The Packers get Microsoft to partner on a new tech venture.
As if the Green Bay Packers weren’t already pioneers in their field, considering they are the only publicly owned team in the league, now they are taking that spirit to a whole new level.
The Pack is partnering with Microsoft to launch a tech incubator near Lambeau Field in a $10-million partnership aimed at igniting innovation in an area not typically targeted by major, global companies.
Right???
Yeah, I had no idea what I meant either, but Microsoft President Brad Smith said it best.
"We are bringing to a smaller city the types of efforts that you tend to see today only in the larger cities in the world," he said.
But for the Packers, who—given the very nature of them being a publicly held company—need their public owners to keep having income to support the team to get exactly that in this project.
So far so good, as the Packers have sold out every game at Lambeau Field since November 1959, but Green Bay is the smallest city to have an NFL team—with a population of about 105,000 people. Lambeau Field's current capacity is more than 81,400, making it one of the largest NFL stadiums.
Enter the incubator, which will be housed in a new, state-of-the-art building to be constructed in Green Bay's Titletown District, just west of Lambeau Field. The development already includes a hotel, a brewery, and a sports medicine and orthopedics clinic. It also has a plaza and park with playgrounds, as well as a full-size football field that's open to the public.
Wonder if they have the technology to speed up Aaron Rodgers broken collarbone. That may prove to be nearly as costly this season.