The Green Bay Packers are one of the most storied franchises in the entire NFL. They’re also the only publicly owned one, with over 538,000 fans collectively holding more than 5.2 million shares.
That sets the Packers apart more than any other team in the league. But the question is how much longer that will remain sustainable in the current financial structure of the NFL?
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio presented an idea that would have the Packers moving away from their current model and completely dissolving.
Packers Could Face Drastic Ownership Decision In Future
The idea stems from comments Packers president and CEO Ed Policy made in March about the financial challenges the franchise faces compared to teams with billionaire owners.
Policy acknowledged that other owners have the luxury of selling a small percentage of their teams to raise significant amounts of money without giving up control. If the Packers eventually find themselves unable to keep up financially, Florio believes there is a potential solution.
“Green Bay Packers, Inc. could, in theory, dissolve, with the assets of the corporation sold to an expansion franchise,” Florio wrote. “The proceeds would then go to charity.”
As Florio noted, that possibility is actually addressed in the Packers’ Articles of Incorporation. If Green Bay Packers, Inc. were ever dissolved, its remaining profits and assets would go to the Green Bay Packers Foundation for distribution to community programs and charitable causes.
Of course, it would take an extreme set of circumstances for the Packers to even consider such a move.
“It would be an option utilized as a last-ditch effort, if/when the ‘deep-pocketed owners’ to whom Policy referred become sufficiently rich to spend the Packers into oblivion,” Florio wrote.
Such a move could ultimately allow the Packers to transition from their unique public ownership structure to one with a traditional billionaire owner.
And that might just be what the NFL is hoping for.
NFL Could Have Reason to Welcome Packers Ownership Change
Florio also raised another interesting aspect of the Packers potentially changing their ownership structure: The rest of the NFL might not be against it.
Not only would it bring another billionaire owner into the league, but it would also close one of the few windows the public has into the NFL’s finances.
Because of their public ownership, the Packers release financial information that provides insight into the revenue shared among all 32 teams. That would change under private ownership.
“If the Packers convert from a publicly-owned corporation, the franchise’s books would be sealed shut,” Florio wrote. “There would be no way to know how much money any team makes, and no way to isolate the shared revenue and multiply it by 32 to know more about how much money the league is making.”
None of this means the Packers are preparing to dissolve or abandon an ownership structure that has defined the franchise for more than a century.
But if the current structure ever prevents Green Bay from keeping up financially with the NFL’s billionaire-owned franchises, Florio believes there is at least a path for the Packers to make a drastic change.
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