Bengals Reach A Season-High 52,068 In Paid Attendance At Paul Brown Stadium

The Cincinnati Bengals entered Sunday's game against the Indianapolis Colts riding a two-game winning streak, breaking a handful of losing streaks and impressing Bengals fans enough that the most pessimistic prognostications are dissolving into a more optimistic regular season forecast. Still. According to the NFL Gamebook, a record low 41,142 in paid attendance watched Cincinnati's exciting 23-20 win over the Buffalo Bills a couple weeks ago. It was reportedly the lowest paid attendance in Paul Brown stadium history, during a regular season Bengals game.

Now if you actually saw the empty seats in the stands (pictured), you're probably thinking, there's no way. According to the NFL Gamebook, attendance at Paul Brown Stadium spiked to 52,068, watching Cincinnati's 27-17 win over the Indianapolis Colts, which is a season-high through three home games this year. Now one could argue that the attendance was high because Peyton Manning was coming into town and tickets could have been sold well before the extent of his injury was known. The only counter to that is that the Bengals announced the blackout so early during the week that they believed tickets weren't going to sellout in time for a blackout; therefore if tickets were sold primarily based on Manning, the team might not have been so quick to throw in the proverbial towel. Considering that Indianapolis and Cincinnati are two of the closest geographical teams in the NFL, Colts fans could have traveled. True. But Colts fans entered the game frustrated, highly unlikely to make the trip just to watch an 0-5 team.

We're not saying that the walk-up gate was pounded with tickets requests from Bengals fans in the lead up to Sunday's kickoff. But we're fairly certain that the team is playing impressively enough to encouraging more fans to invest financially into the team by watching the games at Paul Brown Stadium. Regardless. The spike in attendance is enough for one take notice.