Packers Wildcard Game Against 49ers Sells Out, Avoids Blackout
Several corporate sponsors of the Green Bay Packers stepped up to buy the remaining tickets available to Sunday's game.
The Green Bay Packers announced on Friday:
All tickets have been sold for Sunday’s NFC Wild Card Playoff game between the Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers, the Packers announced Friday morning.
In addition to fan sales, a group of Packers corporate partners, led by Green Bay-based Associated Bank, purchased the remaining available tickets Friday to ensure a sellout and TV broadcast of the game throughout Wisconsin. Other corporate partners with a strong Wisconsin presence that purchased tickets are FOX TV affiliates WITI (Milwaukee), WLUK (Green Bay) and WFXS (Wausau); Mills Fleet Farm and Bellin Health.
“We’re very thankful to Packers fans, and our partners led by Associated Bank, for ensuring Sunday’s game will be sold out,” said Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy. “A unique season and other factors contributed to having tickets available, but with the support of our fans and partners, we’re looking forward to a great atmosphere Sunday at Lambeau Field for the playoff game against the 49ers. We also know fans around the state will be able to enjoy the telecast.”
“As a longtime partner with the Packers’ organization, we are honored to help ensure that fans can enjoy the full Packers playoff experience this Sunday, both at Lambeau Field in in their homes,” said Associated Banc-Corp President & CEO Philip B. Flynn.
Comments (16)
January 03, 2014 at 11:48 am
Not in GB anymore so it wouldn't have affected me, but I'm glad it sold out for my family in GB and for the sake of the Packers. Wouldn't have looked good for the Packers not to sell out a playoff game at Lambeau, considering the Packers are basically sold out for the past 40 yrs and into perpetuity.
January 03, 2014 at 11:56 am
great move by the corporate sponsors. congrats to them for stepping up.
January 03, 2014 at 11:56 am
I'm guessing we had to get bailed out by the companies who had most to lose from the blackout. That is, the stations selling ads and the companies buying ads. Sounds like a reasonable arrangement as the ratings will still be strong for this game.
I'm hoping the shareholders push to change back the playoff ticket sales policies.
I'm guessing also that a decent percent of the season ticket holders only hold onto them because they are a financial asset. Thus they won't buy playoff tickets if resale is going to be low.
January 03, 2014 at 12:42 pm
What was the arrangement before this year?
Evan
January 03, 2014 at 12:45 pm
If you bought playoff tickets and the Packers didn't make the playoffs/have any home games, you could either get a refund OR put that money toward next season's tickets. This year they got rid of the refund option (which is, I guess, how most other teams do it as well).
January 03, 2014 at 12:00 pm
The Packers didn't sell out the Cardinals playoff game after the '82 season, so it wouldn't have been totally unprecedented if they didn't sell out.
January 03, 2014 at 12:04 pm
The Packers added 10k seats this year that are not season tickets. They are pretty high up there in the end zone and with the wind and weather will be brutal this Sunday to sit there.
Brian Carriveau
January 03, 2014 at 12:06 pm
They are season tickets.
January 03, 2014 at 12:28 pm
I can't blame anyone for not wanting to pay to go to this game. I went to the game against the Raiders which was the third coldest game ever at the time... I would much rather watch from my living room than do that again. Kudos to the folks that show up this weekend though.
Go Pack Go
January 03, 2014 at 01:24 pm
The line has started to move towards 2 1/2.
I feel like that Favors GB. This is the 1st of our SB's. I like our chance's. Hope I'm seeing this one correctly. Unfortunately, GB doesn't normally cover this line, although they did last week. I think SF is in for a shock with this weather. No one on that team has any experience with below 34 degrees. I hope our guy's can take advantage of it.
January 03, 2014 at 01:32 pm
The line has started to move towards
2 1/2. I feel that favors GB. Hope I'm seeing this one correctly. I think SF is in for a shock with this weather. No one on that team has played a game below 34 degrees. SF hasn't had a game below 34 degrees in 2 years. They are 3-9 since 2000 below 40 degrees. This is the Best chance we have, to knock off the Best Team in the playoffs. Hope our guy's can take advantage of it.
January 03, 2014 at 01:36 pm
Sorry for the double post. Trying to change my handle, because of another Tom.
January 03, 2014 at 03:10 pm
I'm please to hear that some local businesses came forward and purchased the tickets. I'm very happy that all of you who live in the local broadcast area will be able to watch the game on TV. But why didn't the tickets sell out in the first place? No doubt the threat of cold weather kept many people away. Our team's so-so record this year probably has something to do with it as well. I believe we are seeing something else as well. You see, going to Packers home game is not just going to a game, it is going to Lambeau. I think that the high resale value of the early season games lends much to the fact that many fans wait a lifetime to see a game live, and thus want to experience that game in good weather. I think we also are seeing where a lot of the season ticket holders' hearts actually lie. The playoff option was not exercised by something like 40,000 season ticket holders. And why not? Because the resale value would be low. That tells me that around half of the season ticket holders don't give a crap about the Packers, just the value of the ticket purchasing rights that they have. Think back to the last time the Giants visited Lambeau for a playoff game. The crowd looked and sounded like a Giants home game! Our season ticket holders that hold onto that purchasing right year in and year out, doing so only for the profit, disgust me. Many of us (over 100k) have been waiting a lifetime to have the ability to own a piece of football lore. This why I so firmly believe that the entire Packers season ticket holder process needs to be altered.
January 03, 2014 at 03:43 pm
"That tells me that around half of the season ticket holders don’t give a crap about the Packers..."
Utter nonsense. You can't possibly know this. Most of the season-ticket holders were on the list for many, many years.
You don't like the system because it doesn't work for you 'individually'. If you don't like it, move to Oakland & follow the Raiders.
January 03, 2014 at 05:43 pm
First the tickets were not sold out. The fans did not pony up to the bar. A conglomerate of co's in Wisconsin got together and bought out the percentage needed to prevent a blackout.
Those co's are always in place to guarantee a sellout so this, oh the fans came around is bull, they did not come around.
January 03, 2014 at 05:45 pm
I hope the season ticket holders do not have to give up their tickets to pay for that huge affordable health care. Ya its affordabel at about double the price.