The People's Team

On the road back from Thanksgiving, my dad and my sister’s boyfriend Alex were discussing the NBA lockout (which was just resolved yesterday.)

I piped up with something along the lines of: “It’s not like I’m thrilled with people making millions of dollars playing sports. But I’m even less thrilled with owners making hundreds of millions of dollars buying and selling players, blackmailing cities into paying for their stadiums, and letting their teams founder because it’s a bad business decision to invest in them. Why do we need owners anyway? Who decided that national pastimes should be played for profit? I say we revolt! Seize the NBA! Occupy Major League Baseball!”

To which Alex replied, “There is a team run by the people: the Green Bay Packers.”

Turns out the Packers have been publicly owned since 1923, with sales of stock in 1935, 1950 and 1997 to raise money for the team. There are currently over 100,000 stockholders who elect a 45 member board of directors, who elect a 7 member executive committee to run the team. According to the articles of incorporation, any proceeds from selling the Packers would go to charity. So there’s no motivation for the team to leave Green Bay, one of the smallest towns to host a major sports franchise. Not that they’re having trouble selling seats. Every Packers home game since 1960 has been sold out, and the waiting list for tickets is currently 30 years.

Unfortunately, no other cities will have the chance to copy this successful model. The NFL requires all teams to have no more than 32 owners, with one owner holding at least 1/3 of the stock. The Packers got grandfathered in, but all new teams must meet this standard. It’s not clear to me whether other leagues - the NBA, MLB, etc - have similar rules, or whether we could get a people’s baseball or basketball team. But I do know one thing: I have a sudden desire to wear a giant block of cheese on my head.