GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — It's the calm before the storm at Lambeau Field. In a few days now, the empty parking lots will be filled with tailgating soccer fans for the big Manchester City vs. Bayern Munich soccer game. But the summer events don't stop there.
Between EAA, Packers training camp, Kitsune Kon and Greta Van Fleet all next week, businesses are expecting a big rush, and that includes places right across the street from the field, Kroll's West.
"We are treating it exactly like a Packer game, so we are staffing everybody we can, preparing, you know, extra food…" Megan Huisman said, the General Manager for Kroll's West. "Coming off of the springtime is usually where we start to slow down...I think this is really going to be the beginning of of a very busy fall season."
Green Bay hasn't seen a cluster of events like these since before the pandemic. This is all compared to the time between 2017 and 2019, when Titletown brought in big name artists, like Billy Joel, Paul McCartney and Kenny Chesney. All of these events led right up to training camp.
Nick Meisner is the VP of Communications and Marketing for Discover Green Bay. He sees these events as a return to normal, rather than making up for the missing things during the pandemic.
"Personally it feels like that was so long ago that we don't really remember the normal pace of what our busy season was like here in Green Bay," Meisner said. "But this is something that we are hoping to sustain as we move forward."
Other small restaurants feed off game days and major events to bring in a fresh set of customers.
"Definitely tourism is picking up that's what we're seeing this summer, a ton of which over half our business right now is just people from out of town," Daniel Nitka said, the co-owner of the Booyah Shed.
The food joint off of Ashland Avenue said events like these in Titletown in the past brought in around a 25% increase in sales for them. They're not banking on outrageous profits, but knowing this will ultimately bring in new Booyah fans.
"We can't expect anything, we never expect anything, you know, you try to plan for the best... my goal is never run out of something," Nitka said.
