With the Green Bay Packers playing their only home preseason game against New Orleans Friday night (August 19th), we wondered about the economic impact of games at Lambeau Field on the Manitowoc area.
City Tourism Director Courtney Hanson tells Seehafer News that Packer home games have a huge impact on Manitowoc, “Particularly the gold package games. Every year all those folks coming up from Milwaukee tend to stay at our hotels. And we sell out pretty much every game.”
The other big sellouts for our community’s hotels are Packer games against the rival Chicago Bears.
“People coming up from Illinois and also just being in that smaller market,” she explained. “I think for us, it’s 30 to 40 minutes from Green Bay, a quick easy drive but some people forget that in a larger market it takes that (time) to drive across a big city.”
Hanson added, “There are definitely those folks who are trying to avoid the hustle and bustle after the game. They want to come and stay in a smaller community like ours.”
The local tourism head said she spoke with Pat Reilly from the Baymont Inn earlier this week and Reilly noted her hotel was completely sold out for Friday night and believes it was due to the Packers-Saints game and, the Balloon Glow on the Manitowoc waterfront.
