Though the city currently has no National Football League team (it supported the Milwaukee Badgers in the 1920s), Milwaukee is considered a home market for the Green Bay Packers.[1] The team split its home schedule between Green Bay and Milwaukee from 1933 to 1994, with the majority of the Milwaukee games being played at County Stadium.[2] Former season ticketholders for the Milwaukee games continue to receive preference for one pre-season and the second and fifth regular season games at Lambeau Field each season, along with playoff games through a lottery under the "Gold Package" plan.[3]
The first Milwaukee game was played on December 3, 1922, against the Racine Legion. The 1939 Championship between the Packers and the New York Giants was played at State Fair Park in what is currently known as the Milwaukee Mile. The Packers won, 27-0. A 1931 championship against the Portsmouth Spartans was also scheduled for Milwaukee, but was called off. The Packers final post-season game in Milwaukee was a 1967 divisional playoff against the Los Angeles Rams which the Packers won convincingly 28-7.[2] They went on to capture their last NFL Championship and Super Bowl victory under Vince Lombardi.
The Packers maintain two separate season ticket plans, reflecting their time spent in Milwaukee: Gold package holders, made up largely of former Milwaukee season ticket holders, have a three-game package consisting of the annual Midwest Shrine preseason contest plus the second and fifth regular-season home games each year; Green package holders (made up of original Green Bay ticket holders) attend the annual Bishop's Charities preseason game and the remaining six regular-season contests.
The [[Milwaukee Badgers played in the National Football League from 1922 to 1926.[4] The team played its home games at Athletic Park, later known as Borchert Field, on Milwaukee's north side.
After the team folded following the 1926 season (largely due to being left broke because of a $500 fine by the NFL for using four high-school players in a 1925 game against the Chicago Cardinals, a game arranged after the Badgers had disbanded for the season),[5] many of its members played for the independent semi-pro Milwaukee Eagles. Some of the players from this team went on to play for the NFL's Pittsburgh Pirates in 1933. This has led some to mistakenly believe that either the Badgers or Eagles became the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Although City Stadium was the Packers' official home field, in 1933 they began to play some of their home games in Milwaukee to attract more fans and revenue.[6] After hosting one game at Borchert Field in 1933,[7] the Packers played two or three home games each year in Milwaukee, at Wisconsin State Fair Park from 1934 to 1951 and at Marquette Stadium in 1952.[6] The games were moved to Milwaukee County Stadium after it opened in 1953 and continued through 1994, after which the Packers moved back to Green Bay permanently.[8]
Borchert Field was also the host to the first Green Bay Packers game held in Milwaukee,[9] a 10–7 loss to the New York Giants on October 1, 1933.[10][6] The Packers played games in Milwaukee at County Stadium starting in 1953 through 1994.[6][8]
The infield of the quarter-mile dirt infield track at the Mile near the current media center was also the location of a football stadium, informally known as the Dairy Bowl.[11] It hosted the Green Bay Packers from 1934 through 1951, including the NFL championship game in 1939, a 27–0 shutout of the New York Giants on December 10 to secure a fifth league title.[12][13][14]
Marquette Stadium hosted three games during the 1952 season; Packer games in Milwaukee were moved to nearby County Stadium when it opened in 1953.[15]
During this period, the issue of a new stadium began to crop up. City Stadium was an extremely inadequate facility, seating only 25,000. Players also had to use the locker rooms at the local high school. In order to improve revenue, the Packers began playing one or two home games a year at the newly constructed Milwaukee County Stadium, a practice that continued until 1995. The first game played at MCS was a 27–0 shutout at the hands of Cleveland.
By then, the status of the Packers' staying in Green Bay was becoming unstable. With City Stadium greatly outdated, and more and more opponents asking for their games against the Packers to be played at County Stadium in Milwaukee, the NFL told the Packers that if they wanted to stay in Green Bay, they had to build a new stadium. The Packers and the city of Green Bay complied, building a brand-new 32,000-seat stadium, naming it New City Stadium. The new stadium was dedicated in a game against the Chicago Bears, with many celebrities attending, including actor James Arness, NFL commissioner Bert Bell, vice president (and future U.S. president) Richard Nixon, and Bears coach George Halas.[citation needed] The Packers won the game, 21–17, but finished the season 3–9.
The Packers played two to four home games per year at Milwaukee County Stadium from 1953 to 1994,[16] after using Wisconsin State Fair Park in nearby West Allis from 1934 through 1951 and Marquette Stadium in 1952.[17][18] The Packers compiled a 76–47–3 (.615) regular season record at County Stadium over 42 seasons. It hosted at least one pre-season game annually during this time as well (except 1983), including the Upper Midwest Shrine Game. Financial considerations prompted the Packers to move some of their games to Milwaukee starting with the 1933 season, with one game played at Borchert Field. By 1995, multiple renovations to Lambeau Field made it more lucrative for the Packers to play their full home slate in Green Bay again for the first time since 1932.[19] Former Milwaukee ticket holders were offered tickets at Lambeau to one pre-season game and games 2 and 5 of the regular season schedule, in what is referred to as the "Gold package."
