Lambeau Field Sales Tax Could Expire Earlier Than Expected

Green Bay/Brown County (WI) Professional Stadium District officials Monday said that the 0.5% county sales tax paying off the Lambeau Field mortgage "could be over by 2015, about eight or nine years earlier than expected," according to Andy Nelesen of the GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE. Green Bay/Brown County Professional Football Stadium District Exec Dir Pat Webb said that the debt from the $297M stadium renovation "should be paid off by 2011, with a few additional years of sales tax needed to bankroll long-term stadium maintenance." Webb: "We've done in 10 years what we could have done in 30." Meanwhile, Green Bay City Council President Chris Wery "wanted to know why more events aren't held at Lambeau Field." Packers VP/Administration & General Counsel Jason Wied said that the team "sees itself as an economic catalyst for the area and pointed out the stadium's Atrium and other amenities host between 500 and 800 events a year, with 70[%] of those visitors coming from outside Green Bay." Wied added that there are "efforts to bring a college football game to Lambeau and said a large stadium concert isn't out of the question," but "making the logistics work is the tough part" (GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE, 9/1). In Milwaukee, Don Walker notes sales-tax collections from the Brown County-only tax so far this year are "down 8.5%, compared with the same time period last year" (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 9/2).