During the month of October, a lot of people (9,786 in 2010) read my blog because of my blog post about possible Halloween costumes. Throughout the rest of the year, my brother is pretty much the only reader. So Dave, this one’s for you. Towards the end of my High School career (not sure exactly when), I did what everyone else in the state of Wisconsin does – I added Dave and I to the Green Bay Packers Season Ticket Waitlist. Ironically, in the days before stubhub and ebay, our Dad had a chance at some Packers tickets while he and our Mom lived in California for a few years. If he found a way to pick them up, today I’d probably be sitting in section 120, row 10. Roughly 30 years later, Dave and I got in on the ground floor of a 70,000 story building (in 2010 more like 83,881 and in 2011 more like 88,595).
Every year, the Packers send Waitlist members a postcard to let you know where you stand on the list. I haven’t always tracked my progress but in wading through facebook posts and old e-mails to Dave about our status, I was able to dig up the following data.
| Year | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
| Season Ticket Waitlist Number | 65,959 | Data unavailable |
64,276 | Data unavailable |
62,556 | 62,139 | 61,656 |
In fitting a linear trendline to this data, I yielded the following: y = -732.13x + 66539. This means two things:
- We’re moving up an average of 732.13 spots each year (less in recent years so unfortunately winning doesn’t help our cause)
- Finding the x-intercept shows that our name will come up in ≈84.2 years
I’ll be sure to update this graph each year for the rest of my life…then pass it on to my grandchildren.
And for the record, I’m one spot ahead of Dave on the list.
[...] expect to see this ever happen again in my lifetime. Perhaps this is like my name coming up in the Green Bay Packers season ticket waiting list (currently 62,139th) and my kids can expect to see it happen in their [...]
Pingback by The history of NCAA Tournament upsets « Putting Out the Vibe — October 28, 2011 @ 2:03 pm
When you get your tickets before me, will you invite me to a few games?
Comment by David K — October 31, 2011 @ 11:06 am
PS – If you factor in the 8,000 seat addition, we’re only 80 years away. If you believe that stadiums will be built to hold 200,000 people by 2040, then we’re only 29 years away.
Comment by David K — October 31, 2011 @ 11:11 am
I read your blog, idiot.
Comment by katie — November 1, 2011 @ 10:02 pm
Thanks for the reminder, Katie. You’ll be happy to know that Rob Loblaw entertained me for hours on Sunday.
Comment by Matthew — November 1, 2011 @ 11:04 pm
How do you find the status of the waiting list? I put my kids names in 30 years ago! Used to get updates, but not now.
Comment by Gail — January 8, 2012 @ 1:38 pm
Gail – Is it possible that your kids’ address has changed? The back of the annual postcard that I receive states, “To ensure your name remains on the list, report any changes to your contact information as they occur. Failure to do so will result in your name being permanently removed from the list.”
Either way, you could call the ticket office at (920) 569-7501 to obtain a status or, if worst comes to worst, you may need to reapply (at #89,000).
Comment by Matthew — January 8, 2012 @ 3:23 pm