July 29, 2013 at 3:05 p.m.
Shoutouts & Callouts
Shareholders meeting, NASCAR race at Eldora did not disappoint
Shoutouts & Callouts
For all the complaining and venting I did last week in this column, last Wednesday turned out to be a very good day that I wanted to share with you.
For starters, I had the opportunity to travel down to Green Bay to fulfill my duties as a card-carrying owner of the Green Bay Packers.
I wasn't alone. Roughly 13,000 of my fellow owners turned out at Lambeau Field for the annual Packers Shareholders' meeting.
I've only had my share since 2011 and was not able to attend the meeting last year. So I went in really not knowing what to expect from my first shareholders meeting.
Overall, I'd say it was worth the trip and the day away from the office. At the end of the day, you can only make sales figures, mission statements and annual budgets so exciting - and that's pretty much what was covered at the meeting - but the atmosphere and the scenery made up for it.
Packers' general manager Ted Thompson took to the podium early in the meeting to discuss football-related topics.
I think Thompson's speech to us was longer than the total time he's spent talking to the media in his nine years in Green Bay. Understated as usual, Thompson called the offseason "productive," and said the team "lost some good Packers."
The other quote that Thompson said that stuck out to me was, "It will be the veterans who determine our success."
Given the Packers worked hard this offseason to sign Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews to lucrative contract extensions, they will be expected to continue to perform.
But, that also means others have to step up. This includes the reshuffled offensive line, a secondary that has been much maligned over the last two seasons and kicker Mason Crosby, who struggled mightly last year.
Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy then highlighted some of the accomplishments off the field.
It speaks volumes about the passion of Packers fans that the NFL's smallest market is No. 1 in TV ratings, No. 1 in fan experience and No. 3 in stadium capacity. The newly renovated south end zone gives Lambeau Field an official capacity of 80,750.
Murphy stressed in order to keep the ball rolling, the experience at Lambeau Field must exceed the experience fans get by watching the Packers at home.
A big part of that is putting a winner on the field, which the Packers have consistently done over the last two decades. But there are plenty of little things, such as Wi-Fi and better mobile connectivity as fans share photos of their game experience on social media or make last-minute changes to their fantasy football lineups.
I cannot compare the stadium experience at Lambeau to any other NFL stadium, but I can compare it to Camp Randall Stadium, Miller Park and the BMO Harris (Bradley) Center. Given those four Wisconsin sporting venues, I'll take Lambeau Field every day and twice on Sunday.
I've been in Lambeau several times but I still smile like a 7-year-old with a new bicycle every time I walk through the tunnel from the concourse into the stadium bowl. It always amazes me how close and intimate everything feels compared to watching on TV. You can see the history but moreover you can feel it. That alone makes any trip to Lambeau worth it.
The scene inside Lambeau was a little foreign Wednesday. There were no lines on the field yet and staring out into thousands of empty seats on the north, south and west sides of the bowl was a little bizarre. But as I peered over either shoulder from my second row seat, I saw an east end of the stadium that was as packed as any Packers game day. It was also cool to see Packer great Dave Robinson - who will be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame Saturday - sitting among the shareholders.
The highlight of the day for me was the self-guided tour of the North Loft and the remodeled south end zone. The views are simply awesome. The club level seats in the south end zone are wonderfully done. The sightlines are amazing - even at the top row of the 700 level. I trekked all the way up to the top and if you like getting the broad view of the action - what all 22 players on the field are doing - it is a perfect spot. There is not a bad seat at Lambeau Field. That was true before the renovations and it's still true now.
One helpful hint I will give to Northwoods Packer fans preparing for a trip to Lambeau this year, give yourself extra time. Wisconsin 29 is under construction near the U.S. 41 interchange. Packerland Drive is also part of the construction. Traffic was not too bad at the shareholders meeting, but I could easily see extra congestion on game days.
At the end of the day, I was glad I made the decision to head down to the meeting. It's not an event I would go to every year, but it was worth the trip, especially for those who do not have the opportunity to visit Lambeau Field on a regular basis.
Shoutout: NASCAR at Eldora was epic
I got home Wednesday evening, dug into some buffalo wings and a pop, and settled into watch something no one had seen in 43 years.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series was running on the dirt at famed Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio and the show was everything a race fan could have hoped for.
NASCAR's top series have run strictly on asphalt since 1970, so running on Eldora's clay surface was a great unknown to most of the competitors. Some NASCAR drivers who moonlight as dirt track drivers - Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson, Ryan Newman, Ken Schrader - had the most success. The cars were out of control, on the brink of crashing every lap, but there was only one major wreck in the entire 150-lap feature. There were three, four and sometimes five-wide passes for position, and because the track was only 1/2-mile long, the leaders could not run away and hide for long.
I was naturally intrigued by the concept of running the trucks on dirt. I've been a NASCAR fan since the age of six and have called races at the local dirt track for 11 years. How would these two forms of auto racing converge? That's the question everyone wanted answered and the answer was spectacular.
That being said, I want to urge caution to those NASCAR fans that say that the number of dirt races needs to dramatically increase and that it's time for NASCAR's top two series to sling some mud. Part of what made Wednesday's Mudsummer Classic special was the novelty of NASCAR trucks running on dirt. If there are more dirt races, and more series that run on dirt, the uniqueness of the event wares off.
NASCAR has done well the last two years trying to create a separate identity for its third-tier series. Bringing the trucks to Rockingham Speedway was a great step last year. "The Rock" used to be a twice-a-year stop for the Sprint Cup Series, until it outgrew the 1-mile speedway with the tire-chewing asphalt in the sandhills of North Carolina. Moving the series to Eldora was another masterstroke.
Instead of begging NASCAR for more dirt races, I hope this encourages fans to explore other forms of racing. There are three dirt short tracks with in 40 minutes of Rhinelander. Having called races at all three, I can tell you while the types of automobile that race in Eagle River, Tomahawk and Three Lakes are similar, the unique characteristics of each track make all three venues wonderful places to watch races. In general, car counts are down from what they used to be as the economy and high gas prices take a toll on the local racers just as much as their big-time brethren. But hopefully events like Wednesday's night's in an Ohio small town can spark a short-track renaissance.
For local kids who constantly complain that there is nothing to do, I could name plenty activities less exciting (and less constructive) than taking in a stock car race on a small town summer night.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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