Lambeau Field great place for kids, but maybe not on game day

GREEN BAY – You can take your kids to Lambeau Field 363 days a year. The 10 or so times the Green Bay Packers play football might not top that list.

Lambeau Field, on game day, is designed for people who want to watch football. It is not especially conducive to squirmy toddlers, antsy grade-schoolers or short attention spans. If your kids love the Packers — in the worst case, just love football — or you've got indoor club or suite seats, then your chances of getting through three-plus hours of football are improved.

Cost also is a consideration. Two people attending Sunday night's game against the Bears would pay a minimum of $218 if they are season-tickets holders or $350 for secondary-market tickets. Everyone, no matter their age, must have a ticket. If you eat anything — you are taking a child, so you will visit the concession stand at least once — the cost could increase by another $30 to $50.

That compares with $35 for tickets and parking to a Milwaukee Brewers game at Miller Park. Food and parking could add an extra $50 to $70. A Milwaukee Bucks game could cost as little as $30 for two tickets.

A better alternative to a regular season game may be to take the kids to training camp, Family Night or one of the preseason games. Those games cost much less than regular season, are more geared to kids, and it won't mean as much if you don't watch it all. Or just visit Lambeau any other day (except Christmas and Easter) to play at Titletown District, visit the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame or take a stadium tour.

"While we do see younger fans brought to games by parents and family, we don’t see them in huge numbers," said Aaron Popkey, Packers director of public affairs. "That was part of the concept behind creating Family Night, to have an event that is family-priced and focused on the younger fans with the music that is played, use of video boards, noisemaker handouts and non-football activities. 

"It has been a huge hit, and for the Packers that is a great way to introduce Lambeau Field and Packers football to the younger fans."

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Kid-friendly activities at Lambeau

That said, there are some things for families to do on game day:

• The Packers Hall of Fame is open until kickoff. The Lambeau Field Atrium is open to ticketed fans from six hours before kickoff until after the game, and sometimes has interactive displays. For example, there is a replica Packers locker in the Atrium for photo opportunities.
• Kids can make signs to display at the game at the Kohl's "Show us Your Sign" stations. Posters and material are provided in the lower concourse and the Atrium.
• Kids attending their first Packers game can get a "first game" button at the guest services desk. 
• The American Family Insurance display includes a digital fan wall, where fans can interact with social media sites, and digital face painting, which should appeal to the kids.
• Lifted from the Lambeau Field Live traveling exhibit, the Associated Bank "Interact with the Pack" photo experience is in the Atrium and one of the walkways. It allows fans to have their photos taken with digital representations of Donald Driver, Randall Cobb, David Bakhtiari or Jerry Kramer. Fans receive an autographed photo of themselves with the player they choose.

Those are things that can be done without leaving the stadium. If you leave after the game starts, you cannot get back in.

A before-game activity for the kids could include a trip to the Titletown District, west of the stadium. It includes three football-related playgrounds and a full-size football field. Titletown activities include a timed, 40-yard dash site, football toss game and other games along the activity strip. 

It's not hard to find kid-friendly food at Lambeau. Kids will like pretty much any stadium food, but the Packers have "value-priced" sodas and hot dogs at concession stands in sections 118-I, 121-I, 331, 427, 440 and 750-0.

Lambeau Field also has several nursing stations around the stadium for new mothers and their babies. Guest services will provide access. Family restrooms also can be used by nursing mothers.

If you do take the young ones, you are advised to do so before winter comes. Cold weather games could be hard on kids; they sometimes are on adults.

Sitting on aluminum bleachers with your feet on cement during freezing temperatures gets uncomfortable pretty fast. Then there's the issue of everyone wearing bundles of clothes, which makes space in aforementioned bleachers pretty tight, at least at the beginning of the game. People tend to spread out as the game wears on.

Also, consider having ear protectors for younger children, even during Family Night, which ends with impressive, and loud, fireworks. Even without fireworks, Lambeau gets loud during games.  

That's a fairly long list of caveats, but any look at friends on Facebook who are Packers fans makes it clear that many people do take their offspring to games and have a great time.