A little more than a month ago, I got the news that some fans, literally, spend their entire lives waiting to receive. My aunt’s name had just come up on the Packers season ticket waitlist after 29 years. She was offered four green package seats. The most unbelievable part? She was offering them to me, should I want them (of course I wanted them!). 

Because I won the Packers fan lottery this past offseason, that gave me the idea to gather season ticket stories from other season ticket holders. Chances are pretty high when you live in Wisconsin that either you know someone with season tickets, or you and everyone you know are on the waitlist in the hopes that your number will be called next. The resounding theme from my research, though, is that the Packers truly do bring people together. 

Dan LaChapelle had one of the funniest stories, as he was set up with his wife through mutual friends. One of his friends began describing Elizabeth (Dan’s now-wife) to him, and mentioned that she was a big Packers fan whose family had season tickets. 

Dan’s response? “Okay, I’ll marry her.”

The happy couple will be celebrating their two-year anniversary in October. Congratulations, Dan and Elizabeth! 

The family had four tickets altogether, with two in the bowl (at one time next to Alex Van Pelt’s family), and two in the club level. Recently, they decided to sell back their two club-level seats and use the money to travel to a new away game every season. In 2017 they attended the overtime Browns game, and in 2018 they went to Los Angeles for the Rams game. In 2019, the plan is to see the 49ers. 

Up next is Adam Wedan, a Superior, WI native. He and his brothers had been on “the list” as he referred to it since the 80s. A few years ago, his family was given the option to take gold package tickets right away in the new south end zone, or remain on the list and wait for green package seats. 

(For those that don’t know, the green package is the Green Bay package and the gold package is the Milwaukee package. The green package gets you six regular season games with one preseason game, and the gold package gets you two regular season games with one preseason game.)

Since both of Adam’s brothers live out of town, they opted for the gold package. Adam remains on the list in the hope that his number will be called for the green seats in the near future. 

The Wedan family makes training camp a tradition each season. The trips began in 1983 when Adam’s father, a huge Packers fan who grew up watching greats like Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, and Jerry Kramer, loaded up the car and headed south to Green Bay so his family could watch training camp. 

In 1987, Adam’s birth year, his dad decided to sign all three boys up for the season ticket waiting list. 

Year after year, the Wedan family attended training camp, staying at the same hotel, in the same room, claiming the same pool area, and becoming part of the famed “Rail Birds” at Packers practice. 

One of Adam’s favorite memories happened when he was only three-years-old. He shared a moment from training camp in 1990 when Lindy Infante was the team’s head coach. Infante walked past the family on his way to practice, and three-year-old Adam said hi to “Grandpa Lindy.” 

Yes, Adam got away with calling Lindy Infante “grandpa,” which is something not many Packers fans can say! But, to three-year-old Adam, the Packers felt like family! 

“He smiled and took the time to acknowledge us standing there, came up to me, and put a piece of double mint gum in my hat! My dad got the whole interaction on VHS. That was one of the coolest things in the world for a three-year-old at that time to have happen to them. It’s memories like that which have made the Packers such a special part of my life,” writes Adam. 

Now, the Wedan family has grown from four in 1983 to 17 in 2019. Because the family’s preferred hotel is no longer an option for such a large party, the family rents one of the houses across from the stadium each year for training camp. 

The family just celebrated their 35th consecutive year in 2018. 

Adam writes, “It is truly impossible to convey how much this team and this town has meant to the Wedan family. There have been so many memories collected over the years. It continually brings us all together as a family. It’s something that 99% of people would never understand, but it means everything to us!”

Next is Rick Beese, born and raised in Wausau, WI. Rick remembers being a kid in the 60s, watching games with his dad on Sunday afternoons. In Wausau, there was a HC Pranges that would bring in Packers to sign autographs. Rick would go stand in line for a few hours just to have 30-seconds of interaction with a Green Bay Packer. The 8x10 photos he got signed would be proudly displayed on his bedroom wall when he got home. 

Rick described his three biggest dreams as a Packers fan. Dream 1: Be an owner. Dream 2: Be a season ticket holder. Dream 3: Have a Packers player (or more) over for a beer. 

When his second child was born in 1991, Rick signed the family up for season tickets. They were just above 19,000 on the list. 

Rick writes, “The last time the Packers had a stock offering, being in a better financial spot, I completed Dream 1 and my certificate hangs proudly on the wall. Now, based on this spring’s mail from the team, Dream 2 is just around the corner.”

I don’t think I could’ve put his words any more eloquently if I tried, so I’ll give Rick the floor to say what the Green Bay Packers mean to him:

“Lambeau…because the grass is always ‘that green,’ and the crowds are always ‘that loud,’ the uniforms coming out of the tunnel are so vivid and there’s something about the smell when you walk up through the ramp into the bowl….. that mix of brats and beer and fresh cut grass….it’s intoxicating.   

“All of that, ALL OF THAT! is why I love this team and want it to be a part of the rest of my life and want my family to feel it and create memories like I’ve been able to since I was a boy.   That’s why I can’t wait to be a season ticket holder.”

Rick’s seats could be up as soon as next year. 

Julie Lee is our next fan, and she had some incredible stories as a young girl growing up in Green Bay. Her father had season tickets, and Julie writes that she recalls him never missing a game, except for one Sunday in the 1960s when he was so sick he couldn’t get out of bed. It pained him greatly to have to miss a sacred Packers vs Bears game at Lambeau, but he had to stay home. 

