Green Bay Packers

This blog's content was taken from episode 265, "Should You Become a Green Bay Packers Shareholder?"

You can go check out the whole episode here:

There’s no sports league with more value than the NFL. 

Taking a closer look at the NFL, 30 of the 50 most valuable global sports franchises in the world are NFL teams. Every team has a value north of $3 billion US. While they all are worth a ton of money at the top of the list is the Dallas Cowboys exceeding a valuation above $8Billion US.

None are more fascinating in the business of sports in the NFL than the Green Bay Packers ownership structure. There are 537,000 shareholders, and for the first time in over a decade they actually raised some more capital.

From their press release:

The Green Bay Packers' sixth stock sale, which ended Feb. 25, 2022, was an outstanding success, with the organization adding 176,160 new shareholders.

While exact totals are not yet available, more than 198,000 shares were sold at $300 each during the offering that began on Nov. 16. Including previous offerings, the organization now has more than 537,000 shareholders.

Approximately $65.8 million was raised during the offering, with net proceeds going toward ongoing construction projects at Lambeau Field, including new video boards and concourse upgrades.

It was also said that Canadians purchased roughly 3500 shares as well.  Many fans love being able to claim their affection for the team and own a piece of it. However, I think/hope that people understand that it is a collectible and not an investment. It could potentially serve as a value store, but even that is a stretch, because the shares are not liquid at all, they don’t appreciate, can’t be traded, and don’t pay a dividend. So in essence, it's a gofundme.

A concern that can come up is that the team's marketing and offerings don't always make things very clear to consumers who might think of fomoing into buying stock in the team.

When you have made a purchase you can sell it back to the Packers, but at a steep discount.  As well you can transfer shares to family members, however, no one single owner can own more than 4%.