‘It’s eerily quiet’
No fans at Lambeau; neighborhood felt empty, too
With perhaps the exception of the weather, nothing about the Green Bay Packers home opener looked as it should.
A sunny, 70-degree last Sunday of summer that was tailor-made for tailgating felt more like an overcast Tuesday outside Lambeau Field.
Traffic, or the lack thereof, was like something out of “The Twilight Zone.” Neighborhood streets and front lawns normally swallowed up with cars hours before kickoff were empty except for election signs and Packers porch decor. Crosswalk signs on South Ridge Road blinked to let an occasional dog walker or family with a stroller across, but no throngs of excited fans headed to
the stadium.
Party houses along Lombardi Avenue were mostly quiet outside, a lone person on a phone on the patio of one. A sound system outside The Bar on Holmgren Way boomed “Let’s get ready to rumble” in a cavernous parking lot that would typically have been packed with revelers. Packers gear vendors set up shop on street corners but there was little jostling to get a look at the goods.
As bare as the stands were inside Lambeau Field with no fans allowed due to the coronavirus pandemic, an equally hollow feeling permeated the area outside the stadium — traditionally so electric and so iconic on game days.
“It’s just empty,” said Luanne Brenner.
She and her husband, Jerry, had their
Packers colors on when they took a walk from their home on nearby Valley View Road to Lambeau to get a few photos of the empty parking lots before the game. “Sad. It’s sad,” Jerry said. Nothing about it felt normal for the Brenners, who like their neighbors are usually busy hustling to park cars on their front lawn on game day mornings. They give the money they make to their grandchildren. Each of them is out $100 for the home opener.
“We sit out in the front yard, have a bloody mary, watch the people go to the game, harass the opponents’ fans,” Jerry said. “All the fun stuff.”
Small pockets of tailgaters gathered here and there, mostly in residential yards. People played cornhole in driveways and tossed the football. A few strolled through the Titletown District.
Stadium View Bar & Grille hosted what looked to be the largest pregame gathering of sports bars in the stadium entertainment district.
For all that was missing, the smell of meat on the grill was present and accounted for at nearly every turn — and a best effort at good spirits too.
Chris Fictum, of Menasha, and his group of four set up with permission outside Extreme Audio at the intersection of Holmgren Way and Mike McCarthy Way at 8 a.m. to grill burgers and brats, crank some AC/DC, watch the game on their own TV and make the most of a surreal situation.
“You think about Lambeau Field, you think about the Packers, you think about fans, busy area, full stadium, a little bit depressing to not to have a full packed stadium district area with fans,” he said.
Lori and Scott Roethlisberger have lived near Lambeau on April Lane for 28 years. They’re used to a bustling street by 7:30 a.m. on home game days and a yard filled with cars. There was none of that on Sunday, just a small gathering of eight or so family members in a deckedout garage that doubles as tailgating headquarters.
They still put their Packers gear on. Still put Remy the Packers mannequin (with his Packers face covering on) next to the mailbox. Still put a jersey on Luna, their American bulldog. Still served brats and “Lambeau Field hot dogs.” Still did their best to keep their gameday traditions going. But ...
“There’s an emptiness,” Lori Roethlisberger said. “When I went to the store this morning it’s like you wouldn’t even know it was Sunday home opener.”
At Chris and Peter Baierl’s house on Valley View Road, the family set up tables and a TV in the front yard for brunch, and got out the faux Lombardi Trophy.
“It’s eerily quiet,” Baierl said.