Survey says. . . Reds fans are hard to please

I get a lot of email. But the email I got from the Northern Kentucky University today explains a lot of my other email.

I've always had the distinct impression from the emailers that fans generally hold the Reds to higher standard than the Bengals. I don't know if that's based on history or what. Case point: After the losses to Phillies Saturday and Sunday, a lot of people seemed convinced the season was over. Even though Tuesday's win put the Reds back at .500 and in second place with 142 games to go.

An online poll supervised by Dr. Aron Levin of NKU's marketing research department seems to support my theory. Here's what the university sent me:

An online poll on entertainment in Greater Cincinnati was recently conducted by Northern Kentucky University.

Three questions from the survey were posed to respondents about the Bengals v. the Reds.

--When questioned about team preference, 15% of Greater Cincinnati residents categorized themselves as diehard Bengals fans, 10% as diehard Reds fans.

--When questioned about team performance, 40% of Bengals fans reported being satisfied with the team's 8-8 performance last season. Only 20% of Reds fans were satisfied with the team's 80-82 season last year.

With these results you'd think that respondents would choose Cincinnati as a football town. not so.

--When forced to make a choice between baseball or football: 46% stated that Cincinnati is a baseball town, 38% said Cincinnati is all about football and the remainder had no opinion.

Methodology: 796 residents of Greater Cincinnati (including N. Ky. and Dearborn County, Ind.) were surveyed online during March. Respondents were over 18 years old. Margin of error +/- 3.5%. The study was supervised by Northern Kentucky University Associate Professor of Marketing Dr. Levin, director of NKU's Marketing Research Partnership Program.