Indoor Practice Facility

Buried in a post on the rookie minicamp, Mark Curnette mentions that the Bengals will be ripping up the astroturf on the practice field and replacing it with natural grass.  As a commenter on the story has already mentioned (and who has surely joined WhoDeyRevolution...), the team desperately needs an indoor practice facility.

The Bengals are the northern-most team without an indoor field.  At the end of the season, when it invariably gets colder in Cincinnati, the team is forced to play at an indoor soccer complex in Mason! This is an NFL team!

Think about that.  During the preparation for the playoff game in 2005, the team was forced to meet at PBS and load into buses to drive to Mason to practice at an indoor soccer field.  Is this really a team doing whatever it takes to win?  Forcing players to take buses for 30 minutes to practice on a borrowed indoor soccer field before the biggest Bengals game in 15 years?

After Carson Palmer brought this to the attention of "Coach" Lewis in 2006, Lewis responded that the team was "working on that."  Any updates coach?  Are you just hoping it somehow doesn't get cold in December in Cincinnati?

With all the money that Mike Brown saved by getting Hamilton County taxpayers to fund PBS and the more than generous NFL revenue sharing plan, you would think he could find a way to make the Cincinnati Bengals' facilities on par with the Idaho State University sports facilities.

Comments

[KY8]

The argument that no teams north of the bengals are without an indoor practice facility is not very strong. What i'd rather see is how many teams south of Cincinnati have an indoor facility (can't think of any who don't play in a dome). Of course teams up North have indoor facilities- it's cold up there... way colder than it is here. It's pretty tough to call Cincinnati "northern" in terms of climate.

Bottom line, I agree that we could use one, but to act like it's the biggest outrage on the face of the planet that we don't doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Going to Mason in bad weather is ridiculous though- i used to play out there. It's far as hell away and the turf is border-line decent at best.