Cheese Curds, 7/19: Packers stayed financially stable despite ‘Season of COVID’

The season of COVID-19 hit professional sports hard, the NFL in particular. With fans almost entirely barred from attending games, teams’ local revenues dropped. This was true for the Green Bay Packers in particular, as both the team and the greater Green Bay area suffered with (virtually) no ticket sales keeping visitors away.

Thankfully, the Packers have a robust set of investments that allowed the team to stay financially healthy through the trying 2020 campaign. As a result, the team actually made money last year, even though they reported a loss in terms of operating costs & revenues.

Fans will thankfully be welcomed back to Lambeau Field in 2021, starting with Family Night on August 7th and then for the first home preseason game a week later. Not everything is fully back to pre-COVID normal of course — the pandemic is still affecting lives, with the Delta variant particularly impacting unvaccinated populations — but a new normal is finally starting to set in.

Players will report for training camp in eight days. It’s almost time for the Packers to get their new normal underway.

Pandemic season produced uncommon financial report for Packers | Packers.com
The Packers made out as well as one could hope for on the financial front in 2020. The team did report an operating loss last year without fans in the stadium, as revenue dropped considerably, but overall the team made money thanks to investment gains as the economy has begun to rebound.

Packers Continue To Grapple with COVID-19 - Sports Illustrated
Although fans will be back and vaccinated players and staff can largely return to normal, there will still be challenges ahead in 2021 as COVID-19 is anything but gone.

6 current or former Green Bay Packers players make list of top 101 nicknames in NFL history | Packers Wire
Reggie White, aka "The Minister of Defense," is highest on the list among former Packers. But can you guess which other players made the list?

Five veteran NFL players who deserve a raise | NFL.com
Two of the five are Packers: namely, the straws that stir the offensive drink. We'll see what happens with Aaron Rodgers next week, but the team is surely trying to get a new deal done for Davante Adams.

Ford Mustang Mach-E Fragrance Brings Back The Smell Of Gasoline | Motor1.com
Do you have an electric car but miss the smell of pumping gas? Ford has you covered.