The Packers are a public company, and there are at least tens of thousands of shareholders, who have a stock certificate to frame and hang on the wall. But reportedly they’ve never issued a dividend, nor increased their average shareholder’s wealth in any way.
But NFL teams almost always make a yearly profit, and the value of the franchise is a huge capital gain. In the case of the Packers, who reaps the profits? Somebody must–or are they sitting on an ocean of cash?
Not all corporations that reap profits issue dividends, in fact many don’t. There are several different things a corporation can do with profits aside from issue a dividend:
-Reinvest in themselves (better/bigger facilities, equipment et cetera, higher pay for key figures etc)
-Invest in other companies
-Make early debt repayments
-Stockpile it and build a war chest
In the case of the Packers I’d guess their profits go to stockpiling of cash and reinvestment. Since there are limits in place in the NFL to make the teams competitive, the Packers can’t just pour it all into on field personnel, but they can upgrade every other aspect of their franchise to increase their revenue even further.
Packer shareholder here (one share, bought during the last stock sale in 1997).
When the team has profits, it either (a) reinvests the profits into the team and facilities (upgrading the locker room, etc.), or (b) stows it away as a reserve fund.
When the team last reported annual income (July 2010), they showed a profit of $9.8 million, down from $20.1 million in the prior year.
The Packers are a non-profit corporation, and as such they won’t ever pay dividends on their shares. They are also not a public company (meaning they’re not publicly traded on a stock exchange). Basically the only thing a share of Packers stock is good for is voting for the board.
