People on social media have been reacting to news coming out of the Cincinnati Bengals surrounding the name of their stadium.

Stadiums have certainly played their part when it comes to the NFL landscape over the course of the offseason. Whilst not as important as the Deshaun Watson issues or various player trades, a lot of teams have been making noise for what they are doing with their home stadiums.

The Washington Commanders for instance have been embroiled in something of a dispute when it comes to their stadium. Reports suggest that they could soon make a move away from Fedex Field, a place they have called home since the 1997 season, moving to Virginia in a brand new stadium having paid $100m for a plot of land there.

The Cleveland Browns meanwhile have explored options away from their current stadium at First Energy Field with reports suggesting that a new one for the team could cost as much as $1bn to build.

Meanwhile in perhaps the biggest shock, the Pittsburgh Steelers decided to change the name of their stadium from Heinz Field to Acrisure Stadium. Now their AFC North rival Cincinnati Bengals have made a similar change, but this one is perhaps slightly more significant. 

What’s going on?

The Bengals announced today that Paul Brown Stadium will from this point forward be called ‘Paycor Stadium’, after the human capital management company bought out the rights. The Bengals didn’t release many details of the deal, but Bloomberg claimed that it is a 16-year deal, but that there were no details on the finances.

The deal is important because Paul Brown Stadium was one of three stadiums that didn’t have a corporate sponsor attached, the others being Soldier Field and Lambeau Field, but now they’re no longer a part of that club.

And there were a lot of fans out there who were far from impressed with what they decided to call it.

What have they said?

There were a number of fans who took to Twitter to offer their thoughts on the issue, and whilst there were some who felt that the move was necessary, especially if it helps pay and keep some of their key players, the consensus was that it wasn’t exactly the greatest name for them to go with:

One positive note is that Paycor is actually a Cincinatti-based company, so at least they are keeping it local, unlike the Steelers when they moved on from Heinz to Acrisure who are based in Michigan.