10 reasons Green Bay will never host a Super Bowl

Packers quarterback Brett Favre (4) runs a play as heavy snow blankets Lambeau Field during the 2008 NFC divisional playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks. The game the following week against the New York Giants, with a game-time temperature of 1 below zero, was the third coldest in Lambeau Field's history. USA Today Network-Wisconsin

10 reasons Green Bay will never host a Super Bowl

Richard Ryman

Green Bay Press Gazette

January 30, 2019

INTRO: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard fans, shareholders, and season ticket holders ask “When will Green Bay get a Super Bowl?” If they search and find this article from 2019, they’ll likely not ask again (or just keep cluelessly dreaming). We’re getting the NFL Draft in 2025, and that’s the best the league will do for us. Hosting the NFC Championship game at Lambeau Field during any season is entirely up to the Packers.

GREEN BAY –  Green Bay will never host a Super Bowl.

The reason is simple: The event is too big and Green Bay is too small.

For the 2018 Super Bowl in Minneapolis, the league had a 154-page demand/wish list of things it would like, most of them for free, and any one of which would be a deal breaker for Green Bay. To be clear, not all of them are requirements, but a few select categories give a hint of the enormity of the event.

So, here are 10 reasons Green Bay will never host a Super Bowl:

• The headline says 10 reasons, but I can give you 30,000, as in hotel rooms, or 35,000, as in the NFL's exclusive use of free parking spaces. Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy told shareholders in 2017 that the NFL would like 30,000 hotel rooms within an hour's drive of Lambeau Field. If you aren't particular (and when is the NFL not particular?) we could probably come up with 8,000 hotel rooms. As to the parking: "Hi. I'm Roger Goodell. Can I park in your yard?"

• Full tax exemption from city, state and local taxes. And you thought Foxconn was demanding. In fact, the words "at no cost to the NFL" come up a lot, as do "will control and receive 100% of the revenues from" whatever will be sold. You're getting the picture, right?

• Imagine, if you will, a Super Bowl fan paying $4,000 to sit on an aluminum bench in the snow in, at best, 25-degree cold. Yeah, the NFL can't imagine it either. Among its minimum requirements are seats at least 19 inches wide with seat backs and arm rests. And a dome if you've got one.

•  Budgets for Super Bowl host committees were as high as $50 million before the 2018 game. Green Bay's entire proposed city budget for 2019 is $107 million. Good luck getting those potholes filled, though that's probably an NFL requirement, too. OK, this one could go both ways.

• Minneapolis raised $53 million in private fundraising to help cover the costs to the city, but unless they name it the Super Bowl Presented by Dick Resch, Green Bay could not come up with that bankroll. Pregame events could be held in the KI Convention Center in downtown Green Bay, named after Resch's company, at the Resch Center in the shadow of Lambeau Field, and maybe even at the Resch Miracle Field in Allouez. Maybe we could get the Richard J. Resch School of Engineering at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay to design a way to stack 35,000 cars in 3,000 parking spaces.

• The league wants exclusive access to two first-class bowling centers and three golf courses. This is Wisconsin. We can do bowling. That the best-available golf courses in February might be 900 miles distant could be a sticking point.

• This: (see photo above)

• The weather here can be, shall we say, variable. Take this week, Super Bowl week, for example. We had 10.5 inches of snow on Monday, and it was 17 degrees below zero with a minus-42 wind chill on Wednesday morning. Even the "neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow" people are taking the day off. But on Super Bowl Sunday, it's supposed to be near 40 degrees above zero. That's too many things the NFL can't control, to say nothing of the paralyzing effect it would have on "the big week."

• The Host Community must be able to provide a minimum of the following types of rental and for-hire vehicles: 750 buses, 500 limousines. 1,000 taxis and 10,000 rental cars. We are only short by about 720 buses, 480 limousines, 960 taxis and 9,700 rental cars. For reasons beyond understanding, pedicabs aren't included.

• This one makes me laugh. The NFL requires written proposals from local newspapers, television and radio stations, and outdoor advertising (billboard) companies to provide significant advertising and promotional time and/or space for the NFL Experience during the month leading up to the Super Bowl game at no cost to the NFL.

So, there you have it. There'll be no Super Bowl game in Green Bay.

All in all, my guess is Green Bay fans would much rather attend a Super Bowl than host one. And the sooner the better.

“Why Can’t I Watch the Game?!”

I’ve been more than a little surprised that large numbers of fans haven’t been aware that Friday night’s Packers-Eagles season opener in Brazil is going to be available only to those who have subscribed to Peacock (although Green Bay and Milwaukee will get the game via their local NBC affiliate due to decades-old broadcast laws). This deal with Peacock was announced when the schedule was released on May 15th. Yes, it’s a hassle, and an extra cost, but get used to it. If you think that the NFL will say, “Oh, gee, the fans don’t like that,” and cease putting any more games on streaming services, that’s not going to happen. This will be happening more and more, especially when the next media rights payday comes in four years. The days of “free” NFL games are rapidly coming to a close. It is what it is, and no amount of complaining is going to stop this.

