The Green Bay Packers stunned everyone with their last minute win against the Detroit Lions. The Packers will now go on to play a home game on Sunday against the New York Giants. Win or lose, this NFL Division Championship game will bring an estimated $14 million impact for Brown County.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that in addition to fans flocking to Lambeau Field, specific playoff merchandise will be available for sale.
More division championship paraphernalia is expected to arrive in the next couple of days, but the real money will roll in when fans begin streaming into town later in the week, all needing food, drink, a place to stay and perhaps, especially if they’re from New York, some emergency game-day clothing, like hats, boots and something little warmer than a thin black leather jacket.
A high of six degrees is predicted later in the week, and game-day temperatures are expected to peak at just under 20 degrees.
Of course, other NFL cities hosting playoff games will reap a similar happy windfall. But the impact on Green Bay is unique, given the size of the city (population 104,057), the seating capacity at Lambeau Field (81,435, including standing-room), and the number of hotel rooms available in Brown County (about 4,300).
And that $14 million is just the dollars that can be counted. Toll said it’s impossible to put a price on the value an extra nationally broadcast game brings to the community. Not just images broadcast inside the Lambeau bowl but also from the video snapshots network crews often produce in the days before the game to give viewers mini profiles of northeastern Wisconsin. These can be profoundly beneficial from a marketing perspective, even if images at this time of year might be of fishermen sitting on buckets on the frozen Fox River or traffic rumbling down a Lombardi Ave. so salt-stained it’s white as chalk. It doesn’t matter. It all puts Green Bay in people’s minds, and may lure them into swinging through the city.
For more information on the Packers economic impact, visit Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
