The Legendary Lambeau Tour started in the atrium.
Here the tour guide introduced himself and his "helper." His "helper" pretty much just walked behind us and kept an eye on everyone. Here he told us what was located in the windows on the very right of this picture.
The second floor is where Curley's Pub is located, the third floor if where the coaches' offices are, and the fourth floor are where the executive offices are.
The first stop was a short, six-story ride up the elevators, and down a long hallway. We went through some glass doors and went outside to the new endzone expansion. Let me tell you, those seats would be a fantastic place to watch a game. It's high enough up that you can see everything, and the seats actually have backs and cup holders, something that most of the seating in the stadium lacks as you can see in the picture below.
A better look at the new seats... the new ones are green, the silver bleachers have been there since at least 2003.
With this new expansion, Lambeau Field has the third largest capacity in the league with around 80,750 seats. The first is the Redskins and second is Giants/Jets. Despite all of these seats, there are 100,000+ people on a season ticket waiting list. Needless to say, every game is sold out.
From there we went up another floor or two to visit the "roof" as our tour guide called it. The roof is actually a viewing platform above all of the new seats, but below the new scoreboard. Only people with premium tickets can access this area outside of the tour, and I can see why. The view was awesome! You could see the entire city from there, and it was a perfect view of the field. Although it was very windy. Our tour guide said a couple days before he actually had to hold on to his hat and glasses to keep them from blowing away. I wouldn't want to be up there too long during the cooler months; that'd be freezing!
This is a picture of the scoreboard we were directly underneath. It looked a lot bigger in person.
This scoreboard is actually smaller than the one on the other side of the field, at least that's how it looked from on the field.
A shot of the "roof"...
It was about this time where I noticed my phone was running low on battery, so I slowed down on the pictures, and didn't get any of the booths and suites we visited.
We went down and took a look at a couple of premium seating areas, one completely indoors, and one partially indoors. Both of those spots would be allowed access to the roof. In the outdoor section, our tour guide had us sit down and he told us some history about the Packers. I knew most of it already, but it was a great view (similar to the views in the pictures above). He talked about Curley Lambeau, who I've already talked about, and Vince Lombardi. He didn't really talk about much after the Lombardi days, but most Packers fans know what happened since then. We were awful through the 70s and 80s, and finally our luck changed when we traded for Brett Favre in the early 90s. And since then, we've had more success than anyone could ask for.
From there we went to the media booth. He had us take a seat there and told us how this room was used. It's just a bunch of reporters sitting at desks (where we were sitting) typing reports, and all of that fun stuff. You would not find Al Michaels, or any of the commentators in this room, though.
Next up was the executive suite. This is the equivalent to other teams' owner's suites. The reason the Packers don't have an owner's suite is because we don't have an owner. Instead the fans literally own the team. There are thousands of fans who own stock in the team (that's actually how they afforded the new stadium expansion). So instead of an owner who makes decisions we have a sort of executive "panel" or "team", and they all use that booth during gameday.
In the executive suite we got snacks! Nothing much, just some chips and water. We talked a little bit, people asked questions, and he asked us a trivia question that someone had asked him on the way to the suite. The question was "Who are the three original teams of the NFL?" The easy answers are the Bears and Packers, but the third one might surprise some people. It's the Cardinals! People in our group got the answer right away, though. Of course, when the Cardinals entered the league, they were known as the Chicago Cardinals, and today they are the Arizona Cardinals.
From here we made our way to the visiting team's locker room. It was nothing special, just some empty lockers in a drab room. We definitely don't give our opponents any luxury! It was still set up from the Cardinals preseason game from last Friday, so that was cool.
After this, we made our way down to the Packers tunnel. I've been through here two times before on tours, but I get chills every time.
**SPOILER ALERT FOR THOSE WHO ARE GOING ON THE TOUR IN THE FUTURE**
As you're walking out the tunnel, they pump in sounds of a crowd cheering, and the announcer. So as you're walking down the tunnel, there are loud crowd cheers, and someone saying something like "And now, here are your 2013 Green Bay Packers!" Chills.
**END OF SPOILER ALERT**
The door at the end of the tunnel opens up and the view is enough to get you excited itself.
And right below that picture, there are cement blocks with red bricks around them. These bricks have been moved from the stadium that the very first Packers team used. So every player and coach to ever be with the Packers have walked over those bricks. Everyone from Curley Lambeau to Vince Lombardi to Bart Starr to James Lofton to Mike Holmgren to Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers has stepped on those bricks. Very neat.