UPDATE: Thursday Night Flex Issue Vote Coming This Week

Thursday Night Football flex scheduled for another NFL owners vote this week

NFL owners this week (May 22-24) are scheduled for the second time in less than two months to vote on allowing games to be flexed between Sunday afternoons and Thursday nights, according to a person who has seen the agenda for the Spring League Meetings.

At the March annual owners meeting, a proposal to do so pushed by the league failed to win the necessary three-quarters vote of owners required to pass. It received 22 yes votes, two shy of the necessary 24 (eight owners voted no, and two abstained). The league’s push came after the first year of Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime, which saw a fall in ratings on the streamer by roughly on average 4 million viewers for each of the 15 contests compared to 2021.

That was partly due to the move to digital from linear, but also many of the games were poor matchups that drew criticism, and even mocking lines from at times Al Michaels, who provided commentary for the contests. Thus the push to provide flexing for TNF.

An NFL spokesman declined to comment on whether there is a vote scheduled, citing the need to let the owners discuss the matter next week before issuing a statement.

— The Athletic

When/if the owners approve, and you have purchased or are purchasing tickets to Packers games scheduled after October 9th (when flex scheduling goes into effect), know up front that you may very well have to change your airline and hotel accommodations 15 days before the game when it is moved from Sunday to Thursday night.

What Roger Goodell and Jeff Bezos want, Roger Goodell and Jeff Bezos get.

Thursday Flexing to Be Decided Soon

The owners will vote on Thursday flexing at their May 22-24 meetings.

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The Fans in the Stands Matter Not to the NFL

If you make a pilgrimage to Lambeau Field each year, buying your Packers’ home (or away) game tickets and making airline and hotel reservations months in advance, you’ll want to pay attention to this:

(From NBC’s Peter King)

“At the recent NFL owners’ meetings, the owners voted on a proposal to make Thursday night games in weeks 14 through 17 on Amazon eligible to move to Sunday, with a corresponding trade of a more attractive game into the Thursday night slot. A few teams, the Packers’ among them, are saying it’s unfair to fans who make plans to travel to games to have them changed 15 days prior. And it’s unfair to fans and teams planning on a 12:00 p.m. (CT) Sunday game to have the game played three days earlier on a weeknight at 7:20 p.m. (CT).”

“The Giants, Jets, Bears, Saints, and Packers were among those who opposed the flex. For Green Bay, a ton of fans both follow them on the road and make bucket-list pilgrimages to Lambeau Field for games, and the Packers felt it unfair to have potentially thousands of fans be stuck with travel issues should a game be moved from Sunday to Thursday, or vice versa. Carolina and Denver abstained. With 24 votes needed for passage, the vote was 22 to 8 with the two abstentions. The NFL will arm-twist prior to the next league session in late May, and unless the anti-forces can muster some momentum, it’s likely the measure will pass then.”

“Post-meeting, New York Giants owner John Mara said: “At some point, can we please give some consideration to the people who are coming to our games? People make plans to go to these games weeks and months in advance. And 15 days ahead of time to say, ‘Sorry, folks, that game you were planning on taking your kids to Sunday at 1:00 (ET), now it’s on Thursday night’? What are we thinking about?”

Indeed.

Green Bay Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy said this on Saturday in his Murphy Takes Five column: 

“This topic was heavily debated at our league meeting. Television and television revenue are obviously very important to the league. The new Thursday night package on Amazon is especially important to the league – streaming is new to the league and we want Amazon to do well as all indications are that more and more people are using streaming services rather than network television. As you note, flexing Thursday night games will have a significant impact on fans and players, as well as coaches. The league has allowed flexible scheduling for Sunday Night Football for many years now, but moving a game from Sunday afternoon to Sunday night is a lot different than moving a Sunday game up to Thursday for the reasons you note. Moreover, we will allow flexing for Monday night games this year for the first time, so we don't know what issues may arise from this change. I believe that we do need to consider the fans in the stands, and how this would affect them – especially since so many of our fans travel a good distance to come to Lambeau Field and stay in hotels.”

“The proposed policy was amended to state that no team will be required to play more than two Thursday night games and at least one of the games will be a home game. The games will only be later in the season and the league will try to give as much notice as possible. I anticipate that there will be further discussion regarding this at our May meeting.”

As a season ticket holder who attends all ten home games (plus playoffs), I am not directly affected to the degree that others will be when this is a done deal. But Amazon has the streaming money the NFL wants, and both Jeff Bezos and Roger Goodell get what they want.

