Bob Harlan: Two cities, one team

Continued from previous week

In 1934, with the Packers in receivership, two season games were moved to State Fair Park, just outside of Milwaukee.

The venue allowed for larger crowds and increased revenues for key games, and was later amplified by the opening of Milwaukee County Stadium, which held twice the amount of seating of Green Bay’s City Stadium.

“On Feb. 19, 1938, NFL owners voted unanimously at the urging of Packers President Lee Joannes to extend Green Bay’s territory to include Milwaukee. Just as significantly, on Jan. 23, 1947, with television coming into the picture, NFL owners again voted unanimously to give the Packers territorial rights to Milwaukee even though the distance between the cities exceeded the 75-mile limit that had been agreed upon,” wrote Packers Historian Cliff Christl.

The move began a longtime relationship for the Packers between Milwaukee and Green Bay, and the institution of the “Green” (Green Bay) and “Gold” (Milwaukee) ticket packages.

When the Milwaukee games started in the 1930s, playing some of the home games in Wisconsin’s largest city made sense for reaching fans and generating revenue.

But by the 1990s, the NFL’s revenue model had shifted dramatically.

Teams needed modern stadiums with premium seating; it made more business sense to invest in one state-of-the-art facility rather than splitting games between two aging venues.

There was also growing recognition that Lambeau Field itself was a unique asset — the historic “Frozen Tundra” had become part of the team’s identity and competitive advantage, especially in cold-weather games.

“If anyone had told me in 1989, when I became president of the Packers, that I’d have to move the team out of Milwaukee, I wouldn’t have believed it was possible. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” Bob Harlan stated in his book Green and Golden Moments with Dale Hofmann.

“Milwaukee was another home for me, and it was certainly another home for his franchise.”

For years, moving out of Milwaukee had been a topic of conversation with coaches and general managers.

“Our coaches were always very concerned about the north end zone at County Stadium because it was right on top of the third base dugout by the wall. The locker rooms were very inadequate, too, because they were baseball locker rooms, and the coaches hated having both benches on one side of the field. In reality, County Stadium was a baseball park, and it had passed its time for housing two franchises,” Harlan added.

The Packers played in Milwaukee from 1933 to 1994, initially at Borchert Field and State Fair Park before moving to County Stadium when it opened in 1953.
The final Packers game was played at County Stadium on Dec. 18, 1994, against the Atlanta Falcons.

To be continued