GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Imagine a season without NFL football at Lambeau Field…or, perhaps a season played before an empty stadium.
All possibilities as COVID 19 has no vaccine and shows no potential for going away on its own.
And that has people like Brad Toll, President of the Greater Green Bay Conventional and Visitors Bureau, concerned. There’s a lot of money at stake.
“With ten games we’re looking at $150 million plus.”
Hotel room stays is just one gauge of economic impact. This season, in addition to the Packers, the UW Badgers are set host Notre Dame in October.
Toll says the Badgers-LSU game a couple of years ago was a big success.
“A home Packer game is about a 2 night stay. What we saw with the Badger-LSU game is that 2 night stay went up to 3 and 4 nights.”
Restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations and more cash in from the time Packers training camp begins until the season is finally over.
“We actually have about 12 thousand jobs that are supported by tourism in Brown County.”
Other draws outside the area, like EAA AirVenture, the Ryder Cup, and more are revenue generators for Brown County. But things are uncertain for those events as well.
Toll says in just the past 3 months lost conventions and sports tournaments has cost the area $25 million in revenue.
