Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
25 YEARS AGO: 1995 GREEN BAY PACKERS Harlan keeping franchise on course
Editor’s note: This column was published Aug. 5, 1995.
Green Bay — The Green Bay Packers suffered through a series of minor injuries this week, but the latest was only to their pride.
Deion Sanders, we learn, still isn’t interested in playing in Wisconsin.
Too small, too cold, poor selection of personal jewelry, whatever. His people have told the Packers’ people once again that he would not consider signing with Green Bay.
The franchise seems to be handling rejection well, but then the franchise seems to be handling everything but the Dallas Cowboys well as it enters its 77th season with an exhibition game Saturday in Madison.
The season-ticket waiting list is three decades long; 198 Lambeau Field luxury boxes are oversubscribed; the split schedule with Milwaukee has been abandoned with minimal damage to good will; and the team has played above .500 for three years in a row.
This looks very much like a flight on automatic pilot. There is someone at the controls, however, and he would like you to know he’s not on coffee break.
Bob Harlan enters his seventh year as the Packers’ president fully aware that anything taken for granted can be taken away. In a sporting era dominated by major markets, Green Bay ranks as a minor miracle, and it’s not by accident.
By 1998, Harlan says the team will have spent more than $50 million over 15 years to update its stadium and facilities with people like Sanders in mind.
“Before we hired Ron Wolf, two opinions prevailed about the Packers,” he says. “One was that the executive committee and the board of directors were making football decisions. The other was that it didn’t matter whether we won or lost because we were going to get the revenue anyway.
“We made it clear to Ron that we would leave football leadership strictly up to him. And I think we showed we were willing to spend money to win by eating three years of Lindy Infante’s contract and by our investments in free agents and in facilities.
“People and facilities are the best selling points you have for free agents. I don’t believe anyone can walk through here and say we don’t have top-drawer facilities. Our image has changed.”
Not with Sanders, apparently, but Harlan says in his 14 years of negotiating contracts the only college prospect who refused to even consider the Packers was John Jefferson, who subsequently came to Green Bay anyway.
“It’s not a major problem,” he says. “There are players who don’t want to go to New York or Los Angeles, either. People talk about the Ice Bowl, but they forget we have September, October and November, too.”
What Harlan can’t forget is the Packers’ total revenue ranks in the bottom eight in the National Football League, and their market is too small to do much about that. He’s been told by people in the league that he needs to charge $70,000 for his luxury boxes instead of the $19,000 to $24,000 he gets now and that his ticket prices, which rank in the bottom seven in the NFL, are too low.
It’s true the local clientele might tolerate a steeper price, but Harlan says, “I’m not fond of testing it.
“Common sense tells us we have to be careful. People in the league tell me I’m wrong, but I tell them they don’t know Green Bay. I’m not wrong.
“The salary cap expires in 1998, and we have to be ready for whatever happens then. Years with free agency and no cap could be devastating for us.”
In the meantime, Harlan says he and his front office friends have two major commitments. One is to keep the company solvent, and the other is to give the coach and general manager whatever they need to win.
They can’t change the population or the weather, but they appear willing to work on everything else.