Opened in 1957 as “City Stadium”, Lambeau Field is now the NFL’s longest tenured facility, home to the Green Bay Packers since the team’s inception. Following the death of Green Bay Packer founder, Curly Lambeau, “City Stadium” was rededicated as Lambeau Field in 1965. Long considered “the crown jewel” of the NFL, Lambeau Field has just gone through a state-of-the-art face lift.
While careful not to change the original bowl seating, or the hallowed ground where the field lies, architects were able to take Lambeau Field right into the 21st Century. Now realized in the new Lambeau Field, which was re-dedicated in September 2003, is a five-story atrium, a 25,000-square-foot Packers Hall of Fame, corporate meeting or event facilities for 25 to 1,200 people and a larger Packer Pro Shop. A main focus of the renovation was to make Lambeau Field a year-round destination. The cost of renovations to Lambeau Field was $295 million, of which $125.9 came from private funds. Brown County voters approved a half-percent countywide sales tax to help with the additional funding of the Lambeau Field project.
Hard to believe, the renovations to Lambeau Field were done on-time, on-budget and without impacting play on the field!
Capacity at the original “City Stadium” was only 32,500. Recent attendance history at Lambeau Field has grown: 478,433 in 2001, 508,788 in 2002, 562,819 in 2003 and to 564,400 in 2004. The seating capacity at Lambeau Field grew with the redeveloped stadium as well, from 61,001 to 72,601. Roughly half of the additional seats went to decreasing the long list (57,000) of patient fans waiting to buy season tickets. There are 167 suites and a total of 6,260 club seats (indoor and outdoor) at the renovated Lambeau Field.
To go to a game at Lambeau Field is to witness history. Packer fans are die-hard; come rain or come shine, or more likely temperatures dipping below freezing, fans support their Green and Gold. The most famous example is the Ice Bowl of 1967, where the Green Bay Packers defeated the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC Championship game in the coldest game in NFL history…-13 degrees with a wind chill of -46 degrees! And yes, the game was sold out and the nickname “Frozen Tundra” was born!
Visitors to Lambeau Field will now see retired numbers for great players of years past; including, #3 Tony Canadeo, #14 Don Hutson, #15 Bart Starr, #66 Ray Nitschke and #92 Reggie White.
Besides seeing a win on the field, Packer fans enjoy the traditions of Lambeau, both old and new. Invented in 1993, by former Green Bay Packer LeRoy Butler, the “Lambeau Leap” keeps fans looking for tickets in the end zone! But prior to the player in Green and Gold hitting the stands, fans hear, and have for years, Todd Rundgren’s song, “Bang the Drum All Day”.
On February 11, 2006, collegiate hockey teams from Wisconsin and Ohio State met in the "Frozen Tundra Hockey Classic" at Lambeau. An outdoor game played on a temporary rink inside the stadium. The Badgers defeated the Buckeyes 4-2 before a capacity crowd of 40,890. There were some problems as the ice began to crack during play, but overall it was a success, ending with the Badgers doing the "Lambeau Leap" following their victory.
Lambeau Field has represented a significant postseason home-field advantage for the Packers. From its opening in 1957 until January 2003, the Packers had never lost a postseason game at Lambeau Field. However, the Packers hosted just one postseason game (in the ad-hoc round-of-16 in the strike-shortened 1982 season) during a lean stretch of 27 years between the Ice Bowl of 1967 and a wild-card game in December 1994. Although the Packers have lost their last two playoff games at Lambeau Field, the overall postseason record is an impressive 12-2. The impressive record is attributable to both the dominance of the early Packers teams under Lombardi and the physical and psychological challenge that the cold Wisconsin winters present for visiting teams, especially those that reside in warmer climates.
The field itself is a 2 ½ inch thick Kentucky bluegrass surface in a sand-based sod, on top of a series of Levels designed to best withstand the beating it takes on a weekly basis. While there has been a soil-warming system in place for decades at Lambeau Field, the most recent system was installed in 1997, which replaced the original that famously failed during the Ice Bowl. The current warming system maintains a root-zone temperature around 70 degrees during the cold winter months.
Heading into its 50th season, Lambeau Field is the longest continuously-occupied stadium in the NFL – 10 years more than the next closest venue!
There are 4,900 on-site parking spots; all are sold out to Green Bay Packer season ticket holders. For those lucky Green Bay Packer season ticket holders, ticket prices remain fairly reasonable; 2005 prices had end zone seating at just $54 per ticket.
Lambeau Field
1265 Lombardi Ave.
Green Bay, WI 54307
|
