4 September 2014

Today is Green Bay day!! We are off to see Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packer. I grew up in a Green Bay house. Dad was a huge Packers fan, and my brother’s family are also Packer backers. Dad never had a chance to go to Green Bay, so I thought it would be cool to stop in and see Lambeau field.

A little side story: The Packers are a publicly held team. At certain times in their history they have sold shares of “stock” to pay for improvements. The first stadium was built on donations. In 1997-1997 they needed money to build the Atrium, so they issued more stock. The stock has no value, and can’t be sold except back to the Packers. I bought my Dad and nephew shares during that offering. But because they are public, there isn’t a single owner, and it would be very difficult to move the team out of Green Bay.

We started out renting a car in the morning and doing the 45 minute drive to Green Bay. Our first stop was breakfast at “The Pancake Place”. The place was packed at 9:30 AM. We asked the host what to get since it was our first time and he suggested either the pancakes or the Stuffed Hash Browns. Susan ordered the Eggs Benedict Stuffed Hash Browns, I got the Southern Sausage and Gravy Stuffed Hash Browns. What these things are is about a pound of hash brown potatoes, they cook it flat, then take your two eggs and meat and put it on top. They then fold the hash browns over covering the eggs and meat and cover that with cheese and gravy. Or in Susan’s case, a Hollandaise Sauce. And of course I ordered a single pancake since this is “The Pancake Place”! Needless to say we only ate about ½ of our servings. When I paid I mentioned to the host that they should explain better about the sizes. He said it was a common rookie mistake to not order the ½ sizes order. Sigh.

Next stop was Lambeau field that was the looming green giant on the horizon. We walked through the Packer Pro Shop (think Macy’s with everything Green and Gold) and went into the new Atrium.

Our first stop on the tour was the Packers Marketing Suite on the top level. It has great views of the field. The windows open, but the tour guide said they are seldom opened during the regular season.

Next was the roof! We were directly under the scoreboard and you can see that each individual LED light is actually the size of a light bulb. It towers over one end of the field.

Our third stop was the club level seating just below the boxes. This was a new area opened up last season to add another 7,000 seats to the stadium. While there is a great place inside to sit and watch the game, there are seats outside. We went outside and I was impressed on how well we could see people down on the field. Our guide said that the shape of the stadium helped keep the crowd noise in. We broke into two groups and on a count of three yelled the “Go Pack GO!” cheer into the other side. Less than a second later our echo of “Go PACK GO!” came back to us. I had a flashback to Sundays long ago with Dad yelling that same cheer to the TV as he watched the game.

Next up was the upper level of the bleacher style seating. Fan’s have asked to have the bleachers replaced with real seats. This is a problem since most of the 56,000 bleacher seats are season ticket holders, pass down through family members. The seats are 18” wide, and to put real seats in would need about 24” per seat. That would leave about 5 people per section without seats. They asked for 7,000 people to give up their seasons tickets and the response came back that 18” was fine. (In the Pro Shop you can get a seat and back that is 17 ½”, just the right size for your space. )

The guide talked about snow, since they get some in Green Bay. They have crews of people that come and shovel snow by hand down to the field. One of the people in our tour had done that as a teenager. The new club level seats have heated floors, so they brush the snow out of the seats and it melts into drains. I’m not sure how that works on the sub-sub-zero days. Oh and there are no outside water fountains since they are concerned about ice on the floors. Burrrrr.

Next was the ground floor. We stopped outside the locker rooms and there is a huge picture of the inside. There is a giant G in a football shaped rug. They take a smaller version of the rug with them on away games to help the locker room seem more like home.

Then it was gameday! We stood in the tunnel and they played a tape of the announcer saying “Here are your 2014 Green Bay PACKERS!!!” We came out onto the field (well not on the grass, just the player area). The first thing I realized is this place is HUGE!. Then I realized how windy it was on the field. Even with the high walls, the wind was whipping through. A group down from us did the “Go Pack GO!” cheer and you could hear the echoes again. I can not imagine what the sounds and colors would be like with 80,000 people.

We climbed up the first set a bleacher seating. I sat on the end and again imagined the sounds that would come from a sell out crowd.

In the parking lot we got pictures with the huge statues of Curly Lambeau and Vince Lombardi, the two coaches with the biggest win records at Green Bay. We looked up and saw the huge swirling clouds above us. I figured it was Dad trying to grab my attention. Yep, Lambeau field was great, you would have loved it.

Go Pack GO!