Bengals to play in London in 2016

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The Cincinnati Bengals are headed to England.

The Enquirer has learned the team signed on to join the NFL’s International Series games in 2016 with an Oct. 30 contest against the Washington Redskins at London’s Wembley Stadium.

The Bengals give up a home game in the deal and are expected to exercise their right to take a bye week immediately after. So, the 2016 season ticket package will only include seven regular-season games and two preseason games instead of the standard eight and two.

For the Bengals specifically, the trip overseas won’t hurt in the pocketbook. The league makes the team whole monetarily off the average profit of a home game.

The game time is still undecided.

Fans can purchase tickets from among the 1,500 allotted to the team or hop on board with packages expected to be put together at a later date.

Wednesday’s announcement may bring these facts to public consciousness of the Bengals fan base for the first time, but serve as only a minor point in an expansive, complicated timeline of events dating back to 2014. It will continue until the minute the chartered plane lands at CVG following the game next season.

The Bengals are far from the first team to take on the logistical Rubik’s Cube of an international game. In fact, after Wednesday’s announcement only nine of the 32 teams won’t already have played overseas or be on the slate for next year.

As with any massive undertaking for this franchise, club officials pointed to the words of founder Paul Brown when discussing their decision to join the wave of NFL teams attempting to grow the game in England.

In this case, Brown discussed the concept of the early days of night football, but Bengals officials see it as a perfect analogy to this NFL venture.

“It does disrupt our routine, but we have to take our turn and everybody does it,” Brown once said entering an early Monday Night Football game. “But it is difficult because the game we draw is in the middle of November at 9 p.m. and I don’t think any team relishes that idea.”

Indeed, no team relishes the idea of expanding its schedule to London, but after months of discussion and preparation, the Bengals sign on to take the next step.

Taking a peak behind the scenes of how they arrived at this moment and where they plan to go from here showcases how complicated all aspects of this venture can be.

The time line

The first International Series game was played in 2007 between the Giants and Dolphins.

The league played at least one game there every season since, including three each of the last two years. An expansion of the program is planned with the league looking into games in Mexico, which could still be announced at a later date.

The Bengals' entry to the mix essentially started when the team re-negotiated the stadium lease in 2014 to include giving up at most two home games in the next five years to play abroad. With writing on the wall that every team would be expected to participate, this opened the door for Cincinnati to take the trip.

This offseason, a call was placed from Mark Waller, executive vice president of NFL International, to Executive Vice President Katie Blackburn wondering about team interest. She stated a desire in being a team player, but the team wouldn’t allow it to be a division game (there will be next year with Jacksonville and Indianapolis).

Team officials began researching possibilities, including business manager Bill Connelly taking a day away from a trip to Paris with his wife in June to tour the facilities in Wembley and an initial look at how this could work.

“Came back from trip and said that was the most valuable thing we could have done because you get a feel for being on the ground and knowing the traffic issues,” Connelly said. “You don’t get a police escort in London unless the queen is on your bus.”

In September, another call came in that the Bengals were among the teams most closely being considered as the league attempts to add franchises with more success on the field.

In October during the bye week, a group headed to London that included Blackburn, along with husband and Bengals vice president Troy Blackburn, Connelly and Chief Marketing Officer Brian Sells.

With one game being played as well this year at Twickenham Stadium in London, home of England’s National Rugby club, figuring out the possibility for all options made for full days.

They toured six hotels, three practice facilities and two stadiums the week of the Buffalo-Miami game. Not long after, the process came into clearer focus with coaches and other team officials brought into the process. Soon after, the Redskins were solidified as the opponent.

With the Mexico venue being explored by league officials testing the logistics, an announcement came much later than in past years when they announced next year’s teams at the beginning of November.

“Up until a week or so ago there was some chance this was not going to come together,” said Director of Business Development Bob Bedinghaus.

Making the most of it

Now the Bengals continue the process of figuring out how they’d like to pull this off. The process begins with choosing how to arrange travel.

Nothing has been signed and solidified yet, but in weighing the options the most likely looks to be leaving Thursday night from a league charter via Virgin Atlantic and returning after the game.

Of the six teams traveling to London this year, four used that strategy, flying overnight Thursday so as to land with it being morning in that time zone, a four-hour differential. The flight takes about six and half hours going out and eight coming back due to headwinds and tailwinds.

This allows coaches and players to take care of game-planning and practices in the comfort of their own surroundings before making the long haul.

Giving up a home game isn’t ideal, but does have advantages in game production.

The Bengals have first choice of hotel, first choice of practice facility, first opportunity to depart after the game and a detail as small as the first takeoff spot out. The stadium will be outfitted with Bengals signage and home-game video elements.

An effect could be felt by area businesses and season ticket holders who will now deal with a seven-game regular season home schedule instead of eight but some, including the Bengals and local business leaders, view the exposure the city will receive on the international stage as a worthwhile tradeoff for one game lost.

“We’re working to attract meetings, conventions, events and visitors from all over the world,” said Dan Lincoln, president and chief executive officer of the Cincinnati USA Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“This puts Cincinnati front and center on the world stage and we’ll have a chance to give meeting planners and business leaders a glimpse into the amazing convention environment and history experience we can offer here.”

The Bengals won’t suddenly become the Jaguars and start making trips every year. This serves as a one off to do their part in the league. In the end, this served as an inevitable fate and it's a widely known mandate across the league every team will need to play a game abroad in the near future. If in the process, the city can gain leverage potential new markets, all the better.

“A major conference coming from London over here is a big deal. That’s a weekend they wouldn’t have otherwise had,” Bedinghaus said. “There’s an opportunity to do hospitality for those folks to make sure the city can benefit from this as much as we benefit from it.”

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