The Cincinnati Bengals seem to display all of the characteristics of an unsuccessful business. The team hasn't had a winning season since 1990 and prospects are no better for the season that opens Sunday. Many of its recent high draft picks have been busts. Attendance is down.
Morale is low.
The few remaining customers are disillusioned, with the product and the treatment by management. The business may look like a failure to you and me, but only because we don't understand that the business of football and the business of business are entirely different animals. The Bengals, woeful as they are on the field, are actually a success story. The latest issue of Forbes magazine, which hits newsstands this week, makes that abundantly clear. In the magazine's rankings of NFL franchises by value, we discover that the hapless Bengals aren't hapless at all.