GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Pioneers of technology… that’s what Green Bay Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy calls the Packers.
Murphy spoke Monday at the Wisconsin Tech Summit regarding past and future technology updates.
“On November 14th of 1940 — this is really hard to believe — Lambeau’s Packers became the first team to fly together on an airplane to an NFL game,” says Murphy.
Since then, several technological advances have been made at Lambeau Field.
The Packers introduced grab-and-go concessions.
“The grab-and-go technology — it’s amazing how quickly you can get in and out of concession stands. We want to have our fans in the stands cheering, not waiting in line at concession stands,” says Murphy.
Murphy says having the grab-and-go feature has also increased sales.
“We’ve more than doubled our concession revenue over that two year period as a result of that new technology, and it’s allowed us to serve two thirds more fans”.
Murphy says going cashless as a whole has also helped the organization in several ways.
“It’s really increased our efficiency in terms of people coming to the stadium, as well as eliminated the use of counterfeit tickets.”
But the technology updates do not stop there.
New scoreboards are in the process of being built.
“Our new boards will be 20% wider than they were in the past. They will have much greater clarity and video capacity, and it’ll be 4K,” says Murphy.
The scoreboards are expected to be ready by next season.
Fans will also be able to use their phones in the stadium more efficiently.
“We’ve added Wi-Fi and upgraded it. It’s really hard when 80,000 people all at once want to see the same thing.”
Murphy says he does not want to change what makes Lambeau special, but fans have expectations.
“They have fantasy leagues to follow; they want to know how many yards does the team have.”
There will also be a new football facility built toward the east end of the stadium.
“It’s going to have all the latest technology for meeting the needs of our players and coaches,” says Murphy. “Brand new locker rooms, brand new team meeting rooms, what we call our condition rehabilitation and instruction.”
Murphy hopes to continue to advance the technology of Lambeau Field in the future.
