Bengals unveil new ways to engage with fans days before regular season kickoff

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - Only five days until the Cincinnati Bengals take on the Minnesota Vikings at Paul Brown Stadium to begin the 2021 season.

The team released details Tuesday about how they hope to enhance fans gameday experience.

“At the end of the day, what we’re trying to do is create that community sort of atmosphere inside Paul Brown Stadium. The best way to do that is through traditions and to directly engage with the crowd, and be like, hey, you see what’s happening up on the video board right now, we want you to do this, and typically the crowd responds pretty warmly to those sorts of things,” Seth Tanner, Director of Content for the Bengals said. In addition to the Bengals wearing new uniforms this year, some of the new features on gameday include:

• The Ring of Honor celebrating Cincinnati’s all-time greats.
• The first class, Anthony Munoz, Paul Brown, Ken Anderson and Ken Riley will be inducted Sept. 30
• Ruler of the Jungle Pregame Ceremony where a fan is selected to sit on a jungle-style throne to lead the crowd in a Who Dey chant
• Jungle Zone on expansive lawn at The Andrew J Brady Icon Music Center with music, food and drinks

Part of the Bengals theme is to pay tribute to the past while releasing new traditions.

“Without a doubt, it’s super important to respect those who came before you to honor those players who’ve paved the way for the guys that are out there playing today. At the same time, we know that things evolve. I think it’s interesting to see how gameday entertainment has evolved,” Tanner said.

As far as taking the next step to engage the fans in a way they’ve never been engaged before, Tanner says the Bengals have a set direction, but it doesn’t mean they won’t experiment from week to week.

“We’re going to see certain things that work well and things that don’t and we’ll adjust on the fly,” Tanner notes.

Game time for the Bengals and Vikings is 1 p.m. Sunday and FOX19 NOW will air a one-hour pregame show at 10 a.m. counting down to kickoff.

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