Green Bay Packers home games in Milwaukee
Though the city currently has no National Football League team, Milwaukee is considered a home market for the Green Bay Packers. The team split its home schedule between Green Bay and Milwaukee from 1933 to 1994, with the majority of the Milwaukee games being played at Milwaukee County Stadium.
The Packers played games in Milwaukee to attract more fans and revenue while the team's then-official home, City Stadium, remained inadequate compared to other NFL venues. Threats by the league to relocate the Packers permanently to Milwaukee caused the team to replace City Stadium with Lambeau Field. The Packers then regularly renovated Lambeau Field until changes completed in 1995 made it more lucrative for the team to remain in Green Bay full time.
The 1939 Championship between the Packers and the New York Giants was played at State Fair Park in what is currently known as the Milwaukee Mile. The Packers won, 27-0. A 1931 championship against the Portsmouth Spartans was also scheduled for Milwaukee, but was called off. The Packers final post-season game in Milwaukee was a 1967 divisional playoff against the Los Angeles Rams which the Packers won 28-7. They went on to capture their last NFL Championship and Super Bowl victory under Vince Lombardi.
The Packers maintain two separate season ticket plans, reflecting their time spent in Milwaukee: Gold package holders, made up largely of former Milwaukee season ticket holders, have a three-game package consisting of the annual Midwest Shrine preseason contest plus the second and fifth regular-season home games each year; Green package holders attend the annual Bishop's Charities preseason game and the remaining six regular-season contests.
Milwaukee Badgers
The Milwaukee Badgers played in the National Football League from 1922 to 1926. The team played its home games at Athletic Park, later known as Borchert Field, on Milwaukee's north side.After the team folded following the season, many of its members played for the independent semi-pro Milwaukee Eagles. Some of the players from this team went on to play for the NFL's Pittsburgh Pirates in 1933. This has led some to mistakenly believe that either the Badgers or Eagles became the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Stadiums
Although City Stadium in Green Bay was the Packers' official home field, in 1933 they began to play some of their home games in Milwaukee to attract more fans and revenue. After hosting one game at Borchert Field in 1933, the Packers played two or three home games each year in Milwaukee, at Wisconsin State Fair Park from 1934–1951, Marquette Stadium in 1952, and Milwaukee County Stadium from 1953–1994., after which the Packers moved back to Green Bay permanently.The infield of the quarter-mile dirt infield track at the Mile near the current media center was also the location of a football stadium, informally known as the Dairy Bowl. It hosted the Green Bay Packers from 1934 through 1951, including the NFL championship game in 1939, a 27–0 shutout of the New York Giants on December 10 to secure a fifth league title.
Marquette Stadium hosted three games during the 1952 season; Packers games in Milwaukee were moved to nearby Milwaukee County Stadium when it opened in 1953.
During this period, the issue of a new stadium in Green Bay began to surface. City Stadium was an inadequate facility, seating only 25,000. Players also had to use the locker rooms at the local high school. In order to improve revenue, the Packers began playing one or two home games a year at the newly constructed Milwaukee County Stadium, a practice that continued through. The Packers' status in Green Bay became unstable. With City Stadium greatly outdated, and more and more opponents asking for their games against the Packers to be played in Milwaukee, the NFL required the Packers to build a new stadium if they wanted to stay in Green Bay.. The Packers and the city of Green Bay complied, building a brand-new 32,000-seat stadium, naming it New City Stadium. The new stadium was dedicated in a game against the Chicago Bears, with many celebrities attending, including actor James Arness, NFL commissioner Bert Bell, vice president Richard Nixon, and Bears coach George Halas. The Packers won the game, 21–17, but finished the season 3–9.
The Packers played two to four home games per year at Milwaukee County Stadium from 1953 to 1994, Milwaukee County Stadium hosted at least one pre-season game annually during this time as well, including the Upper Midwest Shrine Game. By 1995, multiple renovations to Lambeau Field made it more lucrative for the Packers to play their full home slate in Green Bay again for the first time since 1932. Former Milwaukee ticket holders were offered tickets at Lambeau to one pre-season game and the second and fifth home games of the regular season schedule, in what is referred to as the "Gold package." Meanwhile, the "Green package" consisted of the other preseason home game and the six remaining regular season home games.
Milwaukee County Stadium was partly responsible for Lambeau Field's existence, as it was not only intended to lure an MLB team to Milwaukee, but also to lure the Packers to Milwaukee full-time. As originally constructed, Milwaukee County Stadium was double the size of the Packers' then-home, City Stadium, leading the NFL to give the Packers an ultimatum—build a bigger stadium or move to Milwaukee. Green Bay responded with a referendum that resulted in a new stadium, which opened in 1957. After eight seasons, the venue was renamed "Lambeau Field" shortly after the death of team founder Curly Lambeau in 1965.
The Minnesota Vikings On November 26, 1989, a Milwaukee County Stadium record crowd of 55,892 saw the Packers beat the Vikings, 20–19. The Packers' final game in Milwaukee was a 21–17 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on December 18, 1994; with 14 seconds left, the winning 9-yard touchdown run was scored by quarterback Brett Favre. Despite no longer playing games in the city, the Packers flagship newspaper and radio have remained the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Milwaukee-based WTMJ-AM, respectively.
The Packers hosted one NFL playoff game at Milwaukee County Stadium, in 1967, defeating the Los Angeles Rams 28–7 in the Western Conference championship game. It was the first year that the NFL playoffs expanded to a four teams, and Green Bay had home field advantage for both rounds, then awarded by rotation. Each subsequent playoff game has been played at Lambeau Field.
Following the unsuccessful effort to lure the Packers to Milwaukee full-time, in 1965 city officials tried to lure an American Football League expansion team to play at Milwaukee County Stadium, but Packers head coach Vince Lombardi invoked the team's exclusive lease as well as sign an extension to keep some home games in Milwaukee through 1976. Nonetheless, city officials still pursued an AFL franchise, possibly to play at Marquette Stadium, but the AFL–NFL merger effectively quashed any chances of Milwaukee landing its own team.
Milwaukee County Stadium was built primarily for baseball, creating issues for football games. The playing surface was just barely large enough to fit a football field, which ran parallel with the first base line. The south end zone extended onto the warning track in right field, while the north end zone extended into foul territory on the third-base side. Both teams occupied the east sideline on the outfield side, separated by a piece of tape. At its height, it seated less than 56,000 for football—just over the NFL's minimum seating capacity—and many seats had obstructed views or were far from the field. Over the years, upgrades and seat expansion primarily benefited Milwaukee's baseball teams.