On a map, there is little reason for Newcastle upon Tyne and Green Bay to feel connected.
One sits in the northeast of England, on the banks of the River Tyne. More than 3,500 miles away, the other is situated along the western shore of Lake Michigan in northeast Wisconsin.
But for two football clubs and the communities that surround them, the similarities are striking.
That shared understanding of football as something more than a game or favorite pastime is what helped bond these two communities together. The connection originated when the NFL paired Packers and Newcastle United fans for a fan exchange, giving supporters from each city the opportunity to experience game day in the other’s home. What began as a chance to see another football culture firsthand quickly revealed something familiar — the passion, pride and sense of community that surrounds each club.
Newcastle has become a natural place for the Packers to bring their international fans together. When the Packers bring a Huddle event to Newcastle next week, UK Packers fans will gather at Shearer’s Sports Bar & Lounge to celebrate football season with live entertainment, prizes and an opportunity to meet Packers legend Antonio Freeman. For two cities, on two separate continents, the gathering and collaboration make perfect sense.
The Newcastle United Foundation sums it up best: “With Green Bay, we are both cities where sport is not entertainment on the edge of civic life but a central organising force of identity and belonging. In both cities, sport acts as a social equaliser and amplifier of place — Newcastle United and the Green Bay Packers transcend results on the pitch or field to become shared reference points for identity, resilience and aspiration.”
In Newcastle, Newcastle United is more than a football club. In Green Bay, the Green Bay Packers are more than a football team. In both places, the relationship between the people and their team surpasses the traditional notion of fandom. It is something deeper, something more difficult to define. It is identity, belonging, pride in where you come from. It is a way of life.
For the Packers, that connection is perhaps best understood through Green Bay itself. The Packers have grown alongside the city for more than a century, becoming intertwined with its history and culture. In a community of just over 100,000 people, the Packers have become a global symbol, though their roots remain unmistakably local. Being from Green Bay and being a Packers fan often feels interchangeable. Sporting the green and gold is not just intuitive, it is innate.
Newcastle shares the same sentiment, where generations of supporters have grown up wearing the club’s iconic black and white stripes. For many Geordies, supporting Newcastle United is not a decision so much as an inheritance, something passed from parent to child and carried forward as part of one’s heritage. In Green Bay, fans are born with green and gold in their blood. In Newcastle, they never change their stripes.
In Green Bay, the celebration begins hours before kickoff. Fans gather around Lambeau Field, where the aromas of bratwurst and beer mingle with the sounds of laughter and excitement. The airplane flyover and singing of “Roll Out the Barrel” are just two of many traditions that create an atmosphere where every Packers home game day feels like a holiday.
In Newcastle, matchday begins in the pubs and spills into the streets before supporters make their way to St. James’ Park where flags fill the stands and songs echo throughout the stadium. Fan-funded flag displays transform the stadium into a sea of black and white.
At the center of both communities is a stadium that stands for so much more than a sports venue. Lambeau Field and St. James’ Park have become gathering places, landmarks and symbols of home. Newcastle United has played at St. James’ Park for more than 140 years. Lambeau Field has remained at the heart of Green Bay for nearly 70. They are, in many ways, highly revered and secular, acting as cathedrals in their respective communities.
And the people who fill them are not passive spectators. Packers fans are shareholders in the only publicly owned major professional sports team in the United States. Newcastle supporters have built traditions of their own, including the massive fan-funded flag displays designed and organized by Wor Flags volunteers. In both places, fans have a tangible stake in the culture surrounding their club.
The relationships between these two cities and their teams are mutually defining. The communities give their teams their character, their traditions and their unmistakable identity. Their teams have become a large part of how these communities view and understand themselves.
The population of the cities can be described, along with each’s industrial roots, as blue-collar histories, full of game-day traditions and the remarkable reach of two clubs that call relatively small markets home. But those truths only tell part of the story. The rest is found in the pride of seeing green and gold fill Lambeau Field or the black and white fill St. James’ Park, in knowing the songs and cheers, carrying forward long-standing traditions and remembering the people who taught generations to love the team in the first place.
For both clubs, football has become so deeply woven into the fabric of the community that separating the two is nearly impossible.
The relationship has continued to flourish, with the Packers and Newcastle United collaborating on several upcoming opportunities to bring their communities together, including flag football programming and fan engagement initiatives. The Packers hold international marketing rights in the United Kingdom through the NFL’s Global Market Program, creating opportunities for the organization to engage with fans throughout the region.
Take part in celebrating football season and join UK Packers fans at Shearer’s Sports Bar & Lounge in Newcastle for the Packers Huddle on 1 October. Festivities will take place from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Fans planning to attend the Huddle are asked to register via this link.