The only publicly traded sports team, my Green Bay Packers, have opened up another stock sale. For a scant $275 I purchased one and now am part owner of an NFL team! Now I can officially say “we” when referencing the team and can be angrier when we don’t win a super bowl every year. Fire the owner! The coach is crap! I demand to be heard!!!
I’m super excited being able to own stock and invite all fellow cheeseheads to join in the fun!
Welcome to the fraternity! I bought a share in the 1997 stock sale, which was done to raise funds for the big renovation of Lambeau. I look at it as my expensive souvenir, as well as my excuse for yelling at the TV when my employees under-perform. 
I have yet to make it back up to GB for the annual shareholders meeting, but I will do so one of these years.
Kudos for joining the only mostly honest operation in pro sports. The others all sponge off the taxpayers way too much. The Packers sponge off their shareholders, which is how it ought to be!
Sir T-Cups, having read your posts on this board for some time, I consider you a good guy and have no gripes with you whatsoever. Therefore, please take the following as I intend it, a wry comment with a gentle elbow to the ribs, rather than as a personal attack.
Congratulations on purchasing a piece of paper that confers no benefits, no actual ownership, and will never appreciate in value. Freely giving hundreds of dollars of your hard-earned money to a multi-million dollar enterprise while expecting nothing in return is something many others, including myself, just could not do.
(seriously, couldn’t they at least auction off some autographed jerseys or something so that you get a material benefit?)
Billions of dollars are given to charity for absolutely no “material benefit” outside of a possible tax break and a good feeling. People buy presents no one will use, spend money on classes for education they’ll never use to make money, travel to foreign lands for nothing more than experience, and do favors for strangers for absolutely no material benefit.
It should be completely obvious that the people in this thread who own stock realize they don’t really have a material benefit, but are willing to spend their money to enjoy the non-material benefits they want, whether it be for bragging rights, a feeling of community, or to support a team that is a big part of their Sundays. Hell, every Sunday people all over the US spend huge money for nothing more than watching football at a stadium and be given the opportunity to cheer in person for a football team. Every NFL team sell non-material feelings, but at the least the Packers aren’t making money off of it unlike the Cowboys, the Bears, or any of the other 31 teams.
Yeah, I just don’t get this “It’s just a worthless piece of paper that will never appreciate in value” mentality. Sure, you can’t sell it. Sure, your one shareholder vote isn’t going to matter much. But people are always spending money on things that have no resale value but make them feel good. Weddings. Vacations. Oldass arthritic pets. How is this any different?
But the Packers let Brett Favre go 
Well he wasn’t making them feel good anymore!
Why can’t you sell the stock? Why does it have no “real” value?
The Green Bay Packers corporate bylaws prevent you from effectively selling stock. You’re allowed to give the stock to an immediately family member as a gift. However, if you intend to sell the stock, the bylaws require you to give written notice of your intent to sell. Once you declare your intent to sell, this triggers a rule that gives the Packers organization the right to buy your shares from you at $25 / share instead of allowing you to proceed with the sale.
Not 25 dollars per share, 2.5 CENTS per share.
Surprisingly, the prospectus is genuinely interesting reading; you are not allowed to buy stock if you are a convicted felon, and once you own a share you are not allowed to purchase any other NFL teams nor bet on NFL games. So now I guess your coworkers can rat you out to Roger Goodell for your Super Bowl pool…
I also notice that you’re not allowed to “publicly criticize any NFL member club or its management, employees or coaches or any football official”. So, no calling the ref an idiot at the games I guess, and no posting “Tony Romo sucks!” on message boards.
Being a shareholder did give me the opportunity to buy my own official Packers Super Bowl Champion ring after they won earlier this year, but I declined.
Shareholder ring
Yeah, I passed on that, too. 
Lol I just spent half of that on the share alone…I don’t really NEED a ring for THAT much money.
Although the 19-0 ring will be tempting
Many people in this country shell out money for some NFL team or another. But most of them don’t get a vote at the shareholders’ meeting, nor even the frameable piece of paper, for their troubles. And they also generally don’t have a choice as to whether they’ll pay-- They’ll support a team whether they like it or not.
This way is much better, and I think it’s absurd that the NFL prohibits any other community-owned teams.
Okay, I’m confused. I knew the Packers were owned by shareholders but I hadn’t known the shares didn’t pay out dividends or appreciate in value. So where do the profits go?
Hell, if I were a Packer fan, I’d buy a share for this alone. It’d be worth every penny to have something to shove in the face of every smug jackass who’s somehow grievously offended by this one colloquial alternate use of a word, despite never blinking an eye when asked, say, whether “we” won WWII. (And for the record, none of them are these guys.)
Since the Chargers aren’t public, though, I just stick with my stock response of “Sorry…by ‘we’, I actually meant the Coalition of People Who Punch Self-Righteous Pedants in the Dick.”
Okay, I don’t say that, but if CPWPSRPD existed, I would totally join.
That explains everything…
Any profits go back into running the Packers. They’ll tap into the profits to do work on the stadium, rehab properties around Lambeau, to cover losses in investments, or any of the myriad of projects an NFL team has to do.
They are also required to report their finances, so if you’re interested, there’s a fair amount of stuff on the internets.