County Stadium was partly responsible for Lambeau Field's existence, as it was not only intended to lure an MLB team to Milwaukee, but also to lure the Packers to Milwaukee full-time. As originally constructed, County Stadium was double the size of the Packers' then-home, City Stadium, leading the NFL to give the Packers an ultimatum—build a bigger stadium or move to Milwaukee. Green Bay responded with a referendum that resulted in a new City Stadium, which opened in September 1957.[20] After eight seasons, the venue was renamed "Lambeau Field" shortly after the death of team founder Curly Lambeau in 1965.
The Minnesota Vikings (15 times) were the Packers' most frequent foe at County Stadium, as the Packers would traditionally host at least one divisional rival from the NFC Central in Milwaukee each season. Only once, however, did the Packers play their ancient arch-rivals, the Chicago Bears, in a regular-season game in Milwaukee, defeating the Bears 20–3 in 1974. (The Packers and Bears played preseason games at County Stadium every year from 1959 to 1973, and again in 1975 and 1984.[21]) On November 26, 1989, a County Stadium record crowd of 55,892 saw the Packers beat the Vikings, 20–19.[22] The Packers' final game at County Stadium was a 21–17 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on December 18, 1994;[23] with fourteen seconds left, the winning 9-yard touchdown run was scored by quarterback Brett Favre.[24][25][26]
The Packers hosted one NFL playoff game at County Stadium, in 1967, defeating the Los Angeles Rams 28–7 in the Western Conference championship game.[27][28][29][30][31] It was the first year that the NFL playoffs expanded to a four teams, and Green Bay had home field advantage for both rounds, then awarded by rotation. Each subsequent playoff game has been played at Lambeau Field, starting with the Ice Bowl the following week against the Dallas Cowboys.[32]
Following the unsuccessful effort to lure the Packers to Milwaukee full-time, in 1965 city officials tried to lure an American Football League expansion team to play at County Stadium, but Packers head coach Vince Lombardi invoked the team's exclusive lease as well as sign an extension to keep some home games in Milwaukee until 1976.[33] Nonetheless, city officials still pursued an AFL franchise, possibly to play at Marquette Stadium, but the AFL–NFL merger effectively quashed any chances of Milwaukee landing its own team.[33]
The Packers played their final game at County Stadium on December 18, 1994, against the Atlanta Falcons. Although the Packers no longer play in Milwaukee, many residents still consider them a Milwaukee team, held in higher regard than the Bucks and Brewers. In spite of no longer playing games in the city, the Packers flagship newspaper and radio have remained the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Milwaukee-based WTMJ-AM, respectively.
Unlike most publicly funded stadiums built in the 20th century, County Stadium was built primarily for baseball, creating issues for hosting football. The playing surface was just barely large enough to fit a football field, which ran parallel with the first base line. The south end zone spilled onto the warning track in right field, while the north end zone spilled into foul territory on the third-base side.[23][34] Both teams occupied the east sideline on the outfield side, separated by a piece of tape. At its height, it seated less than 56,000 for football—just over the NFL's minimum seating capacity—and many seats had obstructed views or were far from the field. Over the years, upgrades and seat expansion almost exclusively benefited the Braves and later the Brewers.
Season ticket prices (three games) for the first football season in 1953 were $5.00, $3.80, and $2.50.[35][36] The average price in the final year of 1994 was $25.61 per game.[37]
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Main article: List of Green Bay Packers broadcasters |
The Packers are unique in having their market area cover two media markets, both Green Bay and Milwaukee, and blackout policies for the team apply within both areas, though they rarely come into effect due to strong home attendance and popularity.
As previously mentioned, the Packers' flagship radio station is Milwaukee-based WTMJ-AM (620), with the games airing in Green Bay on WTAQ (1360) and WIXX-FM (101.1).
In situations where Milwaukee Brewers baseball playoff games conflict with Packers games (WTMJ and Good Karma Brands also originate that team's broadcasts as the Brewers Radio Network) in September and October, WTMJ's FM sister station WKTI (94.5) originates the games in Milwaukee, with other stations in the Packers Radio Network making their own determinations about carriage of both games depending on whether they have a sister station to broadcast both games. WTMJ is simulcast on HD Radio over WKTI-HD2, in addition to the main AM signal's HD broadcast. Despite the NFL's Game Pass service nominally restricting WTMJ from streaming PRN coverage over the Internet, the station has streamed the team's games since the 2011 season, outside playoff games, though the streaming has been limited to desktop computers as of the 2015 NFL season due to both the new Game Pass package and TuneIn's premium service holding streaming rights for NFL play-by-play on mobile devices.
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See also: List of Green Bay Packers seasons |