Renovations are planned for Ohio Stadium after the conclusion of the 2012 season, and now THE Ohio State Univesity announced that it’s looking to move the 2013 spring football game to Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati.
“We are very appreciative to be in discussions with the Cincinnati Bengals,” Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith said in a release. “We look forward to continuing our discussions and look forward to an opportunity to bring the Buckeyes into Cincinnati and closer to our Southern Ohio fans.”
While moving the game two hours south down I-71 may increase demand by itself, location won’t be the only factor, especially if the Buckeyes have a promising year under their one-season postseason ban and first season under Urban Meyer.
Paul Brown Stadium seats 65,535. This years Spring Game had the largest attendance in the country with 81,112 (Ohio Stadium seats over 105,000), about 2,500 fans more than the attendance at the Alabama spring game. So that’s approximately 16,000 fewer tickets available than were sold last year. The move to Paul Brown would eliminate any hope of OSU breaking their spring game attendance record of 95,722 – set in 2009.
No matter what, it’s likely that the game will have more attendance than a 2012 regular season Bengals game (or three). The Bengals had two sellouts in 2011, against the Pittsburgh Steelers and for the last game of the season against Baltimore, but even that game required a buy one get one free promotion to get to the threshold.
Ohio Stadium will be unavailable because of concrete resurfacing on the A and C decks of the stadium, which weren’t restored during the stadium’s last series of improvements.
