Don and Mary Terrien have lived on Valley View Road, adjacent to the south end of Lambeau Field, for 38 years, parking cars on their lawn and getting to know generations of Green Bay Packers season-ticket holders.
So when it came time to sell their property, the Terriens felt the buyer who would be most neighborly to their friends and longtime acquaintances would be, well, their longtime neighbor.
The Terriens recently called the Green Bay Packers with an offer, and they've sold their property at 971 Valley View, a 2-acre plot that includes their house and adjoining vacant lot, to the club.
"It's the right people to own it," said Don Terrien, a sales representative for Klement's Sausage for the past three decades. "They would take care of my neighbors, take care of my reserve parkers, and I needed someone to do that."
Packers Vice President of Administration Jason Wied said the organization will use the property for additional parking, and those with full-season parking spots on the Terriens' plot will be provided a spot either in their current location or another nearby team lot.
The Terriens will continue to live in their house and park cars on their lawn during the 2007 season while their new house is being built. They plan to move sometime next spring.
The move creates mixed feelings for the Terriens because they have loved living in the shadow of Lambeau Field and everything that goes with it. But they have a 2-year-old granddaughter with special needs whom they care for on a regular basis, and they need more of a ranch-style home rather than their current two-story house. They have purchased a 3-acre plot in another area of Ashwaubenon.
Their home has an interesting history to it as well. One of the few nearby homes actually built before Lambeau Field was erected in 1957, it was originally a barn. The Terriens bought it as it was being converted into a home in November of 1969, when Don returned from Vietnam.
They've remodeled extensively over the past three decades, in part with the help of their annual parking revenue, which began at 50 cents per car when they first moved in. They've joked about writing a book about all the parking stories, like the time a new bride got so mad at her husband she threw her wedding ring across the yard. The Terriens found it a couple of days later, but no one ever claimed it.
"There are a lot of people who have been coming here," Don said. "We took care of their grandfathers and they passed these parking spots on down to their grandkids."
Added Mary: "People have put the parking spots in their wills. They've felt like it belonged to them."
Which is why the Terriens didn't want to sell to just anybody. They've been approached by developers over the years inquiring about their land, but they didn't want somebody coming in and changing the character of their neighborhood.
"The Packers took very good care of us and gave us time to move," Don said. "I knew they'd be neighbor-friendly, and they've treated us really well."
The additional parking comes at a good time for the Packers, who will be losing some spaces due to the NFL-mandated security barrier being installed this summer. Wied said the addition of the security barrier has forced the shifting of some disability parking spots in order to keep the same number of ADA stalls in the locations closest to the stadium gates.
{sportsad300}In order to compensate for the regular stalls lost in this process, the Packers have begun leasing additional parking space in an area west of Ridge Road on the west side of the stadium. The addition of the Terriens' lot on the south side is an added bonus.
"The Packers needed additional parking to take care of the generations of fans who have parked on the Lambeau Lot for the last 50 years, and this will really help," Wied said. "This way we can keep our longtime parking guests close to the stadium.
"We appreciated them giving us a call. With the 2003 stadium renovation and the new security barrier taking up many longtime parking stalls, anytime we receive an inquiry from one of our neighbors we'll certainly consider it."
Meanwhile, the Terriens will consider what to do on gamedays beginning in 2008 when they no longer have to park cars. They have eight season tickets within the family, which are rotated through their daughters and their families, and other relatives.
Mary, co-principal along with one of her daughters at St. John Nepomucene School in Little Chute, Wis., said home games for her have always consisted of making a big meal for all the family members, who come to help with parking cars, and then baby-sitting all the young children during the game.
"I've never been to a game in my life, ever," she said. "After this year, 'Grandma' is going to go to a game for the first time."
