Powerball Victor

Powerball victor-Daydreaming about winning the $275 million Powerball jackpot: Priceless.

If someone matches the six numbers needed to claim the Powerball jackpot tonight, they face the challenge of spending their prize — an estimated $135 million lump sum payout.

While the obvious comes to mind — giving money to friends and family, buying houses and traveling — there are some less popular, but uniquely Wisconsin avenues, to play big spender.

The winner might consider carrying on the Wisconsin tradition of dairy farming.

With a lactating dairy herd costing between $2,500 and $3,000 a cow, a winner could buy 45,233 cows — about the same number of dairy cows in all of Manitowoc County, according to state statistics. There are about 1.2 million dairy cows statewide.

A Powerball winner in Northeastern Wisconsin just might be a Green Bay Packers fan. With a jackpot check burning a hole in their pocket or purse, some Green and Gold generosity might set in.

The $135 million jackpot could pay for all the tickets in Lambeau Field — bleachers, club seats and skybox perches — for every fan for every game next season.

While the team would not release specific information, an analysis of the seating diagram and published ticket prices puts a ticket take for the entire stadium at approximately $5.6 million per game.

The lump sum payout also would be enough to cover the Packers $97.6 million player salary payroll for the 2007 season.

A winner could just buy the entire village of Denmark and run it for more than 30 years.

With an assessed value of $96 million and an operating budget of about $1 million a year — a steal, according to village Administrator Gordon Ellis.

"I think that it would be a good investment," Ellis said with a good-natured chuckle. "And it comes with an administrator. For $96 million, I'm for sale. We'll even throw in a clerk.

"Think of all the amenities you'd get. Roads, parks, a well, a wastewater treatment plant. It's a bargain at any price … we're probably undervalued."

If rural living won't cut it, a Powerball winner could buy a large swath of Fox River riverfront property in downtown Green Bay — in the form of condominiums.

Listings for 15 condos in downtown Green Bay range from $97,900 to $659,000, depending on size and view, with an average price just shy of $200,000.

So with $135 million in the checkbook, a winner could buy all the condos on the market right now — 46 times over.

But if property's not the thing, there's always a flashy ride.

With the jackpot cash, a winner could buy a fleet of brand new, top-of-the-line loaded Cadillac Escalades — 2,025 sport utility vehicles to be exact.

Darrell Naze, of Denil Wall Oldsmobile Cadillac on Green Bay's east side, said his dealership sells about 22 loaded Escalades a year.

"You'd have leather, the navigation unit, a sun roof," Naze said. "Loaded at $67,000, then you'd have everything."

For someone with a sweet tooth, the lottery winnings would be quite a boon.

The best of the best at Beerntsen's Candies, 200 N. Broadway, Green Bay, rings in at $15.50 a pound for the award-winning English toffee — with or without nuts.

That means a Powerball winner could afford 8.75 million pounds of the confectioner's best. That would change the production calendar at Beerntsen's, which runs for only nine months out of the year and uses about 21,000 pounds of chocolate during normal operation.

"It's fun to think about," owner Mark Beerntsen said. "I admit, I bought a ticket … didn't win though.

"You could have a lot of fun with it … but you could also do a lot of good with it."

Doing something nice could include buying lunch for schoolchildren or paying the wages for a bunch of teachers.

Actually, today's lump sum jackpot would be enough money to buy lunch for all the kids in the Howard-Suamico School District for 61 years, according to Stephanie Eilers, accounting and auditing supervisor for the district. Their school lunch program costs the district about $2.2 million annually.

Or if someone wanted to be a bigger spender, they could make the district's payroll — about $36 million a year — for three years with enough money left over to buy the kids lunch for a dozen years.

Powerball victor