Business & Ball: The only team anyone and everyone can own

The Green Bay Packers aren’t owned by a billionaire, it’s a franchise owned by the fans.

Transcript

00:00Ever want to buy a pro sports team, but don't have a few billion dollars laying around?

00:04Well, you can. Sort of.

00:10There are 124 organizations across the four major sports leagues in the U.S.,

00:14and all of them are owned by the ultra-wealthy.

00:17Except for one, the Green Bay Packers.

00:23The Packers are actually a publicly owned corporation with more than 530,000 shareholders

00:27who own a collective 5.2 million shares.

00:30And all of them paid hundreds if not thousands of dollars to own a piece of a team

00:34they'll never receive a dividend check from.

00:36And despite owning a piece of the team, shareholders also get no say in decisions.

00:40That's handled by a board of directors.

00:42And it's not like you can just log into your Robinhood account and buy Packers stock.

00:45The team has held just six stock sales in its history,

00:48most recently in 2022 when aspiring owners forked over $300 a share.

00:53In that sale, the Packers sold nearly 200,000 new shares and raised more than $65 million,

00:59money that was used to pay for upgrades to Lambeau Field.

01:02And to protect the franchise from a single shareholder taking control of the team,

01:05no one can purchase more than 200,000 shares.

01:08So if you've ever dreamed of owning a professional sports franchise, here's your chance.

01:12Just don't expect to hoist the Lombardi Trophy if the Packers win the Super Bowl.

01:15Thank you so much.