Packers agree to financial terms of new Lambeau Field lease

The Packers are synonymous with Green Bay. And Green Bay is synonymous with the Packers.

That doesn’t mean the two parties always agree on everything.

The team and the city have been working on a new lease. After the city rejected three prior proposals by the Packers, they finally accepted the terms on Wednesday.

The team’s offer to meet the city’s demands came with tough talk.

“This process has become untenable, as the Packers have already invested four years in discussions and submitted three proposals without receiving a single counter proposal,” the team said in a statement, via the Green Bay Press Gazette. “If this extension as proposed is unacceptable, the Packers will not engage in further discussions.”

Before the Packers made that offer, the 12-member Green Bay City Council conducted a press conference during which they explained their position on the team’s prior offers.

“That’s football and this is business,” City Council president Brian Johnson said. “We need to learn how to separate football from business. We understand why an extended lease is desired by the Packers. They want to make substantial investments in the stadium and they want to ensure that they have long-term control and that a future council doesn’t raise the rent after they made those investments. We think that is a very smart business decision on their part.”

The Packers will be investing $1.5 billion in the stadium. The 30-year lease starts with annual rent of $1 million, with a 2.75 percent annual escalator.

The fact that the city and the team were squabbling seems odd, given that there’s no way the Packers — who are publicly owned — would ever leave town. So they needed to work something out, eventually and inevitably.

It looks like they have.