The Green Bay Packers have broken ground on the $130 million, privately financed renovation the team announced late last month for the publicly owned Lambeau Field.
The plan calls for the addition of 6,600 new seats in the south end zone and a rooftop viewing platform. The improvements are scheduled to be completed for the 2013 season.
“This project will benefit the Packers and our fans,” team president Mark Murphy said in a statement. “It also will benefit our community, initially through construction jobs, but also in the long term through the increased economic impact of additional fans coming to Packers games each year.”
The team said it was considering a stock sale or other borrowing options to finance the projects.
The Green Bay-Brown County Professional Football Stadium District earlier this year announced plans to prepay some of the bonds it issued for the 2003 renovation of Lambeau Field, putting the district on track to fully retire its bonds later this year.
The district issued $175 million of debt to finance the public’s share of the $300 million upgrade to the home of the National Football League team. A 0.5% voter-approved sales tax in the county repays the debt. Brown County will continue to collect the sales taxes to pay various operational expenses and to fully fund a special reserve. The district is on schedule to fund those reserves and end the sales tax as soon as 2015.
