GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The sheer number of people expected in Green Bay for next year’s NFL Draft has the city weighing ideas in terms of businesses and alcohol.
Green Bay’s 9th District alderman Brian Johnson submitted a proposal request for the city to consider, which is brings the possibility of allowing bars and restaurants to be open until 4 a.m. during the 2025 Draft.
“We recognize that once that bar time hits you’re going to potentially push everybody out into the street at 2 a.m. because they can’t remain in those facilities, and then they have no transportation to be able to bring them back to their hotels or their lodging, so we want to be able to create a larger window,” said Johnson.
Johnson says he has been discussing with the Brown County Tavern League about potential challenges related to the 2025 Draft.
The Brown County Tavern League says they are not pushing for legislation to extend bar hours.
They’re more concerned about transportation.
In a meeting Monday with Green Bay’s Protection and Policy Committee, Tera Hansen, a Green Bay bar owner and Brown Co. Tavern League President, talked about travel issues with previous Packers games.
“Two years ago when we had the playoff games, I got a call at 12:40 at night, now this is a quarter of what we’re going to be expecting here, I got a call at 12:40 at night saying that it was between 3-3 1/2 hours for an uber or a lyft,” said Hansen.
Hansen provided a statement which reads:
The main purpose of the proposal at Green Bay’s Protection and Policy meeting yesterday, was to talk about examples of ideas that we should prepare to discuss, in order to prepare for the NFL draft, which is a little less than a full year away.
That said, we want to clear any misconception. The Tavern League of Wisconsin is not pushing for legislation to extend hours for establishments in our area. That would be on the state level, the elections are not until November, and floor sessions in the Capitol don’t start until next year.
Once again, there is no communication on this, whatsoever, on the state level.
Instead, we please urge you to highlight the primary objective of the Brown County Tavern League: to boost the transportation system during the week of the draft, driving guests to different areas of our community, including hotels, so everyone can get around safely.
Our nationally-renowned SafeRide Program has provided over 1 million rides in the state of Wisconsin since 2000, and consistently averages over 4,000 safe rides home per year to the people of Brown County. The program will be compromised that week, with cabs and ridesharing at a maximum level. Joining the city in implementing a shuttle program, or any idea to help ensure safe roads while people enjoy what our community has to offer, is our number one objective.
However, we realized early, with everything so fresh, new, and vague at the moment; things are changing on a daily basis. As plans become more concrete, we’d love the opportunity to sit and discuss further. But as it currently stands, we don’t want to project what will or will not happen before next spring.
State representative David Steffen (R-Green Bay), who represents the 4th District in Northeast Wisconsin — says he’s hesitant about potentially extending bar hours at this point in time.
“Squeeze an extra two hours on bar time, I’m not sure if that’s a good idea, I’m looking forward to more discussion and in particular, again, getting reassurance from the law enforcement community that they are okay with this expansion of hours,” said Steffen.
The Draft could bring as many as 250,000 people to the area, and leaders agree transportation needs to be addressed.
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