No football in Green Bay this fall would be an economic and emotional blow to Titletown
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Drew Whyte and Andrew Larsen rarely miss a Packers game at Lambeau Field, which can be said for a lot of season-ticket holders. They are notable, although not unique, because they never have lived in Green Bay or Wisconsin.
We'll get to why that's important in a bit.
Even if the National Football League has a season this year, the Green Bay Packers made it clear it will be without the usual 78,000-plus fans at Lambeau. The team said that at most 12,000 fans will be allowed in. But whatever the number, it will seriously cut into the $15 million economic impact each game provides the city.
Overall, the Packers contribute more than $160 million per year to Green Bay's economy from games, special events, meetings and conventions, charitable grants and year-round tourism. With businesses already reeling from the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, the loss of the Packers' contribution, in whole or in part, will be dearly felt.
An economic impact study by AECOM in 2009 determined that about 85% of people attending Packers games traveled 50 miles or more. In essence, the Packers import money into Green Bay.
But the financial hit is only part of the damage that would occur if there is no football in Green Bay this fall. No other professional franchise, it can be argued, is more emotionally, spiritually and culturally connected to and defined by its fan base than the Packers.
The Packers already announced that training camp will not include fans, and the NFL agreed to eliminate preseason games, cutting out some 200,000 visitors to Green Bay in July and August.
Let’s stipulate for the purposes of discussion that “Green Bay” in this context includes the towns of Ashwaubenon, Allouez, Howard, De Pere and, really, all of Brown County. All told, it’s a population of about 250,000, not big enough to be a respectable New York borough. (This is the point, by the way, where Packers fans point out that Green Bay has 13 NFL championships compared to nine for every team that ever called New York home.)
First-time visitors routinely are surprised at how small Green Bay is. By comparison, Buffalo and Jacksonville, the next-smallest NFL markets by population, are in counties at least three-and-a-half times more populated than Brown County.
"Green Bay, relatively speaking, is a small town in a big-town business,” former general manager Ted Thompson said in the Packers' 10-part documentary, “Legacy: 100 Seasons of the Green Bay Packers.”
That only magnifies the economic and emotional blow to Packers fans.
"For some people, something will be missing. It will be that loss of connection to other people who are like you and like to watch the Packers," said Michelle Schoenleber, associate professor of psychology at St. Norbert College in De Pere, who is an avid football fan herself.
"It’s a temporary (connection) and it’s short-lived, but it's satisfying. You have something in common and you are sharing an experience, and that feels good because humans are social creatures. Even if football is played, if we are not watching it together, it really won’t be the same kind of season."
The most committed Packers fans are not necessarily more committed than the top fans of other teams, but it might be that there are more Packers fans in that category than for other teams, Schoenleber said.
"Because of the size of our community and how deeply ingrained the Packers are, we may have a greater proportion of people who are invested," she said. "Part of the reason the community is really invested is it is a revenue generator."
And this is where story lines converge and we return to Drew Whyte and Andrew Larsen.
Packer Nation has no boundaries
Whyte lives in Pittston, Pennsylvania, deep in the Pocono Mountains, and Larsen was raised and still lives in Rockford, Illinois, solid Bears country. Between them, they've missed a handful of games at Lambeau Field during the past three decades. They are die-hard Packers fans and there are many like them. Most live in Wisconsin, but that's just a matter of geography.
Coming to Green Bay and attending Packers games is a deeply personal experience for them. Larsen has a long list of friends and activities he'll surely miss this season, even if he gets scarce tickets to a game or games.
"We'll make it through this, whatever we have to do," he said, "but there will be a gaping hole in my life where the Packers should be."
Larsen attends games with his older brother, Ned, who was a Packers fan first, and who accompanied him when, as children, they knocked on the door of Bart Starr's house during training camp in 1967. Bart wasn't home, but wife Cherry was. It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows about the Starrs that she invited them in, gave them a tour and photos of Bart, and the next day introduced them to him at training camp.
"When Cherry Starr invited us into her home and introduced us to Bart the following day at practice, and then Bart plunged over the goal line to win the Ice Bowl four months later, my fate was sealed," Larsen said. "At the age of 8, I was 'all in' for the rest of my life."
