Ryder Cup, Wisconsin-Notre Dame football will affect Packers' schedule

Richard Ryman
Green Bay Press Gazette

GREEN BAY – With the Ryder Cup and the Wisconsin-Notre Dame football game falling on consecutive weekends in 2020, the Green Bay Packers might ask the NFL to put them on the road those weeks.

The Ryder Cup is scheduled for Sept. 25-27 at Whistling Straits Golf Course north of Sheboygan, and Notre Dame will host Wisconsin on Oct. 3 at Lambeau Field.

The Packers certainly will seek to play on the road the week of the Notre Dame-Wisconsin game, which is on a Saturday, but the team has not decided about the week of the Ryder Cup, said Aaron Popkey, director of public affairs.

The Packers will make scheduling requests to the NFL later this year. 

General view of Lambeau Field during the second quarter of the game between the LSU Tigers and Wisconsin Badgers.  LSU lost 16-14.

Brad Toll, president and CEO of the Greater Green Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau, said it would be a good idea for the Packers to hit the road. The Ryder Cup is a well-attended event and Green Bay hotels are expected to host its share of golf fans.

"I'm concerned if we would end up with a home game that weekend, our ability to care for fans and provide rooms for them is going to be hampered considerably," Toll said. 

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Ryder Cup reservations already are turning up at Green Bay hotels.

"It's the international component that's huge, too. It brings in a lot of people," Toll said. "There were some inquiries from media as well."

The Ryder Cup tournament at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn., in 2016 drew an estimated 200,000 fans.

Whistling Straits is a one-hour drive from Green Bay on I-43.

"Some of these European cities people are coming from, it's like driving across town," Toll said.

While the NFL accommodates teams when they have other events scheduled at their stadiums, Toll said it's less certain when the event is somewhere else.

As with most things, Green Bay could be an exception because of its relatively limited hotel capacity, as compared to larger NFL cities.

The Wisconsin-Notre Dame game will be the second major-college football game at Lambeau Field, after 2016's successful Wisconsin-LSU clash, which the Badgers won 16-14. 

LSU fans blanketed northeastern Wisconsin for days before the game, spending freely and widely. The economic impact was estimated at more than $15 million, about the same as a Packers home game.  

Notre Dame, which has alumni across the nation, institutionalized neutral-site home games into its Shamrock Series, which began in 2009. 

The game will be broadcast on NBC as part of Notre Dame's ongoing relationship with that network.

Contact Richard Ryman at 920-431-8342 or rryman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RichRymanPG, on Instagram at  @rrymanPG or  on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RichardRymanPG/