Green Bay plans to shovel out Lambeau Field before playoff
As Green Bay weather in January goes, Sunday evening's NFC second-round playoff matchup between the Packers and Seattle Seahawks will be played under comparatively benign conditions: The forecast calls for temperatures around 20 degrees Fahrenheit at kickoff with only a hint of wind and no snow.
It’s the night before that might cause some issues. The forecast as of Thursday called for a gusty winter storm that could dump up to 25 centimetres of snow on Green Bay starting Saturday afternoon and continuing into the night before moving out early Sunday morning, well before kickoff.
And while the predicted snowfall decreased a bit in Friday’s forecast, the Packers have issued a call for as many as 700 shovellers to help dig out Lambeau Field’s lower-bowl seating areas starting at 6 a.m. local time Sunday (the upper decks, which are modern additions to a stadium that opened in 1957, feature heated areas that melt snow, and the field itself is warmed by an underground heating system). The job will pay $12 an hour.
The team has asked for shovelling help from the public numerous times, most recently in December ahead of a game against the Chicago Bears. It’s really quite the production, with a conveyor belt whisking the snow down the concourse to the field, where it’s scooped up into dump trucks.
The team allegedly had to start paying the shovellers in cash because people wouldn’t cash the team’s checks, instead taking them home and framing them.
There have been some infamously cold playoff games at Lambeau Field, notably the 1967 Ice Bowl against the Dallas Cowboys (temperatures around minus-15 Fahrenheit, wind chills at minus-36) and a January 2008 playoff game against the New York Giants (minus-1 at kickoff ).