GREEN BAY — There are very few people in the entire world that can say they are owners of a professional sports team. You need to have millions upon millions of dollars to be that fortunate. Unless, you are a Green Bay Packers fan. In that case, it only costs about $300 to be an owner.
On Tuesday, thousands of people bought into the Green Bay Packers to become owners of their favorite team. It was all part of a stock sale by the team to raise funds for stadium improvements. You can buy stock until Feb. 25, 2022.
"It was such a unique opportunity. There's no other like NFL team where this is an opportunity to be able to purchase something like this," Packers fan Kirby Hogan said.
It's important to note, this is not like any other stock you would buy. This stock does not go up in price. There are no dividends. Plus, you can't sell it on the open market either.
The Packers are the only NFL team that is publicly owned. With this stock sale, they hoped to sell about 300,000 shares to raise roughly $90 million. This is in lieu of the team taxing the city of Green Bay to raise the money. That's a sentiment a lot of fans really appreciated about the team.
"We're going to reach out to Packers fans and people who are willing to basically make a donation to the team to fund, you know, stadium improvements," Hogan said.
Fans are okay with making a donation to a team that is worth billions of dollars.
"It's me supporting my team. It's essentially a $300 dollar GoFundMe, but it gives me this sense of camaraderie with the 300,000 other people," Packers fan Matt Matonich said.
Now, they don't have the same type of control that a standard NFL owner would have. These fans can't sign and trade players. However, they do get to vote on who the board members are.
"It's a very special fan relationship I think Packers fans have with the team because nobody else offers this to their fans. So I'm happy to be one small part of it," Packers fan Perri Goldstein said.
If these fans did have that sign and trade kind of power, here are a few things they would do:
"I'd find a way to make sure I've got Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams on this roster as long as they want to be in the NFL," Tim How said.
"I would get the draft in Green Bay. I would do everything possible to get the draft in Green Bay. That would be awesome and huge for the city," Goldstein said.
"If I had real power as an owner - extend Davante Adams contract. That’s what I’d do," Taylor Grant said.
"Personnel wise I'd sign more receivers," Marlon Hanley said.
"I think the first thing I would do is I would increase fan access to everything in Green Bay, in Titletown," Hogan said.
"As a packers owner, I would look into signing Tyler Ervin off the couch. I think he would be an improvement to the special teams, and I would also talk about possibly getting Jamal Williams back with the depleted running back room," Matonich said.
This is just the sixth time ever the team has sold company stock. The other sales were in 1923, 1935, 1950, 1997 and 2011.
