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From Scoop # 55 January 17, 2008
Green Bay
Blizzard Owner, Former Packer Great Brian Noble Recently Green Bay Blizzard Owner and former Packer great Brian Noble and I sat down to talk about the fast-approaching Blizzard season and the Packers’ playoff run. Excerpts from our conversation follow. RS-My family is anxiously awaiting the Blizzard’s opening day game up at the Resch Center on Sunday afternoon March 30th. What are you, the front office and coaches doing to make sure you’re going to be ready for opening day? BN-Well Rick, obviously this off-season, that’s what our office is focused on the preparation for that first game. As you know, often times when you’re trying to get something accomplished you only have one opportunity for that first impression. And although we have about two thousand people who regularly attend and that are season ticket holders, we hope to have an extra five thousand more people there who might be attending their first Arena Football game-so that first impression might dictate whether or not they come back. So at this point, what we’re doing is our sales and promotional things, trying to put that together. Trying to fine-tune the edges that go into a game, but aren’t necessarily part of a game. We leave everything else up to the coaches as far as the players and the talent they bring in, the football aspect of it. What the guys in the office try to do is make sure that we get our sponsorships done, and season ticket packages sold, and all the things that you don’t really see at a football game. That’s what takes place in the off-season. RS-How is the team looking? Is it to the point where you actually have players on the roster, or is that still taking place? BN-We have a number of players that we have under contract. What we do now Rick, is we try to fit our team together and mold our team together, we’re not one of those teams that likes to throw a bunch of names out there and people say “Oh my goodness, look what kind of team they have,” because that gives our opponents an opportunity to prepare for what we have. They see who we we’re getting, and they say “Well, we’re going to have this guy in order to combat that guy.” We tend to hold out until right before the season starts to announce our team, our roster, the guys who will be competing to get a spot on our football team. And it’s worked out very well for us. The last three years, as you know, we’ve done a fabulous job on the field. But a lot of that comes, right now when our coaches and myself are out there trying to recruit guys, we say shake the bushes and see what falls out. We have to find these guys much like the NFL does. You have to find the guys that the other people don’t know about. And I think that bodes well for us, not only from the type of team we put together, but also our history dictates that we’ve done an excellent job by the amount of players that we have moved to the next level where you look around at our specific league – the AF2 league – and you look around at some of these teams, and they’ve got players that are on their teams for 4 or 5 and even 6 and 7 years. Our players are on our team for one or two years, and then they’re gone. And that’s our goal: to move players up to the Arena Football League, or the NFL. RS-Going back to the promotional side of things Brian, what exciting things do you have planned for the upcoming season? BN-Well, if I told you what we have coming up, then it wouldn’t be a surprise when we announce it, would it?! (laughter) We’ve got a lot of great stuff. You know we’ve had a tremendous amount of success, and response to having the Wisconsin marching band. They’re a staple in our thing. We bring them up for one game a year. We’ve had Southern University’s marching band come up, and that was one of our best nights, simply for the fact that having a bunch of performers come up to a Blizzard game that people aren’t used to seeing in this vicinity. And they did an outstanding job. We’ve got some unique things coming up this year. We’re going to have a Bruisers’ night, where we’re giving away kind of like “Don King” hairdos, some fangs and some claws, so the kids will look like Bruiser the team mascot. We hope to have the whole crowd wearing these white wigs, so that everybody looks like Don King, or more so look like Bruiser, and it should be a pretty good night. A pretty fun night, to see because it … it’s kind of like one of those situations where you look into the crowd and see nothing but white. It should be pretty impressive. RS-Sounds fun Brian. Any indoor fireworks this year? BN-Oh yeah, that’s one our staples. We’re the only organization that I know of thus far that has pulled off indoor fireworks. You know, the first year we had the fire alarms go off, and then they turned off the ventilation in the the Resch Center, and we ended up with a pretty good smoke cloud up there. Fire alarms went off, so it was a pretty fun night itself. Last year’s event went off well, and that’s one of those things we do right around the 4th of July and we have received tremendous response from doing. We’re going to repeat that one, that’s a great one. RS-I noticed the