Green Bay Packers Ride Wave of Success on Business Front

These continue to be heady days for the Green Bay Packers.  Super Bowl champs.  Sold out Lambeau.  The star appeal of players like Clay Matthews and Aaron Rodgers on national media campaigns.  Heck, they even had their Hall of Fame coach featured in a Broadway play last year.  Anyone rushing out to see “Parcells,” or even “LaRussa”? Nope.  So what else can the Pack do for an encore just a little over a quarter of the way into the NFL season?

How about another magazine cover, a first, and one with a unique twist.  This weekend, Bloomberg Businessweek will put forth their first annual sports issue, and adorning the cover is…yes the publicly owned Green Bay Packers. 

OK, what’s different about that? 

Well, how about team president Mark Murphy doing the “Lambeau Leap” as the cover?  No one expects Jerry Jones to be hanging from his precious scoreboard, or Woody Johnson parachuting into Met Life Stadium.  However it seems pretty natural for Murphy, the low key, Georgetown Law School educated, former Redskins All-Pro, to be mixing it up with the fans, doesn’t it?  After all the Packers are community owned, right?

“They are a historic anomaly,” said Karl Greenfield, who authored the piece for Businessweek.

“Mark doesn’t come from an entrepreneurial business background. He was the former Athletic Director at Northwestern and Colgate, and he joined a team of very smart business minds who happened to be owned by the fans, it’s unlike anything else in sports.”

Greenfield spent a few weeks in Packer land, watching how the most unique relationship in sports business works, and came away even more impressed than he was going in.

“It’s a different place, because of the ownership structure not every decision is based just on growing a profit,” he added. “It is certainly a business, but you get the feeling that they think more about how decisions can impact the fans than most other franchises, where owners are much more concerned about turning the biggest profit.” 

Case in point are ticket prices, which rose slightly following the Super Bowl win, but still remain among the lowest in the NFL. 

“One of Mark’s biggest decisions was on season ticket prices, and it was clear that the loyalty of the fans, and who the fans are and what they do in the community, enters into his decisions more than other places.  It is certainly not a socialist collective, but it is a place where the impact on the community may take a little more precedence than it does in places like Dallas or Washington.”

A change in the governance rules by the NFL makes the Packer ownership situation unique in sports, and one that may never be put in place again.  That is certainly part of the charm, Greenfield added.

“You look at Lambeau Field, and the lack of signage and the lack of a naming rights deal,” he said.  “That is because of community ownership.  The loyalty of the fans is unlike anywhere else and the team realizes it doesn’t have to overhype or over monetize to be a success right now as a business.”

Greenfield added that the type of community ownership, even if it could exist today, would be next to impossible to monetize.  “The stock can’t be sold and there’s no dividend for shareholders, so to re-start such a program would be impossible today.  You would need billions from investors with no upside for them, and the investment world doesn’t function in that way.”

What does function is the Packers system. One based on traditions born from Curly Lambeau through Vince Lombardi, Mike Holmgren and now Mike McCarthy.  One where community is important, roles are taken very seriously and winning is important but not the only thing.  The legacy of being a Packer remains very special, and it achieves legendary status when the Super Bowl trophy of its greatest coach comes home to roost like it is this year.  All that tradition, and responsibility is not lost on the Packer leadership in the front office either, and its level if business success is reflected in yet another “first” this week, their president emulating his players with a leap of faith into the lower stands.

Frivolous celebration?  Absolutely not.  This is Green Bay, after all, where traditions are taken seriously, even ones like beating everyone else to a prestigious magazine cover.

Jerry Milani is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand.