Pay $300, and You Can Tell People You're an NFL Owner

Green Bay Packers selling stock in the team again, but buyers get 'bragging rights' only
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 16, 2021 12:30 PM CST
You Can Pretend to Be an NFL Owner for $300
Fans watch a game between the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks Sunday in Green Bay, Wis.   (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

The Green Bay Packers are selling stock in the team starting Tuesday, and interested parties can scoop up a share for $300 through February. The team spells out the details here, but the Wall Street Journal notes the giant asterisk involved. This isn't stock in the traditional sense. The shares have zero financial value and cannot be resold. Nor will these new stock owners get dividends. Instead, they will get only a commemorative stock certificate and "bragging rights," per the Journal. The team aims to sell 300,000 shares as a way of raising $90 million for stadium renovations. It's actually the sixth time in franchise history the Packers have done this, the most recent occurring in 2011.

  • "It is, put simply, a donation," writes Mike Florio at ProFootballTalk. And the certificate becomes the ultimate piece of memorabilia, an official license to say 'we' when referring to victories and defeats."
  • At Yahoo Sports, NFL columnist Charles Robinson calls it "one of the greatest marketing schemes in NFL history." Instead of a stock sale, think of it more as "a $90 million GoFundMe." Robinson also points out that the team posted a record $70 million operating profit last year.
  • The Packers are unique in being the only publicly owned, not-for-profit major pro team in the US, explains Axios. "The NFL allows the Packers to periodically conduct these sales to make up for the absence of a deep-pocketed owner."
(More Green Bay Packers stories.)

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