Packers Anticipate Game in London, Variable Ticket Pricing in Coming Years

Team president Mark Murphy clued in shareholders during of recent developments.

Nothing is official yet, but the language Green Bay Packers president Mark Murphy used at Thursday's annual shareholders meeting suggest two notable developments affecting the organization that will be taking place in the upcoming years.

Murphy said he would "antcipate" the Packers play a game in London and institute some form of a variable ticket pricing model.

As for the game in London, the Packers won't be going there in 2014 with the schedule already set in stone, but sometime in the next few seasons seems like a distinct possibility.

"This has been a big initiative for the league," said Murphy. "For a number of years, the league has played games over there. I think it's been six, seven years. Last year we went to two games. This year there will be three games in London. And I anticipate that the Packers will probably play there in the coming years, but it will be an away game. We will never take a home game away from Lambeau Field."

It would appear the Packers have made it clear to the league they don't want to sacrifice either the home-field advantage, nor the revenue, a game at Lambeau Field provides.

The Jacksonville Jaguars have agreed to play one home game per season in London through 2016, and the NFC North's rotation against the AFC South comes up next in 2016, perhaps making that season a possibility for a match in the United Kingdom.

Regarding the variable ticket pricing model, a change in the team's current structure would appear to take place before the 2015 season.

"A number of teams across the league have gone to a variable pricing model," said Murphy. "I think we talked about it here. One of the issues that we as a league face is the quality of play in the preseason has really dropped off from what it was years ago. Players are in good shape. They don't need the games to get ready for the season.

"So a number of teams have looked at it, and they're reducing the cost of the preseason, but they're increasing the price of other games, so it's a balancing act. We're studying it. We're going to look at it. Something that makes it a little more complicated for us is the fact that we have the green and gold packages, but that's something that I anticipate we will move to next year."

In order to make up for lower-priced preseason games, teams typically designate select higher-priced "premium" games, perhaps those against a division rival.

As suggested by Paul Oren on Friday's Railbird Central, the Packers could perhaps look to designate the game they decide to honor Brett Favre as a premium game.

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Comments (1)

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Bearmeat's picture

July 26, 2014 at 08:26 am

No and No. No London. No VTP.

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