It Won't Be Long Now

Millions of dollars continue to roll in .............. this hurricane of cash influx is unstoppable!
 
The Green Bay Packers culled the season-ticket waiting list by more than 5,000 names as the team sold Lambeau Field’s newest seats.
About 105,000 people were waiting for season tickets before the Packers started selling the new seats. Aaron Popkey, the Packers’ director of public affairs, said that of the 5,000-plus offered tickets, about 77 percent bought them. He said 1,500 existing ticket holders chose to move to the new south end zone, mostly in level six, which is general seating.
Those new seats are nearing completion, said Stu Zadra of contractor Hammes Co. They will be ready for a July 18 open house for new ticket holders, dubbed by the Packers as “meet your seat.”
Green Bay/Brown County Professional Football Stadium District members and other public officials toured the nearly completed project Wednesday. The stadium district is the Packers’ landlord.
“I think it’s a great testament to the success of the 2003 project,” said Ann Patteson, stadium district chairwoman.
She said that earlier project, which was funded with sales-tax dollars, put the Packers in a position to do two new projects, worth about $146 million each, without seeking additional public money.
“Also, it’s innovative. Each space feels different than the other spaces, but it still respects the traditional culture,” she said. “They haven’t changed the character of Lambeau. And the safety record deserves recognition.”
The stadium has a range of new areas in the south end zone, from a viewing deck just under the scoreboard — higher than the north end zone deck, but without the amenities — to various new lounges, suites, viewing areas, general seating and special areas for sponsor partners.
“There will be new products that don’t exist today,” Zadra said.
District executive director Patrick Webb said June sales-tax distributions were disappointing. The district received $1.7 million in June, compared to $2.3 million in May. Still, the district is 4.2 percent ahead of last year at the same time.
The district receives revenue from a 0.5-percent sales tax in Brown County. The money was used to help pay for the renovation of Lambeau Field completed in 2003. Bonds for the construction have been paid off and the district now is building up a fund for its maintenance requirements through the end of the Packers’ lease in 2031.
The district needs to accumulate $92 million. It gets about $20 million a year and has to save a little under $58 million more to retire the sales tax, which Webb is estimating will be early in 2016. The retirement date has moved back some, in part because of slower collections during the recession and now because of low interest rates on investments, which range from .07 percent to 3.17 percent.