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September 7, 2026
GREEN BAY – A perfect 10-0 home record and an Eastern Conference Championship weren’t enough for the Green Bay Blizzard.
Director of Sales Ryan Hopson said the team recently added another honor: IFL Franchise of the Year.
“[It’s] a testament to what this has become,” he said. “It’s unheard of. Three of the past four seasons we’ve been franchise of the year. To be on the run we are on [from] a football perspective is incredible, too.”
This season, Hopson said the Blizzard team earned back-to-back Eastern Conference Championships, Assistant Coach of the Year, Special Teams Player of the Year and IFL MVP awards.
“Back-to-back [IFL] MVPs have come out of the Blizzard roster,” he said. “We faced our former MVP, Max Meylor, on the other side of the field for Arizona, and [our quarterback this season], Liam Thompson, received that recognition from the league this year as the MVP. Then, Andrew Mevis was the IFL Special Teams Player of the Year, and Offensive Coordinator Matt Behrendt, two times in a row, has been Assistant Coach of the Year.”
As the competition “only gets better” with the IFL’s increased popularity over the years, Hopson said he hopes this is “only the beginning” for the Blizzard.
“We continue to hope we’ll stay on the mountaintop, but what a ride,” he said.
Shenanigans, on and off the field
Compared to what the team was roughly 14 years ago when current owners Larry and Kathy Treankler bought the franchise, Hopson said the Blizzard has evolved to be a community staple supported by local families and businesses.
“The [IFL] took an incredible leap of faith and a huge gamble this year, bringing national broadcasts and production companies into everybody’s buildings,” he said. “[But] we got to share [our] story… on a larger platform with some huge name broadcasters in sports who [then] got to experience that Eastern Conference Championship game at the Resch [Center].”
Though the Blizzard ultimately lost the IFL Championship game against the Arizona Rattlers, Hopson said the teams helped give “a storybook ending” to what was an incredible season for the league overall.
“Two of the most historic indoor football franchises – the Blizzard and the Rattlers – slugging it out,” he said. “I think that’s just a testament to both [the Rattlers’] incredible football program and what they mean to that area in Arizona, and then what [the Blizzard] has become to our community.”
After the game, Hopson said other IFL coaches continued to assure the Blizzard’s staff that where they are is miles ahead of where they’ve been.
“[They] said all the cliché make-you-feel-better sentences, but the sentence they followed up with that mattered was, ‘Remember what this used to be when Larry and Kathy bought this thing in 2012?’” he said. “In my first season in ’13, we were averaging 1,100-1,200 [attendees] a game and trying to figure out what this should and could be in the community.”
Now, nearly 15 years later, Hopson said the Blizzard has become a key establishment of the Greater Green Bay area – providing quality, local, affordable family fun to households across the Northeast region.
“I’ve said it in other interviews in [the last] 13 years, there was a point in time early in my career and Larry and Kathy’s ownership where I’m not sure we should have kept going,” he said. “We were repairing a lot of damage in the community, and now we would leave a pretty big void if it weren’t here [because it’s] something affordable that makes a difference and a great night out for families.”
An example of that, Hopsons said, was the Blizzard’s Eastern Conference Championship game at home, where the team was both supporting the community and being supported by it.
“We highlighted, drove awareness and supported Menasha [following the July 27 tornado],” he said. “But, man, that moment [during] the Eastern Conference Championship game at the Resch where you couldn’t hear [over the crowd’s cheering], it is pretty insane to look back.”
Hopson said he and the Treanklers are not the kind of people to take their fans’ attendance for granted – also recognizing their athletes’ performances are what drives a good game-watching experience.
“Asking somebody to come to an indoor football game in June if you’re 1-11 is a lot different than asking them to come and give up cabin time if you’re playoff relevant,” he said. “What we do is not possible without the young men who duke it out on the field, and kudos to Coach [Corey] Roberson and his staff who have made on-field match the shenanigans we do in the community.”
‘Keep fun affordable’
As the Blizzard decompress from its 2026 season, Hopson said plans are already being made to ensure the franchise can continue to provide an award-winning experience for its fans next year.
However, he said that isn’t possible without the support of local businesses.
“I’d like to thank all the corporate partners that make this possible, and encourage new ones,” he said. “Be part of something special here, because it is way less about throwing logos on stuff and more about keeping this around.”
When a business sponsors the Blizzard, Hopson said the investment doesn’t die with the team – it resonates throughout the communities they operate in.
“Besides attracting people, they do this because… they’re also helping us not charge a school parent $40 for their ticket,” he said. “When you sponsor the Blizzard, you keep fun affordable in Green Bay.”
