DE PERE, WI (WTAQ) - A sports economist at Saint Norbert College in De Pere said the officiating fiasco in last night’s Packer loss at Seattle is not trivial.

Kevin Quinn said it could end up costing businesses a lot of money – especially if it means that the 1-and-2 Packers don’t make the playoffs in January.

That’s a very real possibility, because both Green Bay losses were against teams in the Packers’ own NFC – and those games get more weight in the tiebreakers that determine playoff berths.

Quinn says a home playoff game brings an extra $8 million to Green Bay’s economy in the form of tickets, concessions, hotels, gas, restaurant meals, and more.

And he says the impact throughout Wisconsin could be much higher, in the forms of travel, team playoff clothing, and food-and-drinks for bars and house parties.

In a big city like Chicago or New York, Quinn says the economic impact of a Packer playoff game is barely a blip-on-the-screen. But Wisconsin’s population is smaller than the Chicago area and New York City, and Quinn says it drives up the impact.

Roundy’s, a Milwaukee food distributor, told federal regulators that the Packers’ playoff loss to the New York Giants last January resulted in a significant decline in its sales-and-earnings from the year before, when the Packers won the Super Bowl.