NFL draft pays off for Green Bay businesses near Lambeau Field, while downtown shops fret

Jennifer Sanftleben has worked at Stadium View Sports Bar in Green Bay for 11 years. 

The bar is just a few hundred feet away from Lambeau Field. Sanftleben usually bartends during Green Bay Packers home games. And on Thursday, the bar manager was behind the bar on the first day of the NFL Draft in Green Bay.

She worked a 16-hour shift — she started at 11 a.m. Thursday and finished around 3 a.m. Friday morning. 

“I ran out of everything — cups, booze, all the stuff,” Sanftleben said. 

She said she broke her own “personal record” for earnings during one shift. 

According to the NFL, 205,000 fans attended the first night of the three-day event. Football enthusiasts from across the nation descended on Green Bay — the smallest market in the NFL — for the event. 

Stadium View wasn’t the only business near Lambeau to do a brisk business on the first day of the event.

Outside of the stadium district, though, business owners in downtown Green Bay were hopeful traffic would pick up over the weekend, as they said they hadn’t gotten as much business as they hoped for.

TennPack Throwbacks is a vintage clothing store near the stadium that sells football jerseys and other sports merchandise. Sterling Thayse, the owner of the small business, set up a tent outside of his shop on Thursday and even had a speaker blasting music into the street.

He said the best days for his business are the days the Packers are in town. He estimated his sales were three times higher Thursday than a Packers home game. 

“It felt like a game day times a million,” Thayse said.

He stayed open until midnight.

“It was madness,” he added. 

Discover Green Bay, the local tourism bureau, estimated the event will have an economic impact of $20 million in the area and a statewide impact of $94 million. CEO Brad Toll said that ahead of the event, the estimated total attendance for all three days was around 240,000 people. 

“To have almost that the first night was pretty amazing,” Toll said Friday.

George Allen, an Atlanta Falcons fan who was in town from Georgia, said a few of his friends travel for the draft each year.

“We’re here all weekend,” Allen said. “Sightseeing, see the bars and see whatever Green Bay has to offer.” 

Downtown Green Bay owners hope more fans venture their way

Missy Martens, co-owner of Copper State Brewing Company in downtown Green Bay, said her staff was “all hands on deck” to prepare for the extra visitors. But on Thursday, she was forced to send some staff home.

“Everyone was down by the stadium, so it was definitely slower than expected,” Martens said. 

She said it makes sense that most would stick close to Lambeau on the first day.

“But hopefully then people will get sick of $19 beer and come downtown (and) try out ours,” she said. 

Dan Chojnacki, the general manager at Titletown Brewing Company, said Wednesday’s Draft City Music Fest downtown helped boost his sales. However, those sales didn’t carry over to Thursday. 

“It didn’t live up to the expectations we had hoped based on the volume of people being in town, but it still beat what a typical weeknight is going to be,” Chojnacki said about Thursday.

Celeste Parins, the co-owner of  Voyageurs Bakehouse, said business on Thursday was average.

“We are definitely hopeful that we’ll see some uptick in business today (Friday) and most certainly tomorrow,” Parins said. “But we’re not holding out for it.”