Nine years ago, Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, said this about the NFL: “I’m just telling you, pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. And they’re getting hoggy. Just watch. When you try to take it too far, people turn the other way.”

Peter King’s full April 3, 2023 Football Morning in America column can be read HERE.
 

The Impending Death of the NFL?

Remember how we’ve heard through the happenings of the last couple of years how the NFL is dying, and that no one will watch it anymore for “political” reasons? Well, what people say and do are different things. The evidence:

 “The NFL had 75 of the top 100 most-watched TV broadcasts last year. College football had six. The Olympics (11 of the top 100) were the only other sports that came close. The NBA, NHL and MLB did not place any events in the top 100.”

— The Athletic

Circle the Wagons in Green Bay

Whatever is wrong with the Green Bay Packers’ offense will need to be fixed from the inside. There are no street free agent receivers out there that will solve the problems. If those guys are the answer, they would be on an NFL roster already. Whether the problems are due to everyone not being on the same page, or the young receivers not being used to the NFL level yet, or whatever, this needs to be fixed in-house. It is not a personnel issue, it is performance issue, an execution issue. Will it eventually “click”? If it can, it had better do it soon, preferably this week. The hole they are digging for themselves is soon going to be too deep to prevent the season from being a complete disaster.

The Waiting is Over (?)

2022 Packers Throwbacks

With the change in the NFL helmet rules set to take effect in 2022, the Green Bay Packers will most likely have a throwback uniform for a home game next year. We would like to make a suggestion for a future throwback “look” which ironically, doesn’t require a different helmet. QB Bart Starr is seen above with the classic 1965 Packers uniform, which we’d like to endorse for consideration. The helmet color would be the same, but with the original, more football-shaped “G” and grey face masks. 

On the jersey, the five stripes (yellow-white-yellow-white-yellow) would return to the upper sleeve. On the pants, the thick width green-white-green stripes touching together. An alternate idea would be to use the striping from earlier in the Lombardi era, with thinner green-white-green stripes, with yellow in between (see below). The striping on the socks would match the pattern and colors of the upper sleeve. The last piece is crucial to that era’s look — everyone in black shoes.

So, we’ll see what happens. In our opinion, the retro uniforms that the team has used in the previous years have required too much of a “stretch” in the imagination, probably largely because the key elements were quite different in the 1930’s and not relatable to the fans of this modern era. The 2022 retro look has most likely already been approved, but the above is something we’d like to see down the pike. The team did miss a perfect opportunity to visually re-create the 1965 NFL Championship when Cleveland came to town back in 2013, and the Packers came out on top, 31-13.

It Was Quite A Ride

The sting has worn off enough for us to be able to thank our team for the 2019 season.

Not For the Financially Timid

For those of you on the Green Bay Packers season ticket waiting list, it is a substantial commitment — not only in money, but also time.

Speaking Up for Football

These days, there’s a constant negative barrage against football. This isn’t Packers-related, but it’s time someone stood up for football.

2005 Draft — Ten Years On...

Ten years ago today, QB Aaron Rodgers was drafted with the 24th pick of the 2005 First Round. Above, he meets the media a day later at Lambeau Field. We thought we’d go back and take a look at the teams who passed up the opportunity to draft a player who would win a Super Bowl (following the 2010 season), be named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player twice (2011 and 2014), be a four-time Pro Bowl selection (2009, 2011, 2012, and 2014), and a First Team All-Pro twice (2011 and 2014). Plus, he’s always referred to as one of the top QB’s in the league, and a future Hall of Famer. Now, here are the teams that didn’t think he was worth drafting:

   1 San Francisco 49ers — (QB Alex Smith)
   2 Miami Dolphins — (RB Ronnie Brown)
   3 Cleveland Browns — (WR Braylon Edwards)
   4 Chicago Bears — (RB Cedric Benson) 
   5 Tampa Bay Buccaneers — (RB Carnell "Cadillac" Williams)
   6 Tennessee Titans — (CB Adam "Pac-Man" Jones)
   7 Minnesota Vikings — (WR Troy Williamson) 
   8 Arizona Cardinals — (CB Antrel Rolle)
   9 Washington Redskins — (CB Carlos Rogers)
 10 Detroit Lions — (WR Mike Williams) 
 11 Dallas Cowboys — (LB DeMarcus Ware)
 12 San Diego Chargers — (LB Shawne Merriman)
 13 New Orleans Saints  — (OT Jammal Brown)
 14 Carolina Panthers — (LB Thomas Davis)
 15 Kansas City Chiefs — (LB Derrick Johnson)
 16 Houston Texans — (DT Travis Johnson)
 17 Cincinnati Bengals — (LB David Pollack)
 18 Minnesota Vikings — (DE Erasmus James) 
 19 St. Louis Rams — (OT Alex Barron)
 20 Dallas Cowboys — (DE Marcus Spears)
 21 Jacksonville Jaguars — (WR Matt Jones)
 22 Baltimore Ravens — (WR Mark Clayton)
 23 Oakland Raiders — (CB Fabian Washington)
 24 Green Bay Packers — (QB Aaron Rodgers) 

