Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Was it ever almost a possibility? Or was Green Bay, despite small population, always being capable of holding the franchise there prevented it from ever being considered? Packers of course have quite a history playing some of their games at County Stadium.

Thinking of that George Blanda 'Happy Days' ep, Richie & gang watching and rooting for Bears, did and does Milwaukee have a bit of a Bears fan-base with its proximity to Chicago?

I suspect that if public ownership never happened with the Packers they would have permanently moved to Milwaukee at some point. Much like the Portsmouth Spartans to Detroit.

The Milwaukee Badgers were an NFL team from 1922-26. We were given a detailed presentation on the history of the team at the PFRA meeting in GB this summer.

Other NFL owners would have tried to engineer a move to Milwaukee had Green Bay not built City Stadium in 1957. Also, moving the Packers to Milwaukee was discussed by the team's executive committee in the late 1970s and early '80s, when the team was in the dumps and players tended to resist coming to Green Bay. By then it would have been a drastic, almost desperate move, though, so it never happened.

Citizen wrote:Other NFL owners would have tried to engineer a move to Milwaukee had Green Bay not built City Stadium in 1957. Also, moving the Packers to Milwaukee was discussed by the team's executive committee in the late 1970s and early '80s, when the team was in the dumps and players tended to resist coming to Green Bay. By then it would have been a drastic, almost desperate move, though, so it never happened.

Yeah, I do remember Packers playing one home game a year at County during that time, '81 vs Niners in particular.

Had the USFL continued on, I wonder if they would gotten a team in Milwaukee. Or would Brewers' presence have been a reason for it not to ever happen (maybe Green Bay being the one to accommodate)?

JohnH19 wrote:The Milwaukee Badgers were an NFL team from 1922-26. We were given a detailed presentation on the history of the team at the PFRA meeting in GB this summer.

Rick's presentation on the Milwaukee teams was fantastic, as all were in Green Bay.

Does Rick ever post here? Seems like there were a lot of people there I never see here.

Does anyone know if the videos of presentations will be available to membership? God, that was a great conference.

74_75_78_79_ wrote:

Citizen wrote:Other NFL owners would have tried to engineer a move to Milwaukee had Green Bay not built City Stadium in 1957. Also, moving the Packers to Milwaukee was discussed by the team's executive committee in the late 1970s and early '80s, when the team was in the dumps and players tended to resist coming to Green Bay. By then it would have been a drastic, almost desperate move, though, so it never happened.

Yeah, I do remember Packers playing one home game a year at County during that time, '81 vs Niners in particular.

Had the USFL continued on, I wonder if they would gotten a team in Milwaukee. Or would Brewers' presence have been a reason for it not to ever happen (maybe Green Bay being the one to accommodate )?

The Packers actually played two or three home games per season in Milwaukee from 1933 to 1994.

Marvin Fishman, one of the original owners of the Milwaukee Bucks, wanted to bring an AFL franchise to Milwaukee. However, Vince Lombardi soon signed a lengthy lease agreement that gave the Packers exclusive pro football rights to County Stadium. Fishman continued to be a proponent of Milwaukee having their own pro football team separate from the Packers. There was even talk of taking part in that wacky CFL-USA expansion experiment in the mid-'90s.
http://shepherdexpress.com/blog-13203-c ... pened.html

In 1929, 1930, and 1931, reps from Milwaukee "officially" applied for a franchise at the league's meetings.

Even as recent as 2000 there were some rumblings that the Packers might move south if the Lambeau Field renovation referendum didn't pass. Word was that the Packers could have secured tax funding for a new stadium in Waukesha County.

JohnH19 wrote:

74_75_78_79_ wrote: Yeah, I do remember Packers playing one home game a year at County during that time, '81 vs Niners in particular.

Had the USFL continued on, I wonder if they would gotten a team in Milwaukee. Or would Brewers' presence have been a reason for it not to ever happen (maybe Green Bay being the one to accommodate )?

The Packers actually played two or three home games per season in Milwaukee from 1933 to 1994.

They played four home games a season in Milwaukee from 1953 to 1994. They had separate season ticket packages for Green Bay and Milwaukee, and that has carried over into their current season ticket structure. "Green" season ticket holders are those who had season tickets to games in Green Bay and "Gold" tickets go to those who had season tickets to the games in Milwaukee.

To clarify, Green Bay played three regular season games and one preseason game in Milwaukee every year. In 1967, 1978 and 1980, they played four regular season contests there. From 1958-1960, they played two regular seaaon games there each year. Remember, when Green Bay started playing there, it was a 12 game season. They were splitting games evenly between the two venues.