A sign detailing rules of entry at Lambeau Field, including specific warnings surrounding COVID-19. (WTAQ/Casey Nelson)
UPDATE 12/8 5:46pm: So much for that. The Green Bay Packers have announced that attendance will be limited to family members of team staff only for the remainder of the year
ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ) — There’s a strong possibility that Packers fans could be allowed into Lambeau Field this month.
A number of reports Monday said the team is making plans for fans to return for the final two home games, on the 19th and the 27th.
That could be meaningful for a devastated area tourism industry.
“In a typical year, a football game would be worth about $15 million. That’s not going to happen this year,” said Brenda Krainik of the Green Bay Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.
Businesses in and around Lambeau Field have suffered in particular this year without ticketed fans in the stands.
“It will move the needle a little bit, but it will never replace what COVID has [done] to us this year,” Krainik said of the potential for fans this month.
Travis Loftus has been waiting for this all year. He manages Green Bay’s Ticket King, a business that hasn’t been booming in a year with no ticketed events and virtually no live sporting events. While Ticket King has sold a spattering of tickets to Packers fans hoping to catch in-person road games in Indianapolis and other stadiums that have allowed fans, it hasn’t been a lot.
“As long as they get all the protocols set up and it’s safe, I mean, why not?” asked Loftus. “There are other stadiums doing it, there are college teams doing it. I don’t see why the Packers couldn’t do it as well.”
Loftus said it would mean a lot to fans, too.
“It would mean everything for the local businesses and fans,” Loftus told WTAQ. “It would be like a little Christmas miracle.”
The Green Bay Packers have been testing out their COVID-19 protocols on small groups of team staff and their family members during the last two home games.
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