GREEN BAY, Wisconsin — It takes a certain kind of Packers fan to close at sunrise outside Lambeau Field months before the team’s season opener. But Tom Rozum is no ordinary fan: He’s a Packers shareholder who last month prepared to attend the team’s annual shareholder meeting, a rite unique to the NFL’s only publicly owned team.
After Bloody Marys with family and friends, Rozum joined more than 8,000 other team shareholders at the stadium on a weekday morning last month to hear the Packers president, general manager and board members discuss the state of the storied franchise.
“We can see where our money is going,” joked Rozum, who lives nearby and circles the stadium every day to get 10,000 steps. “Today you can walk around like you own the place.”
Rozum’s shares and those of the team’s other 539,000 shareholders do not pay dividends and cannot be traded. Your only perks are a chance to buy shareholder-only swag and attending this two-hour annual meeting, which is a mix of dutiful team accounting, a pep rally, and an inside joke.
Though the shares are largely worthless, the shares make fans dream that they have a vote on a team that plays in a league dominated by billionaire team owners. Many fans at the gathering didn’t think of the Packers as America’s Team, as the flashy Dallas Cowboys call themselves, but as Americana’s Team, a franchise that dates back to the days when many NFL teams were based in smaller factory towns and Vince Lombardi championships won by using a brand of smash mouth football that is no longer in vogue.
The reality is that fans’ willingness to pay $300 for a framed certificate helps the Packers compete with teams in far larger cities with well-funded owners who are free to spend on bells and whistles like top-notch facilities to get the best attract free agents and stadiums to attract well-heeled fans.
“It’s like Christmas in July,” said Keith Cox, 50, a new shareholder who drove 15 hours from Clarkesville, Georgia, with his son Jordan, 20, to attend the meeting.
“It’s a privilege to say I own a fraction of the team,” Jordan added.
At the meeting, Mark Murphy, the team’s president, urged shareholders to applaud themselves for raising $65 million in a winter stock sale.
Murphy said the cash windfall will flow towards the more than $200 million being spent on new infrastructure, including larger video boards, hall renovations and a second generator to power everything. “It’s not very sexy, is it? But we need it,” he joked. The players and coaches will also get a new training building with an underground car park.
A guide for investors
The slump in equity and bond markets this year was painful. And it remains difficult to predict what the future will bring.
Because the Packers are publicly owned, the team is required to release annual financials that provide insight into all 32 teams, much to the dismay of all other owners trying to keep prying eyes from getting the details of their fortunes.
And this year the picture is bright. The Packers made a record $579 million in revenue last year, up 56 percent, as fans returned to games after pandemic-related restrictions were lifted.
Nearly 60 percent of that revenue, or $347.3 million, came from the Packers’ share of the league’s growing media and sponsorship deals, which are shared among all 32 clubs. Combined revenues grew 12.3 percent last year and are resilient enough to ensure that any team makes a profit regardless of on-field performance, as their biggest expense — player salaries — fell to just $188 million last year was limited.
The 10-year employment contract the NFL signed with the players’ union in 2020 added a 17th regular season game, another cash flow. New revenue from sports betting partnerships is beginning to flow. The renewal of broadcast rights deals in 2021, worth more than $100 billion over the next decade, has also begun to have an impact.
The financial outlook for professional football is so good that franchise values continue to soar: The Denver Broncos sold for $4.65 billion this year, a record for an American sports team.
“It just seems like a blessed time to be an NFL owner,” said Andrew Brandt, who negotiated player contracts for the Packers from 1999-2008 and now directs the sports rights program at Villanova University. “Not only is the money overwhelming, but so is the length of the deals because when you invest in anything you want security over the long term. So yes, it’s a booming business.”
However, the Packers play in one of the smallest television markets in the league, so the team works harder than most to make money at home. Thanks to fans returning to Lambeau Field, local revenue reached $232 million last year. With money piling up again, the team didn’t have to dip into its $440 million reserve fund.
“It’s sort of our alternative to rich ownership, nothing against rich ownership,” Murphy said.
The Packers aren’t afraid to sell their history for cash they don’t have to share with other teams to fund their own initiatives. Tours of Lambeau Field cost up to $67, and the Pro Shop and 1919 Kitchen & Tap, a stadium bar, are often full. The Packers recently released a four-volume history of the team that retails for $99.
Like many other NFL teams that have developed commercial real estate around their facilities — such as the New England Patriots, the Cowboys and the Los Angeles Rams — the Packers are working with other companies to convert the 45 acres immediately west of the stadium into a residential community and commercial development called Titletown, a nod to the team’s league-leading 13 championships.
When the project is fully completed, the Packers and their partners will have invested $300 million. So far, two-thirds of the 152 apartments have been let, including to some players, and the team have sold around half of the approximately 50 townhouses planned. Almost 80 percent of the office space is rented. The team doesn’t release specific financial numbers, but it said the investments are now profitable.
The offices across from Lambeau Field include some of the nearly two dozen tech startups the team has invested in. The Packers and Microsoft each contributed $5 million to a $25 million fund to create emerging healthcare-focused companies; sports media and entertainment; supply chain technology; construction and agriculture; and the environment, areas that overlap with Wisconsin industries. If the start-ups are taken over or go public, the Packers share in the proceeds.
Craig Dickman, an executive at TitletownTech, the startup incubator, said the Packers “have this unique ability to come together,” referring to the team that has recruited university professors and business mentors to help the new ventures .
One of those companies, Oculogica, has developed a device called EyeBOX that tracks eye movements to help diagnose brain injuries, including concussions. The company, run by sisters Rosina and Uzma Samadani, who grew up near Madison, Wisconsin, has had its EyeBOX cleared by the FDA and is being used by hospitals across the country.
The Samadanis said the Packers see their technology as potential help in treating the concussion crisis that has plagued football and said it has broader applications in emergency rooms, battlefields and elsewhere.
“I don’t know if there is another NFL team that would invest in a concussion diagnostics company,” said Rosina Samadani. “Ultimately, that really says something about the fact that they’re involved in the community and that they haven’t lost sight of what’s really going on in the world.”
This connection to the community convinced Chris and Dodie Kocher to travel from Indianapolis to attend the meeting. They honeymooned in Green Bay in 1979 and still love the team’s sense of home. After their daughter bought them stock this winter, they had to return to Lambeau Field to celebrate.
“It’s a long drive, but it’s worth it,” said Chris.