Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
The Pack won’t be back
Editor’s note: This story was published October 13, 1994.
Green Bay — The Green Bay Packers ended a 61-year relationship with Milwaukee when team President Bob Harlan announced Wednesday the team would not play at County Stadium after this season.
Citing a potential loss of $12 million to $15 million by the end of the decade, Harlan said it was in the best interest of the team to not renew its lease at County Stadium and to pull out of Milwaukee permanently.
The Packers will now play all eight regular-season games and two pre-season games at Lambeau Field.
“I wouldn’t have fought as hard as I did all those years to keep them (the Milwaukee games) if I didn’t feel a loyalty there,” Harlan said at a news conference at the Packers administration offices. “But it’s been a problem for a long time, before I was in this office.
“There was a lot of unrest on my board. They kept saying, ‘How can you afford to lose this kind of money?’ I just don’t think you can stay in business losing that much money.”
In detailing his decision to pull the Packers out of Milwaukee, Harlan made it clear that the inability to replace County Stadium with a new facility was a factor.
Harlan said that when he first began discussions in 1986 with Milwaukee Brewers President Allan H. “Bud” Selig about a new stadium, he believed something would get done.
“I thought it would be three or four years,” Harlan said. “They showed us diagrams of the stadium and press box and locker rooms. Everything led us to believe there might be a new ballpark by 1990.”
Harlan said that rather than wait until the Governor’s Milwaukee Stadium Commission made a recommendation on a new stadium, he wanted to make the announcement now.
He said he didn’t want to commit to staying in Milwaukee and then learn three or four years down the road that a stadium wasn’t going to be built.
Now that the commission knows the Packers won’t be there, Harlan said, it can concentrate on building a baseballonly stadium.
Selig said at the news conference that the Brewers estimate that type of stadium would save $25 million to $30 million.
“I understand from their perspective and I also understand in no way does it change our commitment,” Selig said of Harlan’s announcement. “All it does now is maybe change the focus of what we’re going to do. Do we still need to build a convertible roof, natural grass stadium? We do.”
Gov. Tommy G. Thompson appointed the stadium commission last spring to come up with a financing package for the stadium, which would feature a convertible roof.
While the Packers are abandoning Milwaukee, Harlan said, the team is not abandoning its Milwaukee fans.
All current Milwaukee season- ticket holders will be given an opportunity to buy ticket packages for one pre-season game and two regular-season games at
Lambeau Field, Harlan said.
Green Bay season ticket holders will be offered one additional pre-season game and one additional regular-season game.
Because there is about a 4,000-seat difference between the smaller County Stadium and Lambeau Field, the Packers will be able to offer about 8,000 tickets to fans on both stadiums’ waiting lists.
Lambeau Field, which will have a capacity of 60,789 after this season, has a season-ticket base of about 54,000 (luxury suites not included) and a waiting list of about 15,000.
County Stadium, which holds 56,051, has a season-ticket base of about 46,000 people.
Tickets that aren’t purchased by the Milwaukee season ticket holders will be offered to people on both waiting lists on an alternating basis.
Harlan said he expected the Milwaukee waiting list of about 3,000 to be fully expired.
“I couldn’t have done this if it didn’t include a ticket plan for the Milwaukee fans,” Harlan said. “Every other franchise that has moved has left its fans behind. We’re not leaving our fans behind. We’re abandoning the ballpark, not the fans.”
The Packers make considerably more money at Lambeau Field because of a larger seating capacity and 108 luxury suites.
The Packers, who pay $39,000 rent and receive a small percentage of concession revenue per game at County Stadium, will lose $1.6 million this year by playing in Milwaukee, Harlan said. Next year, that figure will grow to $2.5 million when the Packers add an additional 90 luxury suites.
Harlan said he could no longer sit by and allow the Packers to lose that much money every year.
He estimated the Packers lost $15 million over the last nine years and would lose another $12 million to $15 million by 1999, when the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement ends with the players.
“I have a fiscal responsibility with this organization,” Harlan said. “It’s an old dilemma. We don’t know our future. In three or four years, our (the NFL’s) television contract will run out and so will the collective bargaining agreement.
“In 1999, if there’s not a collective bargaining agreement, there won’t be a salary cap. I’m just not comfortable with this situation. We can’t compete if we have no money.”
The Packers are a non-profit organization made up of 1,877 shareholders, none of whom receives a dividend on the investment.
Instead, any profit of the Packers is funneled back into the football operation, Harlan said.
The Packers have spent $28 million over the past 13 years in stadium improvements, construction of an indoor practice field and enlargement of their administrative offices, Harlan said.
They expect to spend another $8 million on the additional luxury suites and another $4 million on a stadium sound system and scoreboard.
“That’s $40 million the Packers have put in in about 13 years time. That’s a huge sum to maintain all of this,” Harlan said.
Harlan said that General Manager Ron Wolf and Coach Mike Holmgren were both in favor of playing more games at Lambeau Field. However, he said their feelings played only a small part in the overall decision.
“Every coach since I’ve been here has wanted us to move back,” Harlan said.
The Packers have played at four different sites in Milwaukee, beginning in 1933 when they played at Borchert Field.
The next year they played at State Fair Park, West Allis, and in 1952 moved to Marquette Stadium. In 1953, they began playing at County Stadium.
The Packers’ Milwaukee record is excellent. They have won 103 games, lost 61 and tied 3 for a winning mark of .626.