Super Fans (S.F. Chronicle Article)
tor...@best.com
SUPER FANS
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Unlimited commitment is part of Green Bay devotees' cheesy charm
Ira Miller, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle, Wednesday, January 21, 1998
When the Green Bay Packers played in Tampa during the season,
a critical game for the young Bucs, Tampa Bay quarterback Trent
Dilfer was booed loudly when he stepped onto the field. The
next day, Dilfer complained that too many tickets were sold to
Green Bay fans.
In Minneapolis, there were as many people cheering for the
Packers as there were for the Vikings. Before a game in Seattle
a year ago, Packers' president Bob Harlan recalled seeing nothing
but green and gold, Green Bay's colors, as the team's bus pulled
into the parking lot.
The Detroit Lions actually refused to accept mail-order ticket
requests from Wisconsin addresses because they didn't want the
Silverdome overrun with cheeseheads at the Packers-Lions game.
Anywhere the Packers go, their fans will be there first.
It's estimated that more than 100,000 Green Bay fans attended
the eight regular-season road games each of the past two years.
Talk about your subway alumni. Green Bay has surpassed Dallas
to become No. 1 in NFL licensed merchandise sales.
``It's no mystery,'' said backup quarterback Steve Bono, a
former 49ers' player. ``Every fan has a piece of something that
says, `Green Bay' on it.''
The Packers' Hall of Fame outdrew the Pro Football Hall of Fame
last year. During the fall when the Packers go on the road,
every weekend flight from Wisconsin is filled with their fans --
some of whom can't even get game tickets but just want to be in
the same city as the team. There's probably an airline somewhere
with a closet full of cheeseheads, those yellow, foam triangles,
culled from the lost luggage.
This winter, the Packers, the only publicly owned team in the NFL,
expect to raise more than $25 million by selling shares of stock.
The $200-a-share certificates really amount to little more than
a souvenir wall hanging. They give buyers the right to attend an
annual meeting, ask questions, vote for a board of directors and
receive a copy of the annual report.
They get no tickets or any other perks. Nonetheless, the next
stockholders' meeting will be held in Lambeau Field, because
there's no other place in Green Bay big enough.
Every Green Bay home game since 1960 has been sold out, and that
four-decade run takes in a lot of what Harlan calls ``not only
bad teams, but bad eras.'' But since the Packers began winning
again, their fans -- whether transplanted Wisconsinites or simply
frontrunners -- are coming out of the closet everywhere.
``We're finding out that every corner of the world has Packer
fans,'' said Jeff Dellenbach, an offensive lineman.
At home games, people without tickets come for the weekend with
their RVs. They park in the lot at Lambeau Field, hold a
tailgate party, watch the game on a portable television, then go
home. ``They just want to be in the city, be part of the
atmosphere, and they're satisfied doing that,'' Harlan said.
The Packers used to travel with one security man, and he wasn't
very busy. Now a half-dozen off- duty police officers accompany
the team on every trip, and they ask for more help from their
hotels. On the road, fans flood the lobby looking for autographs
or taking pictures. The 49ers have their groupies, but
Packers' coach Mike Holmgren, a former 49ers' assistant, said it
was never like this.
If you want a theme for Green Bay football, it's this: ``Football
as it used to be.'' Small town, grass field, old-style traditional
stadium, community ownership. There's a certain sense of
innocence to it all. The Packers would never be so imperious as
to claim the title for themselves, but they seem a lot more like
``America's Team'' than the one in Dallas.
At its heart, the Green Bay operation really is no different from
that of any other team in the NFL except for its ownership. The
Packers operate in a business-like manner and they sometimes
make decisions that are not popular with the fans. But they are
winning and they can't threaten to move to another city. The
first factor would make them popular at any time, and the
second makes them particularly popular in this era of
franchise-hopping that saw teams abandon cities like Houston,
Los Angeles and Cleveland.
Safety Eugene Robinson, who spent the first 11 years of his
career toiling in Seattle, recalls his introduction to Green Bay
a year and a half ago. He was in a small bar when a couple of
patrons, whom he remembers only as named Russ and Pat,
struck up a conversation.
Their advice: Robinson should learn Packers' history if he
wanted to get along in Wisconsin. He thought they were kidding.
``I'm dead serious,'' he was told. Before they were finished,
the two fans were putting their hands over their heart and pledging
allegiance to the Packers.
You can't avoid the Packers in Green Bay. Such icons as Ray
Nitschke and Fuzzy Thurston still live in town, and other players
like Paul Hornung and Max McGee drop in regularly. But it's the
reaction the Packers get away from Green Bay that has become
so startling.
Sherman Lewis, the Packers' offensive coordinator and, like
Holmgren, a former 49ers' assistant, told a friend who owned
a restaurant in Redwood City, near the old 49ers' headquarters,
that he ought to bring in the Packers' games on Sundays
via satellite TV. At first, a handful of fans showed up. Before
long, the joint was jammed with 300 Packer fanatics on Sunday
mornings.
``I think we've reached the point now where you would be more
surprised if we got to the hotel or stadium and there weren't
more fans,'' Harlan said.
--
Hemp For Victory,
Tom++
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Thanks for this most excellent post...and I don't mean the ganja info.
GO PACKERS!
Todd
_____________________________________________________
The Unofficial, Unabashed Green Bay Packer E-Zine!
http://www.packattack.com/
Todd S. Klassy