ASHWAUBENON – If you want to find the locals most eager for the football conquest of Lambeau Field this weekend, start with Green Bay’s football pubs.
Saturday’s spectacle between German Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich and English Premier League champions Manchester City is expected to draw more than 75,000 football fans to the legendary home of the Green Bay Packers.
Locals and visitors who come to town to bask in the soccer moments in soccer-loving Green Bay will find multiple opportunities on Fridays and Saturdays to learn about soccer, meet former players, and mingle with other local soccer fans before the teams line up at 6:00 p.m
Green Bay Distillery, The Bar on Holmgren Way, Hagemeister Park and Badger State Brewing are among the restaurants and bars ready to celebrate the occasion.
“We’re really excited about it. It’s such a great opportunity,” said Jen Radloff, Badger State’s director of events and entertainment. “We’ve got some big football fans on the team and we’re overshadowed by Lambeau, so we might as well throw a tailgate party as we would at any other football game, except it’s not an American football game.”
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However, the region’s football fans and football pubs did not wait for the official program to plan their own parties. The Packers said Wednesday the game will draw fans from all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, 19 countries and Washington, DC
Joe Phillips, president of the Green Bay chapter of US soccer fan group The American Outlaws, said excitement for the game had increased since details first emerged in March.
“Obviously Lambeau won’t be an international (competition) football destination but for an exhibition it’s perfect,” said Phillips. “It’s huge for Green Bay and huge for football in the region.”
Football bars in the Green Bay area are focal points for fans of the “beautiful game” to congregate at odd hours of the day (European games start at 6am on Saturdays) and nights (World Cup qualifier games can be played during the week after end at 10 p.m.). ).
At World Cups, they often reserve space for bigger games and give priority to fans by turning on the sound. That might not sound like much, but ask a bartender to turn on football on a fall or winter Sunday in Green Bay and see the reaction you get.
“(The reaction is) either ‘down with that crap’ or they’re really interested but know little about the actual sport,” Phillips said.
Green Bay Distillery probably has one of the longest football bar lineages in the region, dating back to 2011.
“It just so happened,” said general manager Mike McNerney, who has been a long-time fan of playing and watching football.
It started just after the 2010 World Cup when the US men’s team put on a strong showing with a roster that included Bay Port high school soccer star Jay DeMerit, whose family McNerney knows. Around the same time, the local American Outlaws Chapter was formed and chose the Green Bay Distillery as a meeting place.
Eleven years later, McNerney opens the distillery to the early weekends Green Bay Armory, a local group of supporters of English club Arsenal who watched all of the club’s 38 league games there last season. The events are now also attracting other football fans.
With Bayern and Man City in town, McNerney didn’t wait to decorate the walls or the menu in a way that was inspired by exhibition play. The Bavarian flags have been flying over the bar since the beginning of July.
McNerney sees more signs of the sport’s growing popularity. Distillery staff get a few more customer requests to tune in to football, while younger kids can recite clubs’ rosters from memory, McNerney said.
“Football has become a little bit more mainstream than it has been for generations,” McNerney said. “It’s a generational thing that took a while to catch on in the United States.”
Green Bay, like the rest of Northeast Wisconsin, embraced football in fits and starts. Phillips relocated here from South Carolina in 2017, just in time to see local interest wane when the US men’s team failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. The Outlaws contacted him in 2019 about reviving the chapter, which he took over in 2020.
In Green Bay, he said, it’s been difficult to find a place where football comes first. There are “not many places that are committed to attracting anything other than the Brewers, the Bucks, or the Packers,” he said.
Phillips has watch parties scheduled at The Bar on Lime Kiln, where a bartender, who is a football fan, reserves space for the Outlaws and turns on the sound of the game. Phillips also launched a Facebook page and website, Titletown Casuals, as a general site for football events and information in the area.
“If there is a place that wants to host football to attract more customers, I will promote it on social media and calendars,” he said.
Phillips hopes Saturday’s game will highlight opportunities for companies to delight football fans with the 2022 World Cup in November and the 2023 Women’s World Cup, which the U.S. women’s team has just qualified for, both taking place over the next 13 months serve.
“In my view, that is huge. It just helps to figure out how many football fans there are around here,” Phillips said.
Here’s what the Green Bay soccer pubs have planned for this weekend.
Badger State Brewing Co. Tailgate Party
Badger State Brewing Co., 990 Tony Canadeo Run, decided to throw a tailgate party for the Bayern-City game like it would for any other football game at Lambeau Field, said Jen Radloff, the Craft Brewery’s events and entertainment director .
“Unless it’s July,” Radloff said.
Badger State plans begin Friday night with live music and food trucks in the taproom.
On Saturday, the taproom opens Saturday lunchtime, and Badger State is hosting a pre-game tailgate party with food trucks, an eight-pump truck, game-day music, giveaways and more. Parking will be available for a fee. Radloff said additional details will be posted on Badger State’s Facebook event page.
“I think whether they’re football fans or not, it’s going to be a fun opportunity for people to get out of the house and experience something different,” Radloff said. “We’re all about football and it’s such a unique opportunity.”
Compete twice with the American Outlaws Green Bay
The American Outlaws Green Bay Chapter now calls The Bar on Lime Kiln, on the west side of Green Bay, its home base. For the weekend, events will be sponsored at The Bar’s sister locations, Hagemeister Park in downtown Green Bay, and The Bar on Holmgren Way near Lambeau Field.
Kick it on the fox! begins Friday at 5:00 p.m. at Hagemeister Park, 325 N. Washington St. The event, co-sponsored by the Outlaws and Titletown Casuals, includes live music, ticket giveaways, team prizes and a performance by Bayern Munich legend Giovane Elber, ret The Brazilian scored 92 goals in six seasons for Bayern from 1997 to 2003.
The party continues with a tailgate party at The Bar on Holmgren Way, 2001 Holmgren Way on Saturday from 2pm to 6pm. A $40 ticket includes drinks, food, parking and live music before the game.
Phillips said updates will be posted on the Facebook pages of both events.
Green Bay Distillery: Oktoberfest in July
McNerney capitalized on the opportunity and the area’s German heritage, decking the Green Bay Distillery, 835 Mike McCarthy Way, with Bayern Munich flags to match the food and drink, which resembles Oktoberfest.
Hacker-Pschorr and Paulaner are tapped and he’s hoping Linseed Ball’s Oktoberfest will be available in time for the game. The Distillery has been serving a Reuben Hoagie, a sausage platter, and German-style pork ribs with sauerkraut since July 9.
McNerney said the Bayern-City game was a unique event and a good preparation for the 2022 World Cup, which starts at the end of November. He has already locked the party and banquet facilities for each of the three United States first-round games and, if they advance, all possible dates for the US knockout round games.
“We have guaranteed US football,” he said.
Titletown District: Matchday Live
The Green Bay Packers’ Titletown District will kick off their own plans Saturday afternoon with live music in the area west of Lambeau Field.
Matchday Live includes a Manchester City Champions area, a header challenge where you can show off your footballing skills, food trucks, live music, a mural and a children’s football pitch.
The activities are free and take place on Saturday from 2pm to 5.30pm, just before exhibition play begins. Visit Titletown’s Matchday Live Facebook event page for more information.
Contact Jeff Bollier at (920) 431-8387 or jbollier@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JeffBollier.