What a fun list, eh? This is what happens when you draft for perceived need rather than taking the Best Available Player (BAP), as the Packers do under the leadership of Ted Thompson. Look at our three division-mates... they picked some long-term successful players, didn’t they? Cedric Benson last played — ironically — for the Packers in 2012; Troy Williamson last played in 2009; Mike Williams last played in Canada in 2013; and Erasmus James disappeared to indoor football in 2011. Now, let’s win some more championships!

Season Over

We survived the cold at Lambeau Field on Sunday evening, but the Packers’ season did not. Once again, their home field had no advantage, as the visiting 49ers came in and played better just enough to come out on top. While the outcome wasn’t as bad as last season’s thrashing out West, it was disappointing nonetheless. They could’ve won that game last night. 

The weather was not as cold as the NFC championship game in January 2008, as the forecasters had predicted. We were prepared for the cold, with the “body warmers” stuck inside our boots being the key decision. Also, there were the two packs of hand-warmers in each glove which allowed us to wear a lighter pair for operating the camera. We will follow up this post soon with photos we took at the game. And now, there’s only about six-and-a-half months until Training Camp ’14, when we start this all over again.

Photo: Packers.com

Commentary

From the Editor’s Chair:

First of all, we’d like to state that we were not at Sunday’s game between the Packers and Vikings, but we have attended eight contests between these two rivals over the years. Therefore, we feel that we are qualified to comment further.

After Sunday’s game, a fight occurred at a sports bar near Lambeau Field, in which a Packers’ fan was knocked unconscious by a Vikings’ fan. The victim was actually trying to break up the fight. What we know of the incident comes solely from articles in the Green Bay Press-Gazette, so we conclude that the facts are correct. We should state also that the people involved in the fight have not been identified (yet) as having been to the game itself.

In Press-Gazette articles, it is stated that more arrests and ejections occur at Vikings’ and Bears’ games than at games with any other opponents. What we’d like to comment on is the practice by Green Bay Packers season ticket holders selling their tickets to brokers, which then allows hordes of opposing fans into the stadium. At Packers-Vikings games, there are an inordinate number of Minnesota fans. As in, when the Vikings score, there is a roar of cheering. Now, no one can legally stop ticket holders from unloading tickets for more cash, but something can and should be done to crack down on the behavior of the people who use the tickets. And, we’d like to also point out that fans of opposing teams are not the only problem. We have seen way too many drunk Packers’ “fans” causing everyone around them to have a less than enjoyable experience. Imagine getting to go to one Packers’ game in your lifetime, and the person next to you is drunk and screaming obscenities and spilling beer on you the whole time.

Here is what needs to be done: the Green Bay Packers need to go to a “one-strike” policy on fan behavior. While there probably are jerks who are season ticket holders, we believe most ticket holders are conscious of the consequences of losing their seats. As it is now, a ticket holder is warned several times before the act of revoking their ticket privilege comes into play. In other words, if you are in the habit of doling out tickets to third parties that you don’t know at all, and these people get ejected or arrested at Lambeau, you’ll be warned a few times that if this continues, you might lose you tickets.

With the collapse of decency and common sense in our society, it is time to crack down severely on disruptive fan behavior. We propose the aforementioned “one strike” policy that should be implemented in 2013. This means that if a person at a Packers’ game is ejected from the stadium, or arrested, or both, the ticket holder loses season ticket privileges — no excuses or second chances. What this will do is to cause the season ticket holder to be very serious about who uses the tickets. People will be less inclined to let four people they’ve never met use the seats, and thusly, less drunken idiots will attend games, making the experience more enjoyable for everyone.

The other major factor in this whole scenario is the over-consumption of alcohol. People have the right to drink, and the Packers have their alcoholic beverage sponsors. But this could all be tied into a heightened “Drink Responsibly” campaign, with an “or Else!” emphasis. Drunk and abusive = Losing tickets.

There are many options for those times when a season ticket holder cannot attend a game. The Packers themselves offer services where tickets can be donated for charity, and you are not responsible if something happens. We ourselves have “eaten” tickets when they couldn’t be given to responsible friends. The stakes are too high to have someone we don’t know in our seats doing who knows what.

We don’t know if anyone in the Packers organization reads our blog, but if they do, this is not just one cranky fan spouting off. It is something to consider if they want to make Lambeau Field a fan-friendly — and family-friendly — place in the years to come.