schedule seems to be loaded a little more heavily early in the season with home field games. From a competitive standpoint, is that a good thing or bad thing from your perspective? BN-Depends on whether we win or lose! (laughter) Honestly, I don’t have any input on how our schedule shakes down. That is handled by the League. Obviously, with 29 other organizations around, a lot of it is dictated by availability of their people’s arenas and things like that. And we’re very fortunate that the Resch Center is very accommodating for us with our schedule. It’s nice to have those games early in the season at home so that we can get started off on the right foot. But then as you can imagine, as you head down the stretch you’d like to have some more games at home so that you have that home field advantage. But we don’t worry about that, everything kind of shakes out in the end. We just put a good product on the field and hope for the best in the end. RS-Any change in ticket prices, or are they still the low price they were last year? BN-We’ve actually had to bump the tickets up a couple of bucks. We didn’t change the prices of the ordinary seats. We actually bumped up the seats that are the highest demand. We bumped up the first row, and the next three rows behind that. So the premium seats jumped up simply because of the demand for them, and us trying to generate some more revenue. One of the problems we have had here is that we have had a great response from the community as far as support, but at the same time we have to look at our bottom line. Our revenue is one of the most important factors in running the organization. And we had to figure out a way to generate more revenue, and ‘taxing’ you’d say, those premium seats is the best way to do it. RS-Overall, are you happy with how things are going from the off-field perspective that way? Or is there room for growth this year? BN-Well, there’s always room for growth, Rick. We’ve had a tremendous response to our season ticket packages. They’ve continued to grow, and we hope to grow them this year. We went from 1,000 the first year to 2,000 last year. And we’re hoping to get 3,000-3,500 this year. And that’s one of the most important things is to be able to have those people on a consistent basis. We can’t have the fluctuation of having 7,200 people one game and 3,200 the next. We haven’t had that. I would like to be able to count on the fact that we have a minimum of 3,500 people in that arena every game. And then maybe if the weather dictates – if we got a snowstorm or a rainstorm or thunderstorm or something like that – that always affects your ‘walkup’ at the ticket window. I think on corporate sponsorship we’ve done a marvelous job. We’ve had tremendous support from that. From there, I’d like to see a continued growth in this area as well. The bottom line is we’ve got to cover our bottom line. The eight weeks that we are at home is not enough to cover that bottom line. We’ve got to have other revenue streams, and our corporate sponsors, groups, and group tickets are very important to us. RS-If you don’t mind, if you’ll indulge me, since you’re a former Packer I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask a few questions about the success they’re having this year. What do you think of the Packers and the season they have had so far? BN-Well first off Rick, I don’t think anybody in their right mind, including myself, would have predicted they were going to have the season they’ve had. Many people, including myself, thought that if they were 6-10 or 7-9 or even 8-8, they would have had a very good season. To do what they have done is nothing short of miraculous. I think that Coach McCarthy being shunned for Coach of the Year is appalling. Nobody has done a better job in the NFL than Coach McCarthy this year. And Brett Favre; I just hope people truly appreciate that they’re having the opportunity to watch a living legend. Everybody talks about the Johnny Unitas and the Joe Namath and the names like that, and Brett Favre certainly fits in to that legendary status as those players. And to be able to sit there and say we’re having the opportunity to watch this man is a statement in itself that it’s truly remarkable. Come Sunday afternoon, the NFC Championship game here at Lambeau where it’s going to be – I don’t know – minus 15 (degrees F) maybe…there is no place – and I played in every stadium in the National Football League – and I can tell you I’m not saying this because its bias because it’s where I played – but there is no place like Lambeau Field in the entire NFL, there really isn’t. The f act that the Giants are coming here Sunday for the NFC Championship, I think the Packers have every chance in the world to be headed to the Super Bowl. What a terrific story it is that Brett would have another chance to get back to the Super Bowl when many people thought that was never going to happen again. Kudus go out to them for the season they have had. They’re the second youngest or the youngest team in the NFL, and to have, for the most part, a bunch of no-names…they have Donald Driver and Brett Favre going back to the Pro Bowl, but for the most part, the NFL has kind of pretty much ignored Green