On Friday, Packers president and CEO Ed Policy reiterated his concern about the basic financial differences between a publicly-owned team and the 31 privately-held franchises. The situation raises the stakes for the Packers when it comes to finding ways to raise money.
One easy way to do that is to have more events at Lambeau Field. Policy said that’s coming.
“We are focusing on having more major events — non-Packers games at Lambeau Field,” Policy said, via Kelly Hallinan of NBC 26. “They’re good for us. They do generate revenue, but they’re also great for our community and for the regional and local economy.
“We do want to focus a little more on college football games and premier soccer games. They’re just a little bit easier on our field and easier for the field to bounce back from. But we will host concerts from time to time. We’re very pleased with the Luke Combs concert. It was actually two back-to-back concerts that we held for the first time in Lambeau Field, and we hosted, I believe, approximately 93,000 people.
“So we are putting more effort toward those events. Very excited about having the Notre Dame-Wisconsin game coming here on September 6th. But we’ll continue to look at those. There’ll be college football games, premier soccer games, there could be a winter event coming up. We’ll see, we’re working on that potentially.”
Policy mentioned the field. The Packers do a great job, in a bad climate, of keeping their field pristine. They’ll need to be able to keep doing that.
But it’s a way to make more money that doesn’t make it more expensive to attend Packers games — and that doesn’t entail selling the naming rights to Lambeau Field. Which the Packers absolutely do.
It’s found money. It’s a lost opportunity. And even though some regard Lambeau Field as hallowed ground, Green Bay Packers, Inc. isn’t a religion. It’s a business.
And it should behave like one, especially if the person in charge of the business is worried that changes to how NFL business is done could eventually give the Packers the business.
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