The second oldest facility in the NFL is Lambeau Field, which is one of the most famous sports stadiums in the United States along with Fenway Park and Wrigley Field. This stadium took less than a year to build, breaking ground on October 11th, 1956 and opening on September 29th, 1957. Incredibly, Lambeau cost only $960,000 to build, which translates into $4.7 million in 2015 dollars. A large renovation in 2003 cost $295 million, with a recent expansion of the southern endzone completed in 2013.
Green Bay, Wisconsin has a population of just over 100,000 people while Lambeau Field has a capacity of 81,435, which results in the city shutting down for all intensive purposes for each and every Packers game. In fact, the city loves the Packers to such an extent that volunteers actually shovel snow to help ready the field when a storm hits.
This famous facility was named after Curly Lambeau, who founded the team in 1919, played for the Packers and coached them for 31 years. One of the few stadiums to avoid selling naming rights, voters agreed to consider naming sponsorships while the owners expressed a strong preference for honoring Curly Lambeau.
Green Bay Packers Stadium
Nicknamed The Shrine of Pro Football and The Frozen Tundra, there are few fanbases as committed to their team as Green Bay residents are bound to the success of their Packers. One of the traditions is the Lambeau Leap, in which a player who scores a touchdown leaps up into the first rows behind the endzone to receive the adulation of fans. Humorously, opposing players have attempted the Lambeau Leap after scoring, only to be violently rejected by fans. Despite being the smallest market in the NFL, Lambeau has sold out every game since 1960 and the list of people waiting for season tickets is 86,000 names long – more than the number of seats at Lambeau Field.
Cold weather and rabid fans make this one of the toughest places for teams to visit, reflected by the Packers home record of 34-5-1, which works out to a red-hot .850 winning percentage. In 2011 and 2014, the Packers had perfect home records while in 2010 and 2012 they only lost one home game.
Despite the fact that Lambeau Field is one of the coldest stadiums in the NFL, the grass playing field is considered one of the tops in the NFL. In 2010, the NFLPA survey of playing fields ranked Lambeau as fifth best in the league, up two spots from the 2008 survey.
Stadium Vitals
Date Opened: September 29th, 1957
Construction Cost: $960,000
Architect: Somerville Associates; Ellerbe Becket
Capacity Attendance: 81,435
Playing Surface: Kentucky Bluegrass & DD Grassmaster
Previous Green Bay Packers Stadiums
Hagemeister Park; Bellevue Park; City Stadium; Borchert Field; Wisconsin State Fair Park; Marquette Stadium; Milwaukee County Stadium
Other Major Events
Packers Shareholders Meeting
When stock in the Packers Corporation was sold during 1997, more than 112,000 people bought in, which resulted in the team having to hold their annual stockholders meeting at a location bigger than Resch Center, which had to turn away thousands during their 2005 gathering. As a result, they decided to hold the meeting at Lambeau in order to avoid turning away as many people as possible.