The Bengals team owner says the team will still need to sell every ticket for Bengals home games to be on local television this season.
The NFL recently told its teams it could lower its ticket baseline to 85 percent capacity and if it hit that number, the local blackout rule would be lifted for that week. The drawback to the new rule for organizations is every ticket sold above that baseline would then be split at a higher percentage with the opposing team.
"We're going to stay with the old rule," Mike Brown said Tuesday. "We want to sell out the whole stadium, not 85 percent of it."
The Bengals recently announced they sold out all single game tickets for two games this season and Brown believes the team could sell out more if they play well.
"15 years ago, they had the sales tax to finance the construction of the stadium," he said. "They did that so people could come down to the stadium and watch games. Not so they could sit in their living room and watch it on their television."
Many Bengals fans disagreed with Brown's decision.
"People want to see their home team play!" said Kelly Osborne of Finneytown. "(Mike Brown) has never thought about us. He just thinks about him and his business but if it wasn't for the fans in Cincinnati, we wouldn't have a team here."
Others supported Brown's right as the team's owner.
"I would have done otherwise but I respect his decision from a business standpoint," said Bengals fan Brian Beck.
Training camp is scheduled to begin on Friday.
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