No major summer events planned for Lambeau this year, focus on NFL Draft

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - Unlike previous summers, no major concerts or special games are planned this summer for Lambeau Field.

During a meeting Monday, the Green Bay/Brown County Professional Football Stadium District announced there won’t be summer events happening at Lambeau Field this year.

The Director of Public Affairs for the Green Bay Packers, Aaron Popkey, said this was due to being unable to secure a date with soccer teams due to the construction of the stadium’s video board, which won’t be completed until later this summer just before Preseason. He said the conversations he had with soccer promotors about bringing a friendly match here were encouraging for the future.

Another reason was that the original artist they wanted to bring in to perform at Lambeau announced they were not touring this year.

Lambeau Field has previously hosted big summer events, such as an exhibition match between European soccer clubs FC Bayern Munich and Manchester City, which was the first-ever soccer match played at the stadium. In the summer of 2019, Lambeau Field hosted music legend Paul McCartney for a one-night only concert.

Additionally, Popkey said by the end of this week, they will officially submit their bid for the 2025 NFL draft and hope to hear back by May.

During Monday’s meeting, the board filed and passed a “motion to pledge 50 percent of present and future district revenues from bowl events held in 2022 to 2027 with a cap of $1.2 million until such time as the 2027 draft is awarded and the monies for each event would not be paid until they are received. They will be reimbursed to Experience Green Bay Foundation for the use for the NFL Draft.”

The original motion, as per their previous meeting in December, only included up until 2026 and no reimbursements to Experience Green Bay Foundation.

According to the minutes from September 26, 2022, meeting the motion was to “pledge 50 percent of present and future district revenues from events held in the stadium bowl from 2022 to 2026 with a cap of $1.2 million until such time as the 2027 draft is awarded with fund to be disbursed to Experience Green Bay Foundation for use for the NFL Draft.”

Keith Lucius, Vice Chair of the Stadium Board said some members felt this motion needed to be filed as the draft would be a huge economic benefit to Brown County.

”I think it is important to strengthen the Packers’ offer to increase the likelihood Green Bay does get the NFL Draft because it is going to be such a huge boost for the economy in the local area,” Lucius said.

Other board members, such as Mark Graul, felt this motion was unnecessary to make a change to what was already committed.

Popkey said having the motion now makes the bid overall stronger to the NFL.

“Because we can go back and say ‘hey, you saw that we have the support with monies collected for shows up until 2027. With 2025 as possibly now on the board as roughly the same level of support but would be applying to shows after the draft, monies from shows after the draft toward that bid’,” Popkey said.

Popkey also mentioned he is hoping to receive funding from the state. Within Governor Evers’ biennial budget is the Opportunity Attraction and Promotion Fund. The $30 million fund would assist the Department of Tourism in recruiting and promoting large-scale events in Wisconsin. Popkey said the state of Michigan approved something similar to help Detroit host the NFL Draft in 2024.

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