By Ben Rodgers
Staff Writer
ASHWAUBENON – To mark 25 years in business Stadium View Bar & Grille will do what it does best – put on a giant party.
“We just try to pride ourselves in putting on the best party we can possibly do,” said Ronda Konschake, manager and 25-year Stadium View employee. “We’re always pushing ourselves to bring something new or exciting. Whatever our guests want is what we keep putting out there for them.”
Normally on any given game day Stadium View plays host to nearly 10,000 people getting ready to cheer on the Packers who play just a stone’s throw from the bar.
The anticipated guest list for the birthday bash will be somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 patrons and former employees.
“We’re really excited to watch 25 years of amazing guests and employees come back together,” Konschake said. “Those are the people that made this what it is.”
No party would be complete without music and Stadium View brought back iconic Green Bay band Shaker and the Egg.
“They’re an incredible band, somewhat of an icon for the area. We feel it’s a good fit with us being somewhat of an icon for the area as well,” said Bob Watson, president of Stadium View. “It should make for a great evening of friends and family and fun.”
When Stadium View first opened 25 years ago it was all about family and since then little has changed.
“It’s incredible, when my parents started the business it was the hope that they would make it for two years and after that two years they would sell it,” Watson said. “Then they were doing so well there was no way they could sell, and we have taken things over, and now we’re doing so well.
“There’s so many days when you question what you’re doing with the time away from family, but everything in the long run has been a positive experience between the people we’ve met, the family we’ve now created with all of our staff and customers and the opportunities that have come about over the last 25 years,” he said.
Watson met his wife Amanda at the bar. Now they have a 9-year-old son and a 6-year old daughter.
“In 25 years I’m hoping they will be in my position currently,” Watson said.
Watson’s father Jerry Watson started the bar 25 years ago, after stints as an English teacher and truck driver.
His wife Diane, who passed away six years ago, was there by his side through all of it.
“(Stadium View would) not even be close to what it is,” Jerry said. “It wouldn’t be the same. She definitely ran the place as well as anybody ever could.”
Looking back, he is happy on the success they had as a couple and happy Diane was able to share it with him.
“I had as good a marriage as anybody on this planet ever did,” Jerry said. “You never quit loving, but you keep on living.”
After a few national awards, renovations, and major additions he still has the same rule as when the bar first opened.
“We only had one rule there. The rule was don’t get the blonde mad, and we still have the same rule because my daughter-in-law is blonde,” he said.
When the bar first opened things were different, and things will change in the future as well.
“The whole place has changed so much over 25 years,” Jerry said. “Twenty five years from now it won’t look the same as it does today. I couldn’t have had a better 25 years if I wrote the script myself.”
As for the next 25 years, a new arena and convention center is a possibility, and businesses will come and go, but two things should remain a constant, Stadium View and the team down the block, the Green Bay Packers.
Stadium View’s 25th Anniversary Bash starts at 3 p.m., this Saturday with turn-back-the-clock drink specials.
Shaker and the Egg will play from 6 to 10 p.m. and a DJ will start inside at 9 p.m.