Marketplace of Ideas Blog

The following things I saw Thursday are not usually found at corporate shareholder meetings:

• Shareholders who wear numerous iterations of the company’s logo and colors.
• A walk of three blocks to get to the board room for those who showed up too close to the scheduled meeting start.
• A place where the children of shareholders can do various activities related to the company’s product.
• The need to wear sunscreen at the meeting.
• People tailgating in the parking lot outside the facility where the meeting is held.

Of course, we are talking about the annual meeting of the 112,158 owners (of which two are your favorite business magazine editor and his wife) of the 4,750,937 shares of Green Bay Packers, Inc., the most unique franchise in professional sports, and one of the most unique and largest-impact corporations in the U.S.

As a shareholder, I’ve been to a couple of meetings. The incongruity of this shareholder meeting still entertains me. I would predict there is no other shareholder meeting in the world where the “board room” has 25-second clocks that were activated, if not running. (To put a 25-second time limit on reports is a lot of pressure.)

The Packers have sold stock four times, most recently in 1997 to help fund the Lambeau Field renovations. Based on the age of the fans — I mean, shareholders — I saw, most of the more than 8,000 present were 1997 stock purchasers.

I recall some cynicism from a few sportswriters (one of whom, known in his newspaper days for being obtusely contrary in print, has gone on to write, according to Amazon.com, six Packer books) about people willingly paying $250 for stock that has technically no value and will never pay dividends. But the stock sale gave those who were a bit envious of those who had, or inherited, Packer stock from the 1923, 1925 or 1950 stock sales a chance to say that they, too, were owners of the Packers, as well as, more importantly, contributing to the franchise’s future.

The Lambeau Field project certainly did that, as demonstrated by all the shareholders/fans buying merchandise in the Packer Pro Shop, eating at one of the several concessions stands, touring the Packer Hall of Fame or the stadium, or just waiting around for the NFL Network Fan Forum live show with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Lambeau Field used to have all the ambiance of a large high school football stadium before the various projects over the past 25 or so years; now, there is no better combination of modern stadium frills and heritage in all of professional sports. That was a point reinforced when the meeting was preceded by video of Packer highlights over the seasons, such as Bart Starr’s Ice Bowl quarterback into the south end zone, near where I was sitting. (Today, not in 1967; I was 2½ then.)

Some of the meeting was conducted like your typical public company meeting. The Packers announced profits of $5,203,782 on income of $257,989,447 and expenses of $248,199,176. Income was up 4.1 percent from 2009, but expenses were up 8.9 percent (particularly player costs, up 16 percent), which concerns Packer management. Interestingly, total profits were 29.4 percent more than in 2009, although operating profits were less than half of what they were in 2009.

Also interestingly, the Packers now have $181.7 million in reserves, including $127.5 million in the Packers Preservation Fund. Former Packers President Bob Harlan told me he wanted to get the franchise to the point where it had one year’s expenses in reserve. Well, $127.5 million is a good number, and $181.7 million is even better, until you consider that $248 million expense number. That helps explain why NFL owners (and I guess that includes me) want to control the growth in player salaries.

Not surprisingly, a lot of football was discussed. General manager Ted Thompson apparently is in good graces with fans because he got nothing but cheers. He described the 2009 season as having “an average start and a strong finish,” with the 4–4 start forgotten in the wake of the 7–1 finish. Thompson also noted that the Packers finished sixth in offensive yardage and second in defensive yardage, their highest rankings since the 1996 season. (He didn’t mention that while they were second in defensive yardage — and, for that matter, first in turnover ratio and first in the prized Cold Hard Football Facts Defensive Hog Index — they were seventh in points allowed.)

“I know there are a lot of expectations about this year,” he said. “This is a good team; I think we have a lot of confidence in ourselves. This will be an interesting year; I hope you guys are around for the long ride.”

As everyone who follows the Packers knows by now, Thompson’s approach is different from former general manager Ron Wolf. “We chose to invest in our own players,” said Thompson. “We have for some time thought that was our best policy.” The fact that the Packers have been the NFL’s youngest team for four consecutive seasons is “not on purpose; that’s just the way it works out.”

Well, obviously “that’s just the way it works out” because of the Packers’ strategy of developing from within. That is the better long-term strategy; although younger players are more affordable even without a rookie salary cap, younger players are naturally more inconsistent, which is one reason why the Packers have been plagued with penalties under the Thompson–Mike McCarthy regime.

The most interesting thing that came up at the meeting was the slow unveiling of the Packers’ plans for what now is being called the Titletown Development District. As Lambeau Field became a 365-day-a-year destination (minus holidays, although the Packers did serve more than 2,000 meals on Thanksgiving) with the early-2000s renovation, the project seems to me designed to turn the Lambeau neighborhood into a giant Packers theme park.

For those who 25 years ago had a hard time imagining Lambeau Field with luxury boxes, imagine the neighborhood around Lambeau with a sports complex augmenting the Resch Center (perhaps the next home of a certain independent minor league baseball team?), or a 100,000-square-foot exhibition hall, or some sort of health and wellness facility. (The better to burn off the brats, cheese curds and beer.) For that matter, imagine Lambeau Field hosting college football or other sporting events such as the 2006 University of Wisconsin outdoor hockey game. For that matter, imagine, instead of the current 2.6 million to 2.8 million people visiting Lambeau Field each year, 7 to 8 million people visiting Lambeau Field.

For that matter, imagine Lambeau Field — the Packers are doing more than imagining — with the south end zone featuring five-level seating including Fenway Park-style Green monster roof seats, to, as Packers president Mark Murphy said, target the season-ticket waiting list, as well as increase the noise and intimidation factor upon Packer opponents. (The lack of Lambeau home field advantage, as you’ve read, continues to bug me and be a negative mark upon current management as well as their immediate predecessor.)

Such forward thinking is the answer to the rhetorical question posed by Packers vice president of administration Jason Wied, to how the Packers can do “everything that we can, consistent with our values, to sustain this franchise in Green Bay, Wis. The way we do that is by letting ourselves evolve … we have to ask ourselves, what’s next?”

Packer fans hope what’s next, in chronological order, is (1) a Super Bowl in, of all places to win one, Cowboys Stadium (the irony of that would be delicious given the Packers–Cowboys history), and (2) a 2011 NFL season. Neither will be easy.