The Green Bay Packers may soon sacrifice an iconic part of their history to bow down to the almighty dollar.
Packers president and CEO Ed Policy spoke to Ben Fischer of the Sports Business Journal earlier this week about the team potentially being hurt by its unique ownership structure. The Packers remain the only non-profit, community-owned sports franchise based in the U.S.
Without a billionaire owner to bankroll potential moves in an NFL landscape with contract sizes rising by the year, Policy believes Green Bay may get left behind.
One final trump card the team could play would be to sell naming rights to the Packers’ iconic stadium, Lambeau Field. It’s a reality the team is trying to avoid, but may not be able to stave off for too long.
“We’re soon to be the only stadium without naming rights,” Policy said. “That’s not a threshold we’re looking to cross any time soon, but we might be a little more aggressive with some of the other entitlement inventory we just hadn’t taken advantage of in the past, including things like training facility entitlements and the Titletown campus.”
Lambeau Field remains one of two NFL stadiums without a corporate sponsor in the name, with the other being the Chicago Bears’ Soldier Field. The two are also the oldest stadiums in the NFL by a wide margin.
Originally named City Stadium, Lambeau Field opened its doors to the Packers in 1957. It was renamed to Lambeau Field in 1965 in honor of Curly Lambeau, Green Bay’s legendary founder, who also coached and played for the team.
