A group of Bengals fan are uniting; not to boycott Bengals games or complain about Mike Brown. Rather they are looking to accept donations to purchase tickets at Bengals games to lift blackouts, which are sure to happen throughout most of this season's home games. Rather than going to the game, they are planning to buy available tickets to ensure home games are sold out, allowing fans to watch those games on television. In other words, pay-per-view for some. Those unused tickets would be donated to charity.
My initial reaction, other than games not being sold out due to a variety of reasons, has little to do with the Bengals. It has more to do with the product being produced at home. Save for your favorite (read, not at all favorite) play-by-play characters, watching games from home is becoming a more preferred method to watching games. You don't pay for the games, parking, concessions, you have play-by-play, high definition television, wide screen TVs, your own bathroom. And really when you consider that a pair of the cheapest seats (either in yellow or purple sections) at Paul Brown Stadium costs $130, watching at home for free tends to be an overwhelming argument.
From Lance McAlister's website:
Bengal Blackout Lifters
Mission: To obtain a membership base large enough to (approximately 100,000 members) to be in a position to buy remaining Tickets as needed to avoid a Blackout in Cincinnati. Some of Purchased Tickets will be given to selected members on a lottery basis. Some of the tickets will be given to the youth in our area through charitable organizations.