CINCINNATI (AP) — The Bengals’ home opener against San Francisco on Sept. 25 will be blacked out on local television, the fifth straight home game that Cincinnati has failed to sell out.
The club announced on Saturday that there are so many tickets left that it has no chance of selling out the 65,500-seat stadium. The Bengals are coming off a 4-12 season and have only two winning records in the last 20 years.
Despite their run of futility, the Bengals sold out a club-record 57 consecutive home games from Nov. 16, 2003 through last Nov. 8. They sold only 39,797 tickets for their final preseason game against the Colts.
The Bengals open this season with a pair of road games. They won in Cleveland and play Sunday in Denver.