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The Packers and the city of Green Bay have talked over the last year about an adjustment on the Lambeau Field lease. The current deal goes through August 2033, with five two-year options. Theoretically, the Packers are secured to play at Lambeau until 2043. But the team wants a better deal, and the city of Green Bay reportedly put a hold on the negotiations, according to the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
"I'm quite honestly not only disappointed but also very surprised," Packers president Mark Murphy said during the League Owners' Meeting in Florida. "We're a community owned team. We're going to give back. We want to work things out and we've shown – we're not asking for any public money. We've invested a lot of money into the stadium and into the community with Titletown. We've told the city we'll continue to invest in the future."
Green Bay mayor Eric Genrich released a public statement about the topic, saying that "the city met in good faith with the Packers over the course of several months to discuss reopening the lease terms based on the team's request. Although there were productive conversations and the Packers expressed openness to the City's proposed terms, the written proposal did not reflect those discussions."
Sometimes friends disagree, but there’s definitely a path to agreement here. https://t.co/Yr6he6M1rH pic.twitter.com/GssDtTKHpC
— Eric Genrich (@MayorGenrich) March 26, 2024
In 2023, the Packers paid $1.157 million to the city to use Lambeau Field, which is owned by the city. The lease includes projected annual increases of 2.75%.
What can happen
The Packers will obviously not leave Green Bay. First, because it's impossible considering the ownership structure. Second, because the current lease can go until 2043. And third because nobody wants that. For the franchise, it's important to be around, and for the city the team is indispensable.
What both sides are doing is trying to find a better deal, and those declarations are mostly an attempt to create leverage.
For their side, the Packers said they are now holding projected improvements to the stadium — even though the money that would allow those improvements was generated by the team's most recent stock offering in 2022.
"We were going to go forward with $80 million in improvements to the stadium, mostly in the concourse and concession areas," Mark Murphy added. "But given the status of negotiations, we're going to halt those investments. That's going to affect our fans and also affect us for the draft (in 2025). So hopefully we can together and negotiate an extension."
From his perspective, Green Bay mayor Eric Genrich is still hopeful a deal can get done.
"We remain confident we'll be able to jointly build a future for Lambeau Field that substantively benefits our workers, community, organizations, and city as a whole."
Lambeau Field has been the home of the Green Bay Packers since 1957, when it replaced the old City Stadium. Earlier in its history, the Packers also played games at Hagemeister Park and Bellevue Park. From the 1930s to the 1990s, the team also held games at different stadiums in Milwaukee.
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