Packers season-ticket holders have “first dibs on new seating areas at Lambeau Field, allowing fans to upgrade from benches to chair backs with cup holders,” according to Hannah O’Brien of the GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE. The new seats will be available for the ‘13 season, and user fees for fans “who want to relocate will not increase.” Seats not given to existing ticket holders “will be offered to fans on the season-ticket waiting list.” The Packers “anticipate 6,500 seats to be available” (GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE, 8/21). In Milwaukee, Michael Hunt writes Packers non-premium ticket holders will have to make a “tough choice” by next month. They must chose whether to “stay on the cold, hard, backless aluminum benches” or switch to a “real seat with a back and a cup holder.” They have “until Sept. 20 to decide if they want to relocate next season into the south end zone that will have 6,500 new and real seats.” A few "dollars more might buy less of a view, but $89 gets you a genuine 21-inch-wide chair.” Packers President & CEO Mark Murphy yesterday said that “someone in his office set the over-under at 800 fans who will give up the benches for chairs.” And Murphy is “leaning toward the under.” Murphy: "I think it's going to be tough for most people to move. You know what it's like. You have your own neighborhood. You have friends." But he “encourages fans to try the new experience.” If fans choose not to move, that is “fine with the Packers, because the 100,000 names on their waiting list for tickets would be more than happy just to get inside the joint and sit on a Vikings helmet were there no other choice” (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 8/22).
