The Packers "renewed their marketing agreement with MillerCoors, their largest sponsor and largest shareholder," according to Richard Ryman of the GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE. The team and the brewer "announced the 10-year extension Tuesday in the Lambeau Field Atrium, which was adorned with Miller Lite signs and whose main entrance is the Miller Lite Gate." It is the "closest thing to naming rights a sponsor can get at Lambeau, where field naming rights are not on the table." Miller "has been the primary Atrium sponsor" since the renovated Lambeau Field opened in '03. Packers President & CEO Mark Murphy said that the agreement "will strengthen MillerCoors' presence in Lambeau" when 6,700 new south end zone seats become available in '13. The south end zone "will be home to a new Miller Lite Club and a relocated Miller Lite End Zone Party Deck." MillerCoors owns 2% of total shares issued by the team, which is "the maximum amount allowed to any individual shareholder." The deal "provides MillerCoors with a variety of retailing and exclusivity opportunities." President & CEO of MillerCoors' craft import division Tenth and Blake Tom Cardella said that the company "looks for ways to use those opportunities to interact with fans, such as making the Miller Lite party deck available for promotional programs" (GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE, 7/18). In Milwaukee, Don Walker noted the deal "gives Miller Lite the rights to develop advertising, consumer promotions, retail point of sale, packaging and other marketing materials featuring the Packers name and Lambeau Field" (JSONLINE.com, 7/17).
I NEED TICKETS: In Green Bay, Hannah O'Brien reports the Ashwaubenon Village Board next week "is expected to discuss eliminating an ordinance that restricts ticket scalping on game days outside Lambeau Field." Ashwaubenon Public Safety Chief Eric Dunning said that the "more than 70,000 fans who converge on the Lambeau Field area on game days make it difficult for the department to station more than one or two officers in the designated ticket-selling area" near the stadium. Dunning: "With our municipality, it's supply and demand, and we have other police services that are being demanded of us. Those resources that we once had available for the ticket area, (they're) being deployed elsewhere now" (GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE, 7/18).
