The number of public practices has gone down by seven between 2019 and 2022 (no public practices in 2020). There were twelve public practices + Family Night in 2021, and in 2022, there are 11 public practices + Packers Family Night. Here is a breakdown of how camp practices have declined since the Collective Bargaining Agreement of 2011:
2011: 21 public practices + Family Night (*New CBA*)
2012: 20 public practices + Family Night
2013: 19 public practices + Family Night
2014: 16 public practices + Family Night
2015: 16 public practices + Family Night
2016: 15 public practices + Family Night
2017: 14 public practice + Family Night
2018: 14 public practice + Family Night
2019: 18 public practices + Family Night
2020: No public practices due to COVID-19 (*New CBA*)
2021: 12 public practices + Family Night.
2022: 11 public practices + Family Night.
(Note: I separate regular public practices from Packers Family Night because they are two different animals. Family Night is a “practice” but not in the same way that they are handled on Ray Nitschke Field during the day).
If the number of practices is trimmed by one each year, there will be no public practices after the 2032 season. Far-fetched, you say? J.C. Tretter (president of the NFLPA, and former Packers' center) has publicly stated that all offseason practices and mandatory minicamps should be eliminated. The number of OTAs has been trimmed, and the two-a-day practice sessions of training camp have been banned, with teams also having their practice sessions capped during training camp. The fate of training camp itself lies somewhere between “capped practice sessions” and the “elimination of training camp.”
The Packers state in their pre-Training Camp release: “According to the Greater Green Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau and a 2010 study by AECOM, training camp, along with Packers Family Night, presented by Bellin Health, could attract approximately 90,000 visitors from across the nation and as many as 20 foreign countries, with a total economic impact estimated at approximately $9 million.” It’s pretty safe to say that the Packers and the city both benefit from training camp.
If you’ve been saying to yourself, “I should go see a camp practice sometime,” now you know what time frame you have left. The interesting thing will be to watch how all offseason workouts (including NFL training camps) will be fought over when the 2030 season nears — the last year of the current CBA, ratified in 2020.