Andrew and Ned have attended games together since 2001. They don't get to spend a lot of time together otherwise, so those eight weekends a year matter.
"There are so many people we've met in Green Bay who we get together with every time we go up. I'll miss that terribly," Larsen said. "I've been in Lambeau Field maybe 350 times, but it's the same electric feeling every time I'm in it. My fear is I'd be disappointed by what it will feel like (with smaller crowds)."
Larsen met his wife in San Diego in the late 1990s. She agreed to move to the Midwest, but more importantly, she accepted she was marrying into a love triangle.
"I said 'I'll give you all I have and all of me every day of the year, but I get to keep the Packers,'" Larsen said.
Whyte became a fan about the same time as Larsen. He started watching the Packers in the 1960s because they were the best team. But when a family friend got him autographs and photos of players such as Zeke Bratkowski, Bart Starr and Fuzzy Thurston, he was hooked.
The annual release of the NFL schedule in April is a much-anticipated event by Packers fans because it determines vacations, weddings, birthday parties and deer hunting trips.
"We have basically the same routine every year," Whyte said. "In the middle of April, the schedule comes out. I call (the hotel) and we book rooms for all eight games. We schedule our flights."
Whyte has a sign at his house that says "Green Bay, 906 miles." That's as the crow flies, but flying is a sketchy activity in the world of coronavirus. If Whyte decides to try to get tickets this year — he admits to a phobia about wearing masks, but it IS the Packers — he might drive to Green Bay, but he'll miss the tried-and-true routine.
"We have our standing routine. It's very important," he said. "We fly in Friday morning. A friend from Somerset, Wisconsin, meets us on Saturday, then it's Stadium View Bar & Grill or 1919 Kitchen & Tap. After the game, you go watch more games that are important to the Packers. You get into a routine. I don't know how I'm going to handle this."
Social connections will be severed
For a lot of fans, affiliation with the Packers has a strong social factor, Schoenleber said.
"We have a lot of people who have their own sort of traditions and rituals," she said. "For some people, something will be missing. It will be that loss of connection to other people who are like you and like to watch the Packers."
Zachary Clark of St. Louis, Missouri, counts his one or two trips to Lambeau Field every year among life's great experiences.
"The journey usually took me through some brutal Wisconsin weather, but it's worth every moment to be in the stadium with others who share the same passion as yourself," Clark said. "I don't get to be around many Packers fans, but when I do, it's something special. There's no fan base I would rather be a part of."
The Packers are the only team in major professional sports owned by the fans, 361,311 of them. Between 7,000 and 18,000 attended the team's annual meeting at Lambeau Field for two decades.
When Brett Favre was inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame, the event in the Lambeau Field Atrium swiftly sold out, so they sold tickets for fans to watch the proceedings on the big screens in the stadium. Sixty-thousand tickets were sold because, when it comes down to it, Packers fans love few things more than being around other Packers fan, whatever the excuse.
Even if 85% of fans at games are from out of town, the team is ubiquitous in Green Bay, the combination of pride, fandom and economic impact.
People who live in Green Bay rarely notice it, but first-time visitors often remark on the prevalence of team allegiance everywhere. Cars and houses are painted yellow, with green trim, McDonald's restaurants have Packers decor, Packers banners hang from apartment balconies and Packers flags from houses, tree stumps are carved into Super Bowl trophies and bears hung in effigy.
“Every time you turn around in Green Bay, Wisconsin, you bump into the history of the National Football League,” former general manager Ron Wolf said in the Packers documentary.
Not every person in Green Bay is so attached to the Packers, but it’s inevitable that some aspect of their life is affected by it, from the timing of their church services, to when they can leave their homes on game days if they live close to the stadium, to when is the best time to go grocery shopping or take in a movie.
"My husband admitted he became a Packers fan because it’s hard not to be a Packers fan living here," Schoenleber said. "It’s hard not to somewhat pay attention. It’s hard not to be informed and stay up to speed."
Growing reliance on Packers revenue
The re-emergent success of the franchise in 1992 under Wolf and president and CEO Bob Harlan proved to be a double-edged sword.
In 1995, the Packers moved all of their games to Lambeau Field (they had played some in Milwaukee every season since 1953), increasing the economic impact to Green Bay. They renovated Lambeau Field in 2003, turning it into a year-round tourist and meeting/convention destination, and expanded seating in 2013, each time increasing the team’s economic standing in the community.
