City Stadium (Green Bay)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| City Stadium | |
|---|---|
| Location | Green Bay, Wisconsin |
| Opened | 1926 |
| Owner | |
| Surface | grass |
| Tenants | |
| Green Bay Packers (NFL) (1926-1956) | |
| Seats | |
| 25,000 | |
City Stadium was the name of a football stadium in Green Bay, Wisconsin. It was the home of the Green Bay Packers of the NFL from 1926–1956. It remains the home of the Green Bay East High School football team. It is now referred to as East Stadium or Old City Stadium. Previously, the Packers had played their home games at nearby Hagemeister Park (the site of East High School itself) and Bellevue Park.
Although City Stadium was the Packers' official home field, in 1933 they began playing part of their home schedule at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They held 1 game there in 1933, and after that they played 2 or 3 games a year in Milwaukee every year, a practice which actually continued through 1994, after which they finally became solely based in Green Bay.
The horseshoe-shaped stadium was made of wood and originally did not have any toilet facilities. It stood behind Green Bay East High School and next to the East River. The Packers used the school for locker room facilities. Visiting teams often dressed at their hotel before the game rather than use the lockers at East.
The stadium originally sat 6,000. It was gradually expanded to seat 25,000, but by the 1950s that was still too small. The Lords of the NFL, including George Halas, informed the Green Bay club owners that they needed to improve their facilities or else the Packers would be moved to Milwaukee permanently.
The citizens of Green Bay responded by building a new City Stadium, which opened in 1957, and old City Stadium reverted to a high school field. The new stadium was renamed Lambeau Field in 1965 and has become one of the most revered stadiums in the NFL.
In recent years, ornamental fencing and monuments to the history of the field have been erected.
[edit] Sources
- The Packers!, by Steve Cameron, 1995.
| Preceded by: Bellevue Park 1923–1924 |
Home of the Green Bay Packers 1925–1956 |
Succeeded by: Lambeau Field 1957–present |
