion with a local NYC sports blogger (sadly we cannot find links to these anywhere on the interwebs).

No WDR writers could participate in the task due to friends inconsiderately choosing to get married that weekend (jerks) so I'll turn it over to ringleader and honorary revolutionary Allan for his recap of the weekend. It's highly entertaining. WDR would like to give special thanks to all those who attended on our behalf - their enthusiasm and dedication reminded me yet again what a bad fan I am.

Take it away Allan!

9:45 PM Friday - it was a warm night when I caught a cab to Rockefeller Center and saw a mass of humanity stretching almost 2/3 of a block towards Radio City Music Hall. Hmm - this whole draft thing was bigger than we expected. So much for meeting other WDR comrades - given that some fools had been waiting since noon, I was lucky to get a wristband (at 12:40 AM!!!).

1:00 PM Saturday - I showed up early, baby. Managed to run into fellow WDRs Jon and Steve, and we assumed our place in line. Lions fans became our best friends. Much MUCH sympathy for the WDR cause. Beautiful.

On the way in, we three were interviewed by espn.com, and Steve delivered our manifesto in such a concise manner, it blew the guy with the mic away.

Excerpt:

Interviewer: "So do you consider Carson Palmer the best of the USC quarterbacks?"

Steve: "We'll never know unless he spends less time on his back!"

On the way in, we were also interviewed by a local blog, and we repeated our demands. Any publicity is good publicity.

Bengals Scare Tactics Won't Work

The Bengals recently sent a letter to all Season Ticket holders that missed the deadline to renew their tickets for next year.  The Bengals really showcased their customer service in this letter, employing an incredibly generic and impersonal tone, having the "Bengals Ticket Office" sign the letter instead of an actual person and using inflated scare tactics.

Oh, and as you can tell, the Bengals DON'T TAKE AMERICAN EXPRESS!  I thought the Bengals were an NFL Franchise, not a mom and pop sandwich shop.  Does any of this surprise anyone anymore?

But what really stuck out to WDR was the Bengals insistence that: "a waiting list for season tickets was started three seasons ago and it continues to grow."  WDR has heard from hundreds of frustrated Bengals fans who are canceling their season tickets so we were immediately suspicious that this list is actually growing.  So we did what any bloggers would do and took a nap.  After that, we started digging.

WDR was told by sources inside the Bengals that they are not expecting to have a waiting list by the time the season started.  Technically because they are still handing cancellations and relocations, anyone who wants NEW season tickets will technically be on a waiting list.  But this source has told WDR that the rate of cancellations compared to new requests will mean that the team will be back to selling individual game tickets and likely package tickets this season.

WDR has also learned that the Bengals Ticket Office recently hired three more ticket salesman in preperation for having to handle single game and package sales.  If the team was confident they could sell the majority of the seats with season tickets they would not need more staff.   When the team first was able to build the waiting list three years ago the team laid off 75% of the ticket salesman because they didn't need staff to manage the indiviual sales.  The Bengals are now re-filling those positions, a direct expense to Mike Brown.

Comrades - keep up the pressure on your family and friends.  Do not let them renew their tickets.  If we keep it up, the Bengals will be blacked out for their first home game, we will hit MB in the pocket and we will send a message that the current management structure is not acceptable.  Viva!

Mike, Katie and Bill are BFF. Cowher Picture Going in My Season Ticket Cancellation

I recently purchased the picture on the left on eBay. 

"Brosef, have you sold us out for the dark side?"

No.  I am doing my part to stimulate the economy.  I will also be including this signed picture of Mike Brown and Katie Blackburn's favorite coach of their fave team in my season ticket cancellation notification.  Do not be surprised if you see this picture framed and hung right inside the Gate B entrance next year.

The Bengals obsession with praising and recognizing the Steelers, a team that any real Bengals fan despises with the fury of Christian Bale.  Not the Bengals!  Let's quickly review their unhealthy passion for our team's biggest rival.

1. In 2005, Katie Blackburn told the Enquirer that she was rooting for the Steelers in the playoffs because "the one time I root for teams in our division is when they are in the playoffs."

2. The Bengals cite Bill Cowher's commentin passing that the Bengals might make the playoffs last year as evidence that the team will turn things around next year, IN A LETTER TO SEASON TICKET HOLDERS.

3. The Bengals allow the Steelers to advertise their recent Super Bowl victory on Bengals.com.

4. Bengals.com writes a fluff piece on Ken Anderson getting his ring with the Steelers.  You know, the ring that he couldn't get in 3 decades on the Bengals? 

Does this sound like a team that has the pulse of its fans?  How freaking out of touch are the Bengals management?  Bengals fans (you know, your customers?) HATE the Steelers.  Stop praising them. 

I trust that Mike, Katie and Troy have my season ticket money stored in a coffee can in the back yard. This picture will likely be framed and hung inside Gate B.