Saturday’s playoff defeat for the Packers was an emotional and economic loss

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - The impact of the season-ending Packers loss reaches well beyond the team, into the community.

As the top seed in the conference, the Packers would have been guaranteed another home game this weekend—if they had won. Instead, Sunday was much quieter around town.

The silence at Lambeau Field is not the norm, nor what was expected coming out of this weekend’s playoff game. The loss of pride—and profits— is still fresh in Northeast Wisconsin.

“When you lose that playoff game or you lose that home game it has a direct trickle down effect right into the community. A lot of people are impacted by that. So, the Packers losing and not having the next playoff will have some impact on the overall community,” Troy Streckenbach, Brown County Executive, said.

There is about a $14 to $15 million dollar impact on the local economy when you combine hotel stays, food purchases, and small businesses putting that revenue back into the community.

“We’re lucky enough to have eight of those guaranteed every single year plus a couple pre-season games so that’s what we’re looking at in terms of economic impact. So, because Lambeau sells out every single regular season game, you don’t really see a huge economic impact push from a regular season game to a playoff game,” Vice President of Digital Marketing & Communications for Discover Green Bay, Nick Meisner, said.

While it was an emotional blow to Packers fans, nonprofits that get revenue from volunteering at Lambeau Field also took a hit.

“I think there is more of that community pride loss versus the technical loss in the revenue that’s coming in, but when you think about the smaller nonprofits, a lot of those organizations, this could make up a fair amount of their overall annual budget,” Streckenbach continued.

Streckenbach said that while Packers home games give a boost to both nonprofits and businesses—overall Brown County is strong— and will bounce back from the loss of revenue.

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