The Lambeau Field experience is annually rated as one of the best in the league and will only get better as renovations to the stadium are completed.
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Mike McCarthy stomps into the Green Bay Packers locker room, throws his play sheet and red pen across the room and gets nose-to-nose with center Evan Dietrich-Smith and, though there won’t be any sound, every fan in Lambeau Field will be able to see the spit fly as he asks – in so many words – how Smith missed the block that led to an Aaron Rodgers sack and fumble and a Vikings touchdown.

In theory anyway … and if you’re not using the little boys and girls room or buying a beer and brat.

Will watching the locker room at halftime on the jumbotron bring more fans to the stadium?
Raymond T. Rivard photograph

You see, in a move that is aimed at helping the Oakland Raiders more so than the Green Bay Packers, the NFL has mandated that teams install cameras into locker rooms so that fans can now have a peek into the never-seen-before happenings during halftimes of their favorite team.

Clearly mandated as a step to make the live game experiences as attractive as the creature comforts of the home viewing experience, the NFL is trying to clean up its pantload of fear over losing fans. Sixty-inch televisions that broadcast better and better images from NFL games is convincing fans to stay home with their friends, their chips, their beer and their favorite chair rather than jumping in the car, traveling for hours, fighting traffic and crowds and doing it all over again to get back home.

Fans are staying home to watch the games in warmth and comfort and the NFL doesn’t like that. In a case of the classic love/hate relationship, the NFL is fighting the trend against its lover – the television networks who help pay the light bills for the league through their billion dollar contracts. Without television, the NFL would be like T-ball baseball leagues – attended only by spouses and children who watch while laying on the grass with their picnic lunches.

So, any advantage the league can conjure is being implemented.

Though teams like the Packers have no reason – at least at this point in time – to worry about declining attendance, there are other teams like Oakland, Tampa Bay, St. Louis, and even Minnesota that are heading up the trend in the downward spiral in attendance around the league.

If fans can watch coaches get after players on the field, will they be interested in watching the action on the big screen at halftime, too?
Raymond T. Rivard photograph

Will the halftime locker room video show pack ‘em in at these venues so they can watch players mill about, get retaped, and coaches talk strategy? I doubt it, but the league has to start doing something to attract fans.

Maybe other franchises should take a look at what the Packers are doing … not only will Lambeau Field’s renovation to its south end zone be completed by the start of this season, but the team is also in the process of renovating its Atrium area, moving around some of the anchor businesses (such as its Pro Shop), improving facilities, not only for the fan experience, but for the players as well. And what’s even better is that the Packers are doing it all at no cost to taxpayers. Through a league loan, the selling of fan stock and its own funds, the franchise is continuing to show that they’re ahead of the curve in attracting fans.

Coupled with the fact that the Packers have a waiting list for season tickets that lasts nearly into perpetuity, they are more an anomaly than the norm in the league. So, not only will Packers fans get the chance to enjoy their game day experience – which is annually rated as one of the best in the league – but starting this year they will be able to watch as Coach McCarthy does his job.

That’s not such a bad thing, I guess.

But I can probably guarantee that it won’t amount to a hill of beans in attracting more fans to Green Bay. They come to watch the action on the field, not the locker room.

Lambeau Field will continue to be improved with a construction project that is expected to revamp the stadium complex’s Atrium.

Continuing to stay competitive both on and off the field is the goal of the Green Bay Packers and with the announcement today of a $140.5 million expansion to the stadium complex’s Atrium, that goal will be achieved.

The rearrangement and expansion of the Atrium will include a number of changes that, according to team President Mark Murphy, will continue to broaden the fan experience.

Another key feature of the 2015 expansion is the fact that the Packers will pay for every dime of the project – not public monies will be used – something that no doubt pleases those who live in the City of Green Bay and Brown County. The Packers will also utilize the National Football League’s G4 program to help with the financing of the project.

The plans were explained today in front of the Green Bay/Brown County Professional Stadium District Board, though the initial announcement of the plan was made during last summer’s shareholders meeting. “It’s been 10 years now with the Atrium, and this is an opportunity to refresh it and also improve the operation of our Atrium businesses,” Murphy said at the presentation.

According to packers.com, the following are some of the highlights one should expect to be completed with the renovation project:

• A new ground level, underneath the current Atrium floor, will be created via excavation to house an expanded Packers Pro Shop with close-up parking and direct access on both the north and east sides.
• A revamped Robert E. Harlan Plaza, including the statues of Vince Lombardi and Curly Lambeau, will remain the main entrance to the Atrium itself, but will be elevated above the new ground floor Pro Shop entrance.
• Curly’s Pub will move from the second floor of the Atrium to the current Pro Shop location, and customers will have direct access on the north side and through a new east-side entrance via escalator.
• The Packers Hall of Fame will move from the Atrium basement to Curly’s current location on the second floor.
• The entrance to the Oneida Nation Gate on the stadium’s east side will be expanded to better connect with the pedestrian walkway that stretches to Oneida St.
• The players’ parking lot will be moved to the south side of the Oneida gate, with access via tunnel underneath the new, extended gate entrance.

  The Pro Shop will nearly double in size to 20,000 square feet, while Curly’s Pub and the Hall of Fame will experience temporary shutdowns during the construction. When and how long those shutdowns will last is yet to be determined.

  Other features of the expansion will be renovation of the Oneida Nation entrance area to the stadium and improvement to player and coaches facilities.

  “We’re very excited about this final phase,” Murphy said. “Like anything else, during construction there are going to be some inconveniences, but when it’s all done, the Atrium will be much improved.

  “With these changes to both the stadium and the Atrium, we will stabilize the financial future of the organization and help ensure that we remain competitive both on and off the field.”

The Atrium at Lambeau Field could see some major upgrades. An announcement could soon be made by the team. Raymond T. Rivard photograph

Lambeau Field is a Mecca for fans and Green Bay Packers officials continue to look for ways to make improvements to the physical facility to enhance  the fans’ experience.

This off-season the team started on a $143 million additions to the iconic stadium. This includes adding 6,700 seats to the south side of the stadium, new video boards and new entrances.

But that doesn’t seem to be enough for team officials who are coming off this month’s announcement of $42.7 million in net income last year.

“We are going to continue investment in the stadium,” team president Mark Murphy said while announcing last year’s financials.

It seems he will be backing up those words.

It was announced this past weekend that the team is now eyeing improvements to the now 10-year-old atrium, which was built as part of the 2002 re-do of Lambeau.

Some of the ideas being floated by the team are as follows:

• Moving the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame to the second floor. The Hall is now in the Atrium basement. Last year there were 156,000 visitors last year, up from a previous record that was in the ninety-thousands.

• Relocating Curly’s Pub restaurant to the first floor near the Pro Shop, which will also give it more visibility. It is now on the second floor, above the Pro Shop.

• Making improvements to the Pro Shop, which was expanded twice since the Atrium opened in 2003. Physical Pro Shop
sales have increased, but not as much as online sales. Pro Shop operations provided the biggest boost to the Packers’ income last year.

These improvements could give the Atrium a higher profile among fans and Murphy said that he hopes to announce plans by the end of the year, maybe even sooner.