We don't need individual billionaire corporate owners in football or any professional team sports.

[Better Believe It]

Look at the Green Bay Packers.

It's the only team in any professional sport that is actually owned by the community and run by the community that bears its name.

GREEN BAY PACKERS

Type: Private - Not-for-Profit
On the web: http://www.packers.com
Employees: 252
Employee growth: (6.0%)

On the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field, the Green Bay Packers battle for pride in the National Football League. The not-for-profit corporation owns and operates the storied franchise, which was founded in 1919 by Earl "Curly" Lambeau and joined the NFL in 1921. Home to such icons as Bart Starr, Ray Nitschke, and legendary coach Vince Lombardi, Green Bay boasts a record 12 championship titles, including three Super Bowl victories. The team is also the only community-owned franchise in American professional sports with more than 100,000 shareholders. The shares do not increase in value nor pay dividends, and can only be sold back to the team.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/green-bay-packers#ixzz1DDSjHZHW

The Packers are the only non-profit, community-owned franchise in American professional sports major leagues. Typically, a team is owned by one person, partnership, or corporate entity, i.e., a "team owner." The lack of a dominant owner has been stated as one of the reasons the Green Bay Packers have never been moved from the city of Green Bay, a city of only 102,313 people as of the 2000 census.

Another stock sale occurred late in 1997 and early in 1998. It added 105,989 new shareholders and raised over $24 million, money used for the Lambeau Field redevelopment project. Priced at $200 per share, fans bought 120,010 shares during the 17-week sale, which ended March 16, 1998. As of June 8, 2005, 112,015 people (representing 4,750,934 shares) can lay claim to a franchise ownership interest. Shares of stock include voting rights, but the redemption price is minimal, no dividends are ever paid, the stock cannot appreciate in value (though private sales often exceed the face value of the stock), and stock ownership brings no season ticket privileges. No shareholder may own over 200,000 shares, a safeguard to ensure that no individual can assume control of the club. To run the corporation, a board of directors is elected by the stockholders.

The team's elected president represents the Packers in NFL owners meetings, unless someone else is designated. During his time as coach, Vince Lombardi generally represented the team at league meetings in his role as general manager, except at owners-only meetings, where the team was represented by president Dominic Olejniczak.

Green Bay is the only team with this form of ownership structure in the NFL; such ownership is in direct violation of current league rules, which stipulate a limit of 32 owners of one team and one of those owners having a minimum 30% stake. However, the Packers corporation was grandfathered when the NFL's current ownership policy was established in the 1980s,<21> and are thus exempt. The Packers are also the only American major-league sports franchise to release its financial balance sheet every year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bay_Packers

[msongs]

1. it's entertainment, not sports. nt

[Uzybone]

3. its both

[Monique1]

2. Thank you for posting this

I really appreciate you took the time to give info. I would think as a progressive group we would give a darn but guess not.

[PVnRT]

4. The shares can be sold by individuals to other individuals

However, owning them is really only a bragging thing, since you are correct, there are no dividends.

An interesting note - no one profits if the team is sold. All money received from a sale of the team goes to local charities around Green Bay. That was written in in the 1960's, I believe; previously, all proceeds were designated to go to an American Legion post in the city.