That was well and good during times like the 2007-09 Great Recession because it provided a stable source of economic activity. Fans continued to come to training camp by the tens of thousands and games were sold out.
But for the first time in modern team history, Green Bay is experiencing the other side of that coin. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Lambeau Field was closed from mid-March to June, and the 2020 season will be played in front of many fewer fans, if there are fans — or games.
The Packers, and the NFL, are determined they will have games because they need games to collect on their massive television contracts, but playing in front of fans, even at this late date, is not guaranteed.
"I do have a lot of confidence in the medical experts, both for the league and NFLPA. I am confident we’ll get a season in. As for fans, I’m not so certain. That’s going to be more difficult," said Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy.
Anytime you take the better part of $160 million out of an economy the size of Green Bay's, it's going to be felt by nearly everyone, but especially by the hospitality, entertainment and tourism sectors. There is no way to replace that lost revenue.
"They've created this financial beast up there with everything they've built and the beast needs to be fed," said Larsen, a financial adviser in real life.
Business are limping by, but the decision to keep 90,000 visitors away during training camp, and to have a fraction — or none — of 80,000 in town for every home game, will take a further toll. Some restaurants, bars and hotels may not survive.
"You didn't really build pandemic into your business plan," said Bill Tressler, owner of Hinterland Brewery in the Packers' Titletown District, adjacent to Lambeau Field.
Hinterland, which includes a restaurant and a brewery, reopened after a statewide shutdown, but uses about half of its interior space and outside seating to allow distancing. Tressler said business picked up, but is still at about 50% of normal.
"It's hard to say what this scenario brings if it went on for another year," Tressler said. "Some guys are down 80-90%. I don't know how sustainable this is long term for any business, but I've been pretty happy where we are as far as volume, considering."
But it's clear now, the Packers will not provide the lifeboat as in years past. In fact, they are dangerously close to being an anchor.
"Our hotels and our tourism-related businesses are hurting in a major way," said Brad Toll, president and CEO of the Greater Green Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We are definitely hoping and praying there will be some fans here filling hotel rooms."
Hotels occupancy is on track for 45% in July, up from a low of 16.1% during one week in April, but well below the normal 65% this time of year. So far, none of Green Bay's 46 hotels have closed. Toll attributed weddings and smaller meetings that can socially distance in large meeting rooms and ballrooms with some of the increase.
Unemployment in Brown County surged from 2.9% in March to 13% in April. It was at 12.1% in May. The Packers played a small part in that, because it was the offseason, but with closed training camp and fewer fans during the season, they won't be a big part of the recovery, either.
"You have to think about the interaction between the economic impact and the psychological impact," Schoenleber said. "It's also knowing that all of that being gone is taking an economic toll on individuals."
The Packers understand their impact on the community. They've made more than $2 million in coronavirus-related donations in Wisconsin so far, the majority of them in Brown County, and they've brainstormed ideas for drawing people to Lambeau Field beyond games.
"We are aware that many local businesses rely on the Packers," Murphy said. "A lot of people in our organization are thinking about different things we can do virtually. Maybe a drive-through movie or drive-through events where you don’t have to worry about physical distance."
The financial hit isn't just on businesses. The Packers and their fans — particularly their fans — have a big impact on local government. Room taxes pay for the KI Convention Center, the Resch Center arena and the Convention and Visitor's Bureau, and sales taxes pay for the under-construction Resch Expo, which is the key to the Packers' hopes of one day hosting the NFL Draft.
"If things continue to get better, we should be fine," Toll said. "They are keeping a very close eye on it. We are in a position where we can weather this a little bit."
It's an open question whether the fans who might get to attend games this year, if any do, will be from the 85% who bring their money to Green Bay from farther away. If the 12,000 or fewer are mostly local, their economic impact will be considerably less.
"The economic impact will be problematic for the community," Schoenleber said, but the psychological impact can't be ignored, especially if there are no games.
"For the subset of Packers fans where part of the benefit and the joy of being a Packers fan is the social connection, those are the people who will be most disappointed if there is no season. It's those fans who are going to feel this more keenly."
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