“I don’t ever recall that happening again,” writes Julie. 

As a child, Julie lived just off of University Avenue, where the Zuider Zee restaurant (now Gipper’s) was located. Julie shared how her mom, a waitress at the restaurant, always had interesting stories to tell, including waitressing for Vince Lombardi on more than one occasion. 

She even recalled the time her mom brought home a few uneaten shrimp from the plate of Coach Lombardi himself! She adds “Just think, if we had eBay or Facebook Marketplace back then, those shrimps would have sold for big bucks!”

Julie continues, “If you’re reading this, and have been blessed and fortunate enough to grow up in the great city of Green Bay, you know the exact feeling of excitement when a Sunday home game rolls around.” 

She remembers going to a Monday Night Football game against Detroit in October of 1972, when Chester Marcol’s extra point gave the Packers the win 24-23 over the Lions. When the kick sailed through the uprights, her neighbor in the stands, a random stranger, gave her a huge hug. Julie said it was okay though, because by the end of a Packers game, your neighbors feel like friends.  

As a highschooler, Julie’s family moved to the southwest side of town and their doorstep was just one mile from Lambeau Field. On game days, you could smell the brats from the tailgaters and hear the roar of the stadium when anything big happened. Julie would ride her bike to the stadium just to soak in the atmosphere. 

Now in her 50s, living in southeastern Wisconsin, Julie doesn’t get to attend quite as many games as she did living in Green Bay, but she still feels the rush of excitement when July and August roll around, signalling the beginning of training camp and the preseason. 

“I sure hope this is our year! But I say that every year,” Julie writes about fan aspirations for a Super Bowl. 

Mike Genre resides in Section 138 and is the proud owner of season tickets. He received the tickets from his father, who attended the very last game at County Stadium. He put his name into a lottery for the opportunity to have season tickets, and fortunately he won them. The family has had tickets ever since.  

(For the record, Mike also offered to buy me a beer if we ever cross paths at a game. I’m going to take you up on that, Mike.)

Other fans are still waiting for their opportunity to come up. Erik Arneson has been on the waiting list since 1999. He started at 27,611. As of the 2018 update (he hadn’t received his 2019 letter yet), he’s at 13,167.

Erik tracks his progress on a Google spreadsheet each season. In an average year, he moves up 330 spots. That means at this rate, it will be 40 more years before his season tickets arrive. His wife also is on the season ticket waitlist, receiving her spot in Erik’s father’s place, but she’s a few hundred spots behind Erik on the list. 

Erik writes, “I signed up for the season ticket waiting list myself a few years after Super Bowl XXXI, figuring that maybe I might get tickets at some point. At the current rate, I’ll be 87 when I get tickets. And I will go to every single game. Every. Single. Game.”

At 87, Erik will have fully earned the right to attend every game. 

Another name on the waiting list is Kevin Poveda, who signed up for his season tickets in 2010, which coincided with his first trip to Lambeau Field. He put himself down for two seats and also put his newly-born Godson on the list for two tickets as well. 

Kevin acknowledges that it’s a longshot for him to actually receive tickets, but he looks forward to his postcard every year updating him on his progress. The postcard hangs on the fridge until the next one arrives the following year. 

He writes, “Although I don’t live in Wisconsin, being on the waiting list seems to have some cool perks, like being offered to purchase tickets for certain games and/or events.” 

Had Kevin not already been planning a trip to Wisconsin this summer, he would have purchased some Paul McCartney tickets and made the trip. 

He adds, “I know I probably won’t ever have my name called, and I may never live in Wisconsin either, but just the thrill of being on the waiting list, saying you are, and having a slim chance of hope is enough for me.”

Mike Gallo of Kenosha, Wisconsin added his and his newborn daughter Maddy’s names to the season ticket waitlist in 1995, right before the team’s Super Bowl run. Then, three years later, he added his son Sam to the list. Every year, the family receives three postcards with updated information on their spots on the waitlist. Sam’s number is quite a bit higher than Mike’s and Maddy’s, considering the spike in the list right after the team’s Super Bowl win. 

After 24 years of waiting, Mike and Maddy were both offered gold package season tickets this past offseason. For Mike, turning down the tickets was an incredibly difficult decision. He’s a Wisconsin Badger season ticket holder, and trying to manage tickets to both games (with both Maddy and Sam now attending Madison as students) was both expensive and time-consuming. The family still has Sam’s name on the list, though, should they wish to buy Packers season tickets next time their number is called. 

For some families, season tickets go beyond tradition. Will Tippet has seats in Section 124. His parents were attending a party in Green Bay prior to the stadium being built, and a Packer representative knocked on the door of the party. The whole neighborhood ended up with season tickets, and in the same section at that. 

Will writes that after almost 60 years, there’s only one other family from the original group still in their section with them. His parents moved from Wisconsin in 1981 and they kept the tickets in the family. It’s a privilege for his family to be some of the original people to have sat in their seats since the stadium has been built. 

These are just a few of the thousands of stories from season ticket holders and prospective season ticket holders, but they serve as great reminders as to how much the Green Bay Packers mean to us all. Do you have a story about being on the waitlist? Do you have a memorable moment as a season ticket holder? Let’s share some memories in the comments and build our Packers community.

Tonight is Family Night which means that Lambeau Field will soon be filled with 65,000 best friends. While we all come from different walks of life, there’s one phrase that unites us all. 

Go Pack Go.