RealGM

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=793585

Kind of interesting to look at the values of the NFL organizations. Packers 16th highest valued in the #1 smallest market.

Take a gander at who comes in last.

The Los Angeles Vikings.

Looking at that list, I would have thought the Packers would be ranked a little higher. I would think as a franchise they are worth more than the panthers, browns, dolphins and ravens. tampa bay is wort h more because their stadium hosts the outback bowl, USF football games and can be a host to a Super bowl. i would also think the fact the packers have 80,000 people on a waiting list to buy season tickets should be worth something in terms of future continuous cash flow, and revenue generated. the packers are very similar to Notre Dame. they may be located in a small community, but they have a national fan base.

In the market size the Packers are in, even with their nationwide popularity it will be hard for them to ever get into the top ten. Also, I don't know what effect being publically owned as opposed to privately owned has on the value. I'm just happy we never have to worry about the franchise moving or having down years of attendance.

I assume football is similar to basketball, in that selling local tv rights is one of the most lucrative moves that they get to make. The reason the Knicks can always outspend the rest of the NBA is that they get to sell tv ads to a market with tens of millions of viewers.

The Packers sell out their games in the stadium, but the number of tv viewers will always be limited by the population of Wisconsin.

There are no local TV rights in the NFL (except in the preseason). TV rights are all national and split amongst the teams. That's the main reason the Packers can stay financially competitive. Only local radio rights are kept for each team. And radio rights are a small fraction of TV. Certainly larger markets get more in radio revenue than smaller markets but it's not a huge gap.

Interesting. So what makes a small market worth less? Can it be just pricing power for the luxury boxes?

Stadium revenue is a big part of it. Lambeau has done some absolutely mindblowing renovations to the attrium there, but Lambeau is still lacking overall in terms of suite revenue generation compared to the newer stadiums.

I wouldn't change a thing about Lambeau though. Arguably the best stadium in all of sports.

The smallest market in the league at #16? Damn impressive.

if I had a billion dollars, I think i would invest it in lambaeu/packers before i would invest it in a lot of the other franchises. That brings up the question, could the packers ever be sold to some company or private investor? As business deals go, my family has been part of a couple of deals where we sold out to major corporations Standard Oil and tyson foods. The busch family just sold Budwieser. So it's not like a corporate buyout could not take place. So , would it be possible for all the owners of the packers to get together at their annual meeting and agree to be bought out? M y guess is if the packers sold for a billion dollars, the individual share holders would take home a very nice dividend/pay-out for their initial investment. It would be kind of interesting if somebody like bill gates bought the packers.

MajorDad wrote: That brings up the question, could the packers ever be sold to some company or private investor?

According to Packers.com:
"Presently, 112,088 people (representing 4,750,936 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... No shareholder is allowed to own more than 200,000 shares, a safeguard to ensure that no one individual is able to assume control of the club. ...Shares of stock cannot be resold, except back to the team for a fraction of the original price. Limited transfer of shares (ie., to heirs and relatives) is permissible."

If I know how to use a calculator it comes out to about $215 per share.

The shares that were sold for $200 a few years ago have a fraction of the voting rights of "real" shares and can't be sold. Real shares can only be sold back to the team.

From 1997:

They are community owned, having set up a nonprofit corporation that in 1950 sold nearly 4,700 shares for $25 each. The surviving 4,627 shares (owned by about 2,000 stockholders) recently split 1,000 for 1, creating 4.6 million shares, worth 2.5 cents each. The split insured that the existing shareholders would not be trampled in voting by holders of the new 400,000 shares being sold.

so , in reading your two comments , it looks almost impossible for somebody to buy the team. Almost, but not totally impossible. if the team received an offer, it would have to inform its stockholders who would vote on the offer at the annual meeting. The team would then have to buy the individual's shares in order to sell them. An outside buyer could not go directly to the shareholders and buy their holdings.

doing the simple math of making a $1 billion offer for 4.6 million shares, each share holder would be offered about $225 a share. and since the shares just split 1,000 to 1, if you were a stock holder before the split, and held 1 share, you could receive a $225,000 buyout payment for your piece of the packers. Now i ask you, if faced with the decision of keeping the packers a non-profit organization or accepting a $225,000 buyout for your shares, how would you vote?

as for being a small market team, i think you ishould nclude the city of Milwaukee as part of the packer's locality. The packers are always the #1 sports story in the Milwaukee newspapers, and are carried on the Milwaukee radio and TV channels. Their merchandise is sold in Milwaukee's malls. The Packers may play their games in Green Bay, but they are Milwaukee's team as well.

It's no surprise the Vikings are last...they might have the worst stadium lease agreement in professional sports.

Actually no they won't ever be sold. Stockholders can only sell their shares back to the team and if they do that they only receive pennies per share. And if the team were ever sold all the money would go to a charitable foundation.

And:

Based on the original 'Articles of Incorporation for the (then) Green Bay Football Corporation' put into place in 1923, if the Packers franchise was sold, after the payment of all expenses, any remaining funds would go to the Sullivan-Wallen Post of the American Legion in order to build "a proper soldier's memorial." This stipulation was enacted to ensure that the club remained in Green Bay and that there could never be any financial enhancement for the shareholder. The beneficiary was changed from the Sullivan-Wallen Post to the Green Bay Packers Foundation on the basis of a shareholder vote at the November 1997 meeting.

it looks to me like a share holders' vote could change things. The American legion lost out, and now the packers' foundation is the recipient. who is to say the shareholders in the future wouldn't change that to be themselves?

i wonder how many times a shareholder has brought up the idea of being able to sell the packers only to have the motion defeated? I will agree that under the current terms of ownership, the packers will never be sold. but it is possible those terms could change.

a related subject is what is more valuable - a season ticket or packers' stock.