By Greg Bates
Correspondent
GREEN BAY – On game days, the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame at Lambeau Field is a popular place.
During a typical season, it’s not uncommon for 2,000 visitors to walk through the turnstiles and check out some of the most unique and rarest items in Packers’ history.
But game days this season look much different.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, fans aren’t allowed in the Lambeau Field parking lots, which means fewer fans in the Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame has also scaled down its daily capacity on how many folks can visit.
“We’re allowing about 220 people in the Hall of Fame per day,” said Krissy Zegers, Packers Hall of Fame and Stadium Tour manager. “This number may vary a bit, but this is to keep our capacity under 54 people in the Hall of Fame at one time and to allow people 1 1/2 hours to complete their visit. We’re limited on the total guests we can have visit due to us using a staggered schedule for arrival.”
The Packers shut down their museum along with everything in the stadium’s atrium March 13.
The Hall of Fame didn’t reopen until June 29 and abbreviated stadium tours didn’t start again until Aug. 17.
With such an extended period of being closed, Packers personnel had to come up with unique avenues to keep their fans engaged.
One way was through virtual programming.
“Adding virtual programming was essential for us to maintain a relationship with our guests,” Zegers said. “Like so many other museums, it was a huge pivot to find ways to connect virtually when our focus is often on finding ways to attract visitors in-person.”
By April, the Packers were online with a variety of interactive content that was live and pre-recorded.
On Tuesday afternoons, it offered Packers Hall of Fame Live, hosted by Hall of Fame staff members.
The focus was on different aspects of the museum or stadium tours, including exhibit development, game weekend operation and what it’s like to be a Lambeau Field tour guide.
The live broadcasts on the Packers Hall of Fame Facebook page offered Q&A sessions so fans could get real-time responses to their inquiries.
Wednesdays featured Virtual Art Tours and Thursdays were Packers History Presentation, which was led by Packers Hall of Fame curator Brent Hensel.
Fridays were reserved for Virtual Scavenger Hunt.
“It was like a curator talk where I would focus on some area of history and then talk about it,” Hensel said. “For a while, they were releasing the documentary weekly, so it might hit on a certain period or I talked about the origins of football or how the Packers uniform has changed through the years. Eventually, we got into former players – we had one where we had (former Packers player) Andre Rison and Chris Slade from the Patriots. They got on a call and talked about Super Bowl XXXI – that was neat.”
Facebook Live chats with former players were also popular.
Nick Barnett and Tom Crabtree were joined by sports game day producer Mike McKenna and Packers museum programs assistant Justine Kaempfer.
“We also knew many people were stuck at home and wanted to provide them with an outlet,” Kaempfer said. “For Packers fans, even if we could provide 30 minutes of interesting content, we hoped it would bring some light to the dreariness of quarantine.”
The virtual programs were a hit before opening the Hall of Fame back up at the end of June.
On average, each program registered 52,000 views.
Its high of 68,000 hits was recorded during a live session featuring former players Paul Coffman and Lynn Dickey.
“Virtual programming has allowed us to reach new markets,” Kaempfer said. “Much of our programming before the pandemic was focused on getting fans to the museum and enhancing their experience inside the Hall of Fame. Virtual programming allows us to bring the content to a larger and more diverse audience. Many of our programs during our closure got attention from around the nation and the world.”
Hensel said he believes virtual programming can be an avenue the Packers keep in the mix after life gets back to normal and COVID-19 isn’t a concern.
“We’ve been looking into it,” he said. “We’ve been talking with other sports halls of fame, and it’s something lots of them are expanding upon. It’s a new reality we all face.”
Editor’s note: Greg Bates conducted this interview for Packerland Pride Magazine, another publication in the MMC family.