I just made my silliest investment ever. No, it’s not more cryptocurrency. I’m now a bona fide shareholder of the Green Bay Packers Professional Football Club.
The Packers opened the sixth public stock offering in their franchise history earlier this week with 300,000 shares available at $300 per share. The $90 million raised will fund improvements at Lambeau Field in the heart of Titletown.
The Packers are unique in professional sports in that they don’t have an owner. They have shareholders who starting in 1923 funded the team’s success as a non-profit organization competing in the for-profit NFL. A team President and Board of Directors govern the team instead of an owner.
With 13 NFL Championships, I guess you can say the unique model works.
The single share of stock I bought carries no equity share of the team and is non-transferable. It is basically an expensive lifetime membership card to a broad ‘booster club’ of other Packer fans. Still, the fancy stock certificate will look great framed on my game room wall.
Shareholders are invited to Lambeau each year to attend an Annual Shareholder’s Meeting where the Board, Management, Coaches, and Players present to the team owners. Shareholders have very limited voting rights. That is, limited to what the Board allows them to vote on.
Many would say that fans are being duped by the Packers into buying a practically worthless certificate, but I’d much rather have my favorite team get occasional, voluntary donations from their fan base than have local government force uninterested taxpayers to pay the bills. Even in Titletown, I’m sure not everyone is a football fan.
To offset the cost of my share (and a frame), I cut my crypto holdings by 0.00605 Bitcoin. It’s the first piece of my crypto stake I’ve ever sold after 1500% appreciation. I figure if I’m going to buy myself ‘fake stock’, I might as well pay for it with my ‘fake money’. 😆
Have you ever made a novelty / affinity investment for the fun of it – with no expectations of ever getting money back?
Image Credit: Green Bay Packers
MrFireStation 
As the saying goes, a sucker is born every minute. I’m no different in that my city government, Pasadena provides a huge subsidy to UCLA and the football game at the Rose Bowl on January 1. Division 1 college sports and professional sports teams drain inordinate funds from society.
Ask St Louis what they think of the Rams. They passed a bond measure years ago to build a new stadium and the fee to move the Rams from Anaheim to St Louis. Then after 10-15 years the team demanded a new stadium and even though the old stadium was still being paid off, the voters decided to fund a new stadium. Then the team was sold and the new owner moved the team to Los Angeles and built a new stadium with his own money
I’m not criticizing your fun play of buying a worthless share, you get enjoyment from it and that is good.
I just find that professional sports is overblown in society. There are some bad actors making gobs of $$$. Just last week a Raider driving drunk with a handgun in his car at 150mph killed someone. I partially paid his salary through my cable tv bill.
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Yes – perhaps everything is “overblown” in society today. Sports, politics, music, holidays, movies, shopping, and restaurants – all are seeking the biggest arenas and spectacle to perform / entertain the biggest audience. With it comes massive production, salaries & egos.
In that atmosphere, I find the small-town Packers, a bit refreshing. No billionaire owner, No billion dollar stadium subsidy, just a non-profit corporation that is run by a board of local people that goes first to the fans – not the taxpayers – for voluntary investments in the franchise.
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I’ve never been a fan of taxpayer-funded stadiums when the primary financial benefit seems to go to wealthy owners who, as Dave pointed out, will leave a city high and dry as soon as a better offer comes along. It’s essentially a race to the bottom to see which city will (or can) prostrate itself more to these owners. Of course, cities always try to justify these outrageous giveaways with the “job creation” excuse when I’m sure that same amount of money could create more jobs and benefit more of its citizens if spent in other ways (e.g. repair roads, bridges, schools, …) or not at all.
The Green Bay model sounds much fairer and more sustainable: let the fans who enjoy the team pay the costs and, in return, have ownership and the assurance that what you’re paying for isn’t going to sneak away when a bigger city decides it wants to steal them.
As for the $300, if having a share of the Packers and being part of that larger community of fans brings you joy, then it sounds like a great “investment” to me!
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Lambeau Field was built in 1957 for $960,000. The vast majority of the expansions and improvements over the years have been paid by shareholders, season ticket packages, and naming rights. The wait list for tickets is currently over 137,000 people, but only about 750 turnover each year. Pretty good deal all around.
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Great investment! It’s bringing you joy, so it’s a steal, and a very cool game room hanger! This former Redskin fan is a closet Packer fan. Brett Favre is one of my favorite all-time players. There is much cool football history and tradition in Green Bay. Unless you are a Viking fan, you can’t help but have some affinity for the Packers!
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Yeah – Brett was a lot of fun to watch. Living in MN, I also cheer for the Vikings, unless they are playing the Pack straight up. Are they close to picking a new name for Washington?
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