Bob Harlan: Creating a revenue goldmine

Continued from previous week

“So you saw these tours come up from the Hall of Fame, which was located a block away from the stadium,” Harlan explained. “They bring the people up in the wagons to take a tour, and maybe 20 minutes or half an hour later, they left. They were in and out in no time at all.”

Harlan thought that if they could redirect that traffic flow into the stadium, they might be able to translate that to increased revenue.

“First of all, you’ve got to take advantage of what you’ve got. If it does have history and tradition, we’ve got to sell it or keep it. We’ve got to have a stadium that’s going to be open 24 hours a day, it’s going to be 365 days a year,” he said.

“So we already started the team store and had a small restaurant (Curly’s).”

The concept of an atrium was then introduced.

“Which I really didn’t care for at first,” added Harlan, “but we went to Conseco (Gainbridge) Fieldhouse, where the Pacers play, before we were going to build.”

Harlan then saw what the Atrium could bring to the community.

“We talked to the Hall of Fame to see if they would move up to us. So then we had a reason to come to Lambeau Field — take a tour — and a reason to stay at Lambeau Field —spend some money and see it, be around football fans,” he stated.

With the institution of the renovated Lambeau Field, Harlan said that revenue “jumped dramatically.”

“We were making $2.5 million. When we opened the stadium, the next year, we made $25 million, and it’s just continued to grow and grow and grow and grow; so, it was a godsend,” he recalled.

“But, if we lost that referendum, and boy, it was a battle. People just hated me.
“My wife made me quit reading the newspaper.

“But anyway, the vote was 53% to 47% and boy, when we won, I can’t tell how relieved I was. In fact, the stadium was really owned by the city. So Paul Jadin, who was mayor of Green Bay at that time, was in on every meeting we ever had with the builders and so forth.

“About two weeks after we opened the stadium, he came around and said, ‘Bob, I never wanted to tell you this during the referendum. But, I always thought, if you lost that, this team would have been out of this town by 2015.’

“We could not have moved it, but the league could have moved us because of our inability to stay competitive.

“So, a lot of good things have really gone our way, but most of it is due, I’d say, to Ron Wolf, Ted Thompson was general manager and Gutie (Brian Gutekunst) can continue in the future.”

To be continued