Scott's Packers Family Night Rant

I just need a place to vent at all the stupidity I'm seeing in the local media about the "Disaster" that was Packers Family Night last night. I know this is no one here, but please bear with me.

For those who don't know, for several years the Packers have held a team practice/scrimmage inside Lambeau Field called Packers Family Night. It's a fun night where people pay $10 or so to get into Lambeau, watch the Packers on the field, and have a fun night. The atmosphere is very game like. Some player's jerseys are given away after the practice is over, and there are fireworks. The show is produced by the TV station I work for, and broadcast all across Wisconsin and has also been shown on NFL Network.

The last few years, we've had absolutely terrible luck with rain. in 2008, the Packers ran a shortened practice after it had rained for about 15 mintutes during pre-game ceremonies. in 2009, the practice was entirely rained out, but everything that wasn't football went on as planned. 2010 went okay.

Last night, was another story. There was no rain in the forcast until about 4:30 last night (we were going on the air at 6:30) At that time, a strong thunderstorm formed in western Wisconsin and was heading our way, but could miss us...it didn't. The Packers saw it coming and sent the players out onto the field to warm up early, then went straight into scrimmaging with no pre-game style introductions. Unfortunately, they were only able to play for about 15 minutes when it was determined that the seats needed to be cleared for everyone's safety (Metal bleachers/lightning don't mix) The storm was predicted to blow through in about 15 minutes, but then decided to park itself over Green Bay for the next hour and a half. Eventually it was decided to let people back into the stadium and shoot off the fireworks.

Every year, people complain about not getting their money's worth, how the broadcast is crap, and so on and so forth. I understand thier complaints, but just once I wish they would look at things from our side.

We can't control the weather, and it is unpredictable. If we could control the weather, we wouldn't be having this conversation. The Packers aren't goign to risk injuring playing in the rain if they don't have to. I'm sure you'd love to see them play, but I'm sure you'd also love to not see Aaron Rodgers get concussed in a practice because he slipped on wet grass landed awkwardly.

To the person who complained that the broadcast looked amateurish and such. We were scrambling once it started raining. Most of our equipment was soaked and unusable, and the only place we had to go was in the Packers entrance tunnel. We were prepared this year and had lights. Also, we are contractually obligated by sponsors who are paying us to play their commercials to fill time until 10:00PM. We are sorry that we have to put "Filler and fluff" on the air. We really don't want to, but it's either that or you get to watch an hour and half of rain falling on Lambeau Field. I know that we were trying our hardest to get players to interview, but we can't force them to cooperate.

I understand the disappointment in coming to see the Packers play and not being able to. But know that everything possible was done to make sure that there was something left to enjoy. And that we can't control the weather.

People tend to complain about things they just don't understand, or are ignorant enough to think they know what they're talking about (I work in this field, so I'm very familiar with it).

You see this all the time with gamers, wrestling fans, and sports fans alike. People like to rag on local broadcasting, which isn't very fair. Sucks to hear you guys had to deal with that as well as the rain all over again. I was there for the 09 family night when it was rained out. It sucked, but we didn't blame the crews.

I thought it was hilarious/awesome that the Packers held a friggin' press conference to apologize for cancelling a family night scrimmage, in fact. It really shows how no other NFL team's fan base even comes close to comparing to Green Bay. Nothing like it. If I'm not mistaken, Dallas tried holding their own scrimmage/family night, and it was unsuccessful.

mikesuszek wrote:People tend to complain about things they just don't understand, or are ignorant enough to think they know what they're talking about (I work in this field, so I'm very familiar with it).

You see this all the time with gamers, wrestling fans, and sports fans alike. People like to rag on local broadcasting, which isn't very fair. Sucks to hear you guys had to deal with that as well as the rain all over again. I was there for the 09 family night when it was rained out. It sucked, but we didn't blame the crews.

I thought it was hilarious/awesome that the Packers held a friggin' press conference to apologize for cancelling a family night scrimmage, in fact. It really shows how no other NFL team's fan base even comes close to comparing to Green Bay. Nothing like it. If I'm not mistaken, Dallas tried holding their own scrimmage/family night, and it was unsuccessful.

I'm a die hard Packers fan and didn't realize the scrutiny. Interesting. I live in SF, and didn't hear much about that, aside from the weather hitting gamenight again.

The Bears also planned a similar scrimmage, they cancelled it because the field was trashed. They still held all the other events.