ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ) – When the Green Bay Packers first went public, it was actually private.
The team needed help to survive and shares were sold to local businesses to make it happen.
According to Packers’ team historian Cliff Christl, “(in) 1923 and 1935, it was the big companies in town, and as anybody who lived most of their life here knows there’s a lot of old money in Green Bay and always has been.” The support of the Green Bay business community kept the team alive through stock purchases and season ticket sales.
One of the companies was Bent Sporting Goods. In a non-company-approved-moment, a Bent family member had an incident at City Stadium. Says Christl, “In 1931 there was a fan named Willard Bent, whose family owned the Gorden Bent Sporting Goods Company… he fell out of the stands. (He) sued for $20,000, got $5,000 in a verdict that was handed down in February 1933.”
This single event put the team at a tipping point. Christl says, “In August, the Packers went into receivership, they basically were out of money because their insurance company had failed and couldn’t pay off the lawsuit. It was in January of 1935 when the Green Bay Packers, Incorporated was created. That is the corporation that is in existence today.”
The first three sales saved the team. The last two brought growth to Lambeau Field.
- 1923
- 1935
- 1950
- 1997
- 2011
The local businesses support kept the team alive, but more support was needed. “The 1950 stock sale was the third, and that sale, they went out to the general public,” says Christl. “They sold more than $100,000 worth of stock, whereas in ’35 they sold just over $12,000, and they now had more than 1,000 shareholders. Still, most of them were from Green Bay. I think the impression is a lot of people from around the state bought it, not so.” Actually, the goal was to sell 200,000 shares, 100,000 in Green Bay and 100,000 from the rest of the state. The team did 80,000 or 90,000 shares in Green Bay and approximately 10,000 in the rest of the state including Milwaukee, and that’s when the Packers truly became fan owned.
The 1997 and 2011 stock sales were wildly successful, but how did the League take to it? ” There was some objection,” says Christl. “There were people against it, The Giants and the Bears have always, and the Steelers, have always been strong allies, and I think it was some of the old ownership that helped get it through.”
