GREEN BAY (CelebrityAccess)– In an era when most major sporting venues have big ticket naming rights deals the Green Bay Packers say that the name of their home Lambeau Field is not for sale.
"We will not sell the naming rights to the stadium … We will never do that," Team president Mark Murphy told shareholders at their annual meeting this week. "It will always be Lambeau Field."
While Murphy's bold pledge drew a standing ovation from the crowd of approximately 12,000 shareholders, it turns out that not everything at Lambeau Field has been deemed sacred. The Packers have sold naming rights to quite a few parts of the stadium to corporate partners, with gates into the facility named after Verizon, Shopko, Associated Bank, Mills Fleet Farm, Miller Brewing and American Family Insurance. As well one section of seating is sponsored by Miller and has been dubbed Miller Lite End Zone.
The name stadium itself, named for the team's founder Curly Lambeau, is also theoretically up for grabs. In 2000, following a successful referendum over the sale of naming rights to retire 0.5% sales tax created to cover construction costs of the stadium, the team and City of Green Bay agreed that the naming rights would be available for $100 million. As of yet, no one has taken them up on the deal. – Staff Writers
