Packers Season Ticket Update 2014
One of my favorite postcards arrived in the mail today. It wasn’t one showing an exotic destination with the usual message of “Wish you were here.” No, this postcard was a simple green postcard, one of about 112,000 sent from the soon-to-be frozen tundra of Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Yes, it’s the annual season ticket waiting list update. Each year as the football season begins, the Packers send a postcard to everyone on the season ticket waiting list to tell them their place in line. Remember that 112,000 number I mentioned above? That’s how many people are on the waiting list. A capacity crowd at Lambeau Field numbers 80,735, so that means you could fill the entire stadium with the waiting list and still have 32,000 fans hanging out in the parking lot (and tailgating I imagine).
Lambeau Field has been sold out on a season ticket basis since 1960 according to the Packers website, and the list keeps getting longer. I only joined the list in 2005. I wish my parents had though to put me on the list when I was born, but it never occurred to them that buying football season tickets is something we should do. Why I waited so long to add myself to the list, I’ll never know, but in 2005 I finally sent in my request. Every year since then, I’ve received those postcards and watched my slow but steady progress. My place over the years has gone like this:
| 2005 | 67,439 |
| 2006 | 65,856 |
| 2007 | 64,997 |
| 2008 | 64,021 |
| 2009 | 63,255 |
| 2010 | 62,835 |
| 2011 | 62,344 |
| 2012 | 61,890 |
| 2013 | 56,668 |
| 2014 | 55,913 |
I can’t find my postcard for 2013 at the moment (it’s around here somewhere!), but that year was a big jump forward. Additional seating at Lambeau meant 3,000-4000 people came off the list that year. There was another big jump this year also due to additional seating being added to the stadium during renovations. Unfortunately, I don’t expect we’ll see any big surges forward like that for a while. There are only so many seats you can add to Lambeau.
After ten years, I’ve moved up 11,526 spots with another 55,912 to go. At that rate, in only 49 years I’ll finally get my tickets. That’ll give me something to look forward to for my 94th birthday.
Sources:
- Lambeau Field waiting list shrinks – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 27, 2013
- Packers season tickets worth the wait – 955 years for some on the list Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, January 29, 2011
- Lambeau Field History & Information Packers.com
Scott – I track my spot in line in a similar way on my blog – http://puttingoutthevibe.com/2011/10/28/packers/
We’re pretty close in line – I’m currently 55,250 in line. Where did you find the 112,000 number this year?
The Packers twitter account tweeted that number during the shareholders meeting this year: https://twitter.com/packers/status/492346450601193472