While addressing reporters at the NFL Annual Meeting on Tuesday, Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy expressed disappointment in the city of Green Bay's decision to walk away from negotiations on a new lease agreement for Lambeau Field.
There are nine years left on the current lease, but the two sides had been negotiating an extension for the past year. That was until a couple weeks ago when Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich called Murphy to inform him that he was ceasing negotiations for the time being.
"Really, it's quite honestly, not only disappointed but also very surprised," Murphy said. "We're a community owned team. We're going to give back. We want to work things out and we've shown – we're not asking for any public money. We've invested a lot of money into the stadium and into the community with Titletown. We've told the city we'll continue to invest in the future."
The Packers are open to investing in both Lambeau Field and the city of Green Bay. The organization already has spent more than $1 billion in capital improvements, operations and maintenance, Titletown development and charitable support since the redevelopment of Lambeau Field in 2003 and is committed to investing more than $1.5 billion into the stadium in the coming decades.
That's in addition to providing a $400 million annual economic impact to the community.
The Packers maintain a corporate reserve fund of more than $500 million, though that money is set aside for the financial long-term stability of the NFL's smallest franchise. Reiterating the Packers will always stay in Green Bay, Murphy said he's still optimistic the organization and city of Green Bay will get something worked out.
For the time being, however, the Packers have halted offseason plans for an $80 million construction project due to the uncertainty surrounding negotiations with the city on a new lease.
"We were going to go forward with $80 million in improvements to the stadium, mostly in the concourse and concession areas," Murphy said. "But given the status of negotiations, we're going to halt those investments. That's going to affect our fans and also affect us for the draft (in 2025). So hopefully we can together and negotiate an extension."
