Lance McAlister published a mass email sent from a Bengals ticket sales executive meant to inspire current season ticket holders and people who may be thinking about buying season tickets to open their wallets for the 2011 season.
Here are a few key segments of the email:
I wanted to reach out quickly today to provide you with some information regarding some changes made within the Cincinnati Bengals' organization in the past couple of weeks. As I am sure most of you have heard, Bob Bratkowski has been relieved of his responsibilities as Offensive Coordinator. Bratkowski had been with the team since 2001 and had his share of ups and downs with the franchise. The team enjoyed some of their best offensive seasons under Bratkowski, but recently he had come under fire from fans and critics that felt the offense had gotten stale and predictable. This afternoon, The Bengals took a step to cure what has ailed our offense. We announced that our new offensive coordinator will be Jay Gruden, brother of Super Bowl winning coach Jon Gruden. Jay has a lot of experience in football, both as a player and as a coach. He is known for his innovative offensive approach that should get us back towards our old roots in the West Coast Offense.
The Bengals want to let you know what every Bengals fan probably already knew. This is some top-notch marketing, though. They know that if Bengals fans are passionate enough about something to buy (or make) t-shirts with the words "Bratkowski Sucks" on them, then it must be a fairly important issue to them. Why not email everybody to reiterate that they made the change because "he had come under fire from fans and critics that felt the offense had gotten stale and predictable."
This is big news for the Cincinnati Bengals' organization and our great fans. I just wanted to make sure that you all, both current season ticket holders and folks that may be considering joining us in 2011, were in the loop with some of the changes taking place.
Okay. They still haven't said what I've been waiting for.
The Club will be rolling into 2011 with some momentum as a result of a relatively strong finish to 2010 from our young core of players, a solid returning defense, and a new offensive coordinator.
BOOM!
There it is: "rolling into 2011 with some momentum as a result of a relatively strong finish to 2010." This is what has been convincing Bengals fans to drink the momentum-flavored Kool-Aid and file into Paul Brown Stadium year after year. Fortunately, the momentum carried over after the 2008 season. Here's to hoping it carries over again.
I don't know about you, but after reading this I got in such a hurry to get my hands on some season tickets that I threw my entire wallet, the keys to my car and all the change I could find under my couch cushions into a box and mailed it to Paul Brown Stadium.
I'll see you in September!