ASHWAUBENON, Wis. (WFRV) – Despite seeing more than a reported half a million fans across the three days of the NFL Draft, businesses in the shadow of Lambeau Field and a couple miles east in downtown Green Bay saw little to no economic boost. In fact, some business owners and managers say they took a net loss.
“It was actually a lot slower than how it usually is towards the end of April for us. Sales were down maybe 50%,” Cold Stone Creamery Green Bay owner Amin Elhalw said. “Gradually the closer we got to the draft, the sales were decreasing, the percentage. Maybe because of the roads and stuff as well.”
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Traffic also created a headache for Michael Wier, owner of Kroll’s West, who says he is taking a net loss or breaking even from the aftermath of the draft.
“It sounded like there would be many more cars on the west side of the stadium than there actually was,” he said. “If you take three days, one really good one, one really poor one, and one above average, and the three weeks that this road is closed, unless they can get it open quicker, it’ll be a negative or about a wash.”
At Tundra Smoke Shop, revenue is not smoking either, as the entrances of the NFL Draft campus were positioned across Lambeau Field from the store.
“We definitely thought we’d see a little bump and that didn’t happen,” Tundra Smoke Shop manager Josh Gribble said. “What I think is just because the way the entrances were set up on the other side, that Oneida St. didn’t really get as much traffic as much as people would’ve thought because there aren’t entrances on this side.”
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In downtown Green Bay, business was not any better, and some places even had to send extra staff home.
“We saw a little bump in business but certainly not what we expected at all. Utterly underwhelming to say the least,” Prohibition Spirits and Cigars manager Rob Ziese said. “We, from Wednesday to Saturday, doubled up on employees. Two during the day, four at night. Really, none of it was needed.”
Now, extra supplies that stores have stocked up on sit unused, but employees say the increase in inventory will not be an issue.
“We were definitely expecting to get a little spike of traffic, a lot of people coming in from out of town,” Gribble said of his smoke shop customers. “We had 4/20 last weekend so we had like a big party and stocked up for that, and then we kind of rolled that over into the draft weekend and kind of had some extra stock left over for that too.”
Cold Stone Creamery has enough room in the freezer so the ice cream will not melt, and it will still likely be eaten within weeks during the summer rush.
“Just like a storm, we weren’t sure how it was going to hit us, so we were prepared for every scenario basically,” Elhalw said. “We’re going to be out of everything I have in a couple weeks.”
Directly across from Lambeau Field, things are still looking up at Kroll’s West, with major changes expected to come this summer.
“We’re going to be refacing the outside of the building, I think it’s going to be pretty nice when it’s finished, we’ll be getting a new bar in it this year,” Wier said. “And then we’ll look into it for next year, it’s a 50 year upgrade.”
After all the traffic troubles, the roads closed due to the draft are expected to fully reopen by Tuesday, May 6.
