The Green Bay Packers got their sellout for Sunday, which means there will be no local TV blackout, but probably not the way they wanted it.
The final 1,000 or so tickets were purchased by corporations, led by Associated Bank. Also chipping in were the FOX affiliates in Milwaukee, Green Bay and Wausau, who have a vested interest in the game actually being on TV; and Mills Fleet Farm and Bellin Health.
All of the companies that aren’t TV stations are already Packers sponsors, so they probably got a guarantee of some future sweetheart advertising deals.
Here’s what team president Mark Murphy had to say.
“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.”
Let me translate that.
“Because we pretty much sucked balls for most of the season and I made the idiotic decision to try to charge season ticket holders a non-refundable deposit for THREE playoff games in November, we had some extra tickets available. I really thank these companies for covering my dumb ass.”
The cheapest tickets for Sunday’s game were $102, so these companies forked over more than $100,000 altogether.
What’s doing to happen to those tickets? There hasn’t been any announcement about that. The same thing happened in Indianapolis, where Meijer led the effort to buy the remainder of the Colts’ tickets. They’ve pledged to give those tickets to military families.
Associated Bank will probably just be handing them out to their cronies.