Bay this year. Not only from the Pro Bowl, but also from the national spotlight. The Packers never got the respect they deserve. Now to have this game coming up, that a lot of people believe will be a simple trip to the Super Bowl, is remarkable. And I think that come Sunday afternoon, Green Bay will be headed down to Phoenix for the Super Bowl. RS-What do you think the Packers need to win? BN-First and foremost, they have to protect the football. I think that goes without saying in any game you have to protect the ball, and if they turn the ball over more than the Giants do, they’ll lose the game. Secondly, they have to stop the Giants front four on the defensive side of the ball. They’re going to have to give Brett Favre the time to sit back and find his receivers and let those guys run their routes. The Packers receivers led the NFL in yards after the catch. That’s what Brett does. He’ll get these guys the ball on a five yard slant pattern and they turn it into an 80 yard touchdown. Ryan Grant; that last game in itself was remarkable that they overcame two fumbles in the first minute and a half of that game. Ryan Grant has got to have the kind of game he had last week without the turnovers. They need to put those things together, specifically on the offensive side of the ball. I think defensively they’ll match up very well with the Giants. Defensively, they have the chance to dominate the game if they can stop the Giants running game and put pressure on Eli Manning. I don’t think he is a big time quarterback. He proved that. He will make mistakes if the ball is in his hands and he is forced to win the game. I don’t think he is capable of doing that. They have to stop the front four. RS-Any prediction on who is going to win on the AFC side Brian? BN-Rick, I think everybody, including myself, would love to see a rematch of the ’96 Super Bowl. Tom Brady is what many consider the best quarterback in the game today. He is having a playoff run that is scary when you consider that he was 24 of 26 on his passes last week. They’ve got all the receivers and Randy Moss, and all that good stuff. I think it would behoove the National Football League to want the New England Patriots and the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl. I think that would be the most watched football game that there has ever been. RS-If the Packers – or should I say when – the Packers win on Sunday, how will they match up against the Patriots (if the Patriots also win)? BN-I think that’s going to be a very, very challenging game from the standpoint … I think the coaches will be more important than anything. Obviously the players play the game, but how the coaches game plan, especially Bob Sanders and the Packers, how they’re going to game plan to keep Randy Moss under control and not allow any big plays. Then they’ve got that little wide receiver, Welker, how they keep him out of the game. He had nine, ten or eleven grabs last week So, not only do you have to take Moss away, but then you have to consider the other guys as well. And they have an unbelievable running back. That kid is one of the most physical backs I’ve seen in many years carry the football. He really plays with an attitude. Defensively, they’ve got their work cut out from them, if that does in fact, come to fruition. Then on the offensive side of the ball for the Packers…many people think the Patriots head coach is one of the most innovative defensive minds in the game. He will do a lot of things to confuse Brett, if that’s even possible now. To make Brett force some throws and throw the ball up the way he has in the past. If you remember back to that Dallas game this year, it was very uncharacteristic of the Packers this year and their offense to do what they did. It seems the Cowboys totally took them out of their game. And I would assume that’s exactly what Belichick will try to do – try to get them to do things they haven’t done before. To try to confuse them, and make Brett make some throws that he hasn’t made in the past. This year Brett’s done a great job of dinking and dunking, and throwing where his receivers catch it, and allowing the guys to make a play. RS-If the Packers win the Super Bowl, or I should say when the Packers win the Super Bowl, do you see any spillover effect to the Blizzard? BN-I think it will benefit us, because having a couple months off after the Super Bowl, people will still be hungry for football. When you have success like that, there’s no hangover. I think people will be hungry for more football, especially in Green Bay. For us, the good thing is we have been successful on the field. Last year, we lost in our AF2 Conference Championship game. The year before, we played in our super bowl. So we’ve done everything we can do to put a good football team and a good product on the field. People respect that. People in Green Bay want to see a winner. Even should the Packers lose Sunday – and we don’t want to say that – the mere fact that they’ve had the success they’ve had this season, only bodes well for us, and that people will still be hungry for football come March. RS-Thanks Brian!
Green Bay Blizzard 2008
Schedule
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