Here the tour guide introduced himself and his "helper." His "helper" pretty much just walked behind us and kept an eye on everyone. Here he told us what was located in the windows on the very right of this picture.
The second floor is where Curley's Pub is located, the third floor if where the coaches' offices are, and the fourth floor are where the executive offices are.
The first stop was a short, six-story ride up the elevators, and down a long hallway. We went through some glass doors and went outside to the new endzone expansion. Let me tell you, those seats would be a fantastic place to watch a game. It's high enough up that you can see everything, and the seats actually have backs and cup holders, something that most of the seating in the stadium lacks as you can see in the picture below.
A better look at the new seats... the new ones are green, the silver bleachers have been there since at least 2003.
With this new expansion, Lambeau Field has the third largest capacity in the league with around 80,750 seats. The first is the Redskins and second is Giants/Jets. Despite all of these seats, there are 100,000+ people on a season ticket waiting list. Needless to say, every game is sold out.
From there we went up another floor or two to visit the "roof" as our tour guide called it. The roof is actually a viewing platform above all of the new seats, but below the new scoreboard. Only people with premium tickets can access this area outside of the tour, and I can see why. The view was awesome! You could see the entire city from there, and it was a perfect view of the field. Although it was very windy. Our tour guide said a couple days before he actually had to hold on to his hat and glasses to keep them from blowing away. I wouldn't want to be up there too long during the cooler months; that'd be freezing!
This is a picture of the scoreboard we were directly underneath. It looked a lot bigger in person.
This scoreboard is actually smaller than the one on the other side of the field, at least that's how it looked from on the field.
A shot of the "roof"...
It was about this time where I noticed my phone was running low on battery, so I slowed down on the pictures, and didn't get any of the booths and suites we visited.
We went down and took a look at a couple of premium seating areas, one completely indoors, and one partially indoors. Both of those spots would be allowed access to the roof. In the outdoor section, our tour guide had us sit down and he told us some history about the Packers. I knew most of it already, but it was a great view (similar to the views in the pictures above). He talked about Curley Lambeau, who I've already talked about, and Vince Lombardi. He didn't really talk about much after the Lombardi days, but most Packers fans know what happened since then. We were awful through the 70s and 80s, and finally our luck changed when we traded for Brett Favre in the early 90s. And since then, we've had more success than anyone could ask for.
From there we went to the media booth. He had us take a seat there and told us how this room was used. It's just a bunch of reporters sitting at desks (where we were sitting) typing reports, and all of that fun stuff. You would not find Al Michaels, or any of the commentators in this room, though.
Next up was the executive suite. This is the equivalent to other teams' owner's suites. The reason the Packers don't have an owner's suite is because we don't have an owner. Instead the fans literally own the team. There are thousands of fans who own stock in the team (that's actually how they afforded the new stadium expansion). So instead of an owner who makes decisions we have a sort of executive "panel" or "team", and they all use that booth during gameday.
In the executive suite we got snacks! Nothing much, just some chips and water. We talked a little bit, people asked questions, and he asked us a trivia question that someone had asked him on the way to the suite. The question was "Who are the three original teams of the NFL?" The easy answers are the Bears and Packers, but the third one might surprise some people. It's the Cardinals! People in our group got the answer right away, though. Of course, when the Cardinals entered the league, they were known as the Chicago Cardinals, and today they are the Arizona Cardinals.
From here we made our way to the visiting team's locker room. It was nothing special, just some empty lockers in a drab room. We definitely don't give our opponents any luxury! It was still set up from the Cardinals preseason game from last Friday, so that was cool.
After this, we made our way down to the Packers tunnel. I've been through here two times before on tours, but I get chills every time.
**SPOILER ALERT FOR THOSE WHO ARE GOING ON THE TOUR IN THE FUTURE**
As you're walking out the tunnel, they pump in sounds of a crowd cheering, and the announcer. So as you're walking down the tunnel, there are loud crowd cheers, and someone saying something like "And now, here are your 2013 Green Bay Packers!" Chills.
**END OF SPOILER ALERT**
The door at the end of the tunnel opens up and the view is enough to get you excited itself.
And right below that picture, there are cement blocks with red bricks around them. These bricks have been moved from the stadium that the very first Packers team used. So every player and coach to ever be with the Packers have walked over those bricks. Everyone from Curley Lambeau to Vince Lombardi to Bart Starr to James Lofton to Mike Holmgren to Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers has stepped on those bricks. Very neat.
