Green Bay bars are looking to expand their liquor licenses in order to accommodate larger crowds during the NFL Draft. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The City of Green Bay says they expect to receive more applications from local bars and businesses to temporarily expand their liquor licenses for the week of the 2025 NFL Draft.
Some businesses, like the Sardine Can in downtown Green Bay, have already gone through the approval process, which requires businesses to fill out an application, then go before the protection and policy committee, and then the full city council.
When the NFL draft arrives in Titletown, bringing along hundreds of thousands of visitors, businesses like the Sardine Can are expecting to be busy.
“I’ll answer it this way, I think it’ll be the busiest in consecutive days,” says Brian ‘Bunk’ Bunkelman, the owner of the Sardine Can. “Obviously, there’s a point in time where you’re at capacity, you can only serve so many people from that perspective. But I think from the standpoint of how do you do that Thursday, Friday, Saturday and beyond, that’s stacking together very large days — five, six days in a row.”
Bunk has co-owned the bar for the last 20 years. He says he was excited when he found out the draft was coming to Green Bay.
“Excited, exuberant!” he says. “Then immediately, my partner Chris and I went into planning mode of what can we do and how do we set ourselves up to win — not only to do very well from the standpoint of people coming in, but also that people come in and have a lot of fun.”
We’ve heard horror stories from Detroit and Kansas City and other places where it was tough to serve them, tough to move them around.
While the Sardine Can already has up to five bar tops, part of that previously mentioned planning process, Bunk says, was getting approval from the city to expand even further: into their parking lot for the week of the draft.
It’s something they do for other big local events, too, like the farmer’s market.
“This is what the council has already approved,” Bunk says while showing off his back parking lot. “We can go all the way to the alley, the alley to the sidewalk, the sidewalk to the curb. So this is fully approved for sales and consumption of alcohol, it just extends our liquor license from inside.”
While it is about taking advantage of the crowds, Bunk says it’s also about accommodating those visitors and giving them a memorable experience.
“Obviously, the NFL Draft is huge for a week. How do we expand that footprint and give more people a chance to have a lot of fun, hear some great music and party hard?” he says.
Not only is it good for business, but it’s good for his employees, too.
This is obviously a win for them. It’s extra cash, extra money, it’s a lot of extra shifts in April when necessarily we wouldn’t be as busy in any other year.
City officials haven’t said just how many businesses have already applied to expand their premises and liquor licenses for the draft, but they say they expect to see many more applications in the new year.
Businesses looking to apply for an expansion can do so by visiting the City of Green Bay website. The Greater Green Bay Chamber also has a 2025 Draft Business Resource Kits for local businesses to read and reference.
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