Investigations
NFL owners opened private equity stakes Green Bay Packers could not sell
Owners voted 31 to 1 in 2024 while the league's only community-owned franchise must keep selling fan stock.
In Green Bay, Wisconsin, the Green Bay Packers remain the only National Football League franchise without a billionaire controlling owner, with more than half a million people holding nontradeable shares in Green Bay Packers Inc. More Perfect Union reported from Lambeau Field and shareholder neighborhoods as league rules began steering cash toward every other club.
The team dates to 1919, when Curly Lambeau persuaded a local meatpacking company to sponsor a squad. After near-bankruptcy in 1922, businessmen sold stock to residents, and the nonprofit model survived even as wealthy families bought most other franchises. In 1960 the league banned public ownership structures for new teams but grandfathered the Packers. Thomas Nelson, a county executive who wrote a history of the club, said the rule recognized that fan ownership worked too well to replicate.
Shareholder Paul Hillen bought a house across the street from the stadium so his family could tailgate about ten days a year. He and his four children each hold shares that confer no dividend and no relocation vote, only bragging rights and the knowledge that proceeds fund operations.
Former Packers vice president Andrew Brandt said the nonprofit structure forced annual public financial disclosures rare in a league built on secrecy. Rival executives could infer league-wide trends from Green Bay's books, and Brandt said he felt scrutinized compared with peers who kept finances private.
For the first time in a nonpandemic year since 1990, the Packers lost money on football operations, though a leaguewide payout from the NFL Network sale to ESPN kept the corporation profitable overall. Packers president Ed Policy said the club lacks private equity, a billionaire backer, and a taxpayer-funded stadium like several competitors.
In August 2024, NFL owners voted to let approved funds buy passive stakes of up to 10 percent in individual teams. The Cincinnati Bengals cast the lone dissenting vote. Each approved team can raise hundreds of millions overnight, roughly nine hundred million dollars at average valuations, while the Packers cannot carve out similar slices because their stock sales are gifts to the team, not minority stakes in a for-profit holding company.
Six franchises had already announced private equity partners by the time reporters visited Wisconsin. Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross sold a ten percent interest to Ares Management for a stake valued around eight hundred million dollars, an infusion Policy said exceeded the Packers' entire corporate reserve fund built over thirty years.
The policy the league ratified limits each fund to six clubs, sets a minimum hold period of six years, and bars voting power for institutional investors. Buffalo Bills fans saw ticket prices jump after that team sold a ten percent stake. Policy said Packers leadership still prioritized winning, keeping the franchise in Green Bay, and community investment, even as other owners tapped new capital markets the Packers are structurally barred from joining.
Source video: We Investigated The Only NFL Team Without A Billionaire Owner