Packers unveil new stadium logo

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) _ The Green Bay Packers have a new logo for Lambeau Field, where a $295 million redevelopment groundbreaking will take place later this month. <br><br>Replacing the old ``LF''

Thursday, May 3rd 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) _ The Green Bay Packers have a new logo for Lambeau Field, where a $295 million redevelopment groundbreaking will take place later this month.

Replacing the old ``LF'' on signs outside the stadium and elsewhere is an oval logo much like the one with the familiar ``G'' on the Packers' helmets. It is deep green and gold with a ribbon effect on the top and bottom.

Within the ribbons, it reads: ``Lambeau Field _ Since 1957.'' In the center of the oval is the likeness of a leather-helmeted football player from the 1930s.

``This is literally the first step in the redeveloped Lambeau Field,'' team president Bob Harlan said as the logo was introduced Thursday.

Since the redevelopment project began, ``everything we've talked about is retro: save what has gone on in the past, look forward to the future,'' Harlan said. ``Basically, what we're designing in the first retro stadium in the National Football League.''

The refurbishing project on which work began in January keeps the single bowl format instead of adding multiple decks like most new stadiums while also adding modern amenities and expanding the concourses, among other things.

Mark Schmitz of ZD Studios in Madison, who designed the new logo, said the mark ``clearly complements the Packers' `G' and it will serve as a benchmark for the redevelopment of this very special place.''

Harlan said the proliferation of new stadiums across the league means ``most of the places in the National Football League where the history has been made, those places no longer exists. Yet, by saving Lambeau Field and saving the bowl, we've retained our history.''

``It's vitally important to us that this entire stadium, in the time you approach it, you're going to feel a nostalgia and the history that goes with this great franchise,'' he said.

Groundbreaking for the redevelopment is May 19.