Each year in Green Bay hundreds of new Packers fans are born.
They are carried home from hospital wrapped in green and gold NFL Packers blankets sucking happily on Packers soothers and fed from Packers baby bottles.
As they grow up they take their first steps wearing little Green Bay Packer football uniforms or cheerleading outfits and they eat breakfast each morning from their Packer cereal bowl.
They will go to school carrying books in their Packer backpacks and drink coffee from a Packer mug.
As an adult, they will purchase shares of Packers' stock on a Packer phone and play golf at the weekend with Packer golf balls while drinking beer from a Packer cooler.
When they die, some will be buried in their Packers replica jerseys -- perhaps autographed by one of the team's players -- cherished throughout a lifetime of unwavering devotion to "the Pack."
But the chances are that one thing this generation of Packers fans will never have is a season ticket to watch the team they worship.
As 2004 began, the waiting list for season tickets offering the pleasure of sitting on Lambeau Field's aluminum benches in biting sub-Arctic temperatures stood at 62,000 names.
When children are born, parents add their names to the list knowing that it might a grandchild who one day finally holds the treasured pass to the Packers' kingdom.
"You never know what the future holds but if things continue the way they are it may take many lifetimes before the people near the bottom of that list get a ticket," said Mark Wagner, the Packers' director of ticketing.
"People come in and sign up newborns knowing they will never have a chance at tickets but their children might.
"We even have newlyweds phone up and say they're planning on having a child and want to put him or her on the list.
"But before you can go on our list the child has to be born and we ask for something in writing for proof."
The team's popularity extends well beyond the Wisconsin borders with season ticket holders in 47 of 50 American states.
Like soccer's Manchester United, baseball's New York Yankees and ice hockey's Toronto Maple Leafs, the Packers have a huge appeal and a fanatical following with supporters scattered across the globe.
Despite the smallest sports television market in the US, the Green Bay franchise and their fans survive in the harshest of climates and economic conditions.
In fact, the Packers, the only publicly owned franchise in the NFL, have not only survived but have flourished, claiming a league record 12 championships, including the first two Super Bowls.
A publicly owned non-profit organization, the Packers have 111,507 shareholders, with no one person allowed to hold more than 200,000 shares.
Attending a Packers game in the January chill is not for the faint of heart yet since 1960 this city with a population of 102,726 has sold out every home game at Lambeau Field.
Until the 1995 season, the Packers also played some home games each season in Milwaukee but Lambeau Field has been refurbished and can now hold up to 72,515 fans.
If the Packers are Green Bay's religion the "Frozen Tundra" of Lambeau Field is the altar at which the "Cheeseheads" worship.
Jutting out of the gently rolling Wisconsin landscape like a red-brick mountain, Lambeau Field opened its gates in 1957. Only two other professional team venues in North America have been in continuous use longer -- Boston's Fenway Park and Chicago's Wrigley Field.
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