Lamping

[Freed Roger]

Yes, personally, I'd have a hard time scraping up $10,000 for this; would probably have to own a share with several friends and family, if at all.

I'm just thinking the how the Rams were able to sell 50,000 PSLs -granted they may have averaged only $1000 cost, but all you got was the lousy right to buy a season ticket for more money. (...maybe I should be ranting against the Rams.)

Anyhow, I'm simmering down. Lamping Cards owners and politics/economics of MLB are a fact of life. The more I rant the more this belongs in with the "fantasy" league threads.

Good day.

[Popeye_Card]

Yes, personally, I'd have a hard time scraping up $10,000 for this; would probably have to own a share with several friends and family, if at all.

Your system sounds like it would create more issues than it would solve. I believe your intent is to have "the real fans" run the team instead of the fat cats, but the fat cats would be the only ones who could afford shares of team stock. So the team would still be ran by fat cats, who would probably select someone like Lamping to make their shares as valuable as possible.

As it stands, I wish tickets were cheaper and more accesible like they are for Blues games, but I can't find a whole lot to complain about the current state of the team. Even if there's been changes since this ownership started running the show.

--P--

[Freed Roger]

Here's the wikipedia explanation of the Packers ownership. - Kind of interesting -limits on #shares you can own, no appreciation in value, profits if ever liquidated go to a charity. But it worked - besides the power of Lombardi - how else can you explain one of the most successful franchises in sports resides in BFE. Those commies up north may have something.

The Packers are now the only publicly owned company with a board of directors in American professional sports (although other teams are directly owned by publicly traded companies, such as the Atlanta Braves (Time Warner), New York Rangers (Cablevision), the Seattle Mariners (Nintendo of America), and the Toronto Blue Jays (Rogers Communications)). Typically, a team is owned by one person, partnership, or corporate entity; thus, a "team owner." It has been speculated that this is one of the reasons the Green Bay Packers have never been moved from the city of Green Bay, a city of only 102,313 people as of the 2000 census.[5]

By comparison, the typical NFL city is populated in the millions or hundred-thousands. The Packers, however, have long had a large following throughout Wisconsin and parts of the Midwest; in fact, for decades, the Packers played four (one pre-season, three regular-season) home games each year in Milwaukee, first at the State Fair Park fairgrounds, then at Milwaukee County Stadium. The Packers did not move their entire home schedule to Green Bay until 1995.

County Stadium's replacement, Miller Park, then being planned, was always intended to be a baseball-only stadium instead of a multipurpose stadium.

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 money would go to the Sullivan Post of the American Legion in order to build "a proper soldier's memorial." This stipulation was enacted to ensure the club remained in Green Bay and that there could never be any financial enhancement for the shareholders. At the November 1997 annual meeting, shareholders voted to change the beneficiary from the Sullivan-Wallen Post to the Green Bay Packers Foundation.

In 1950, the Packers held a stock sale to again raise money to support the team. In 1956, area voters approved the construction of a new city owned stadium. As with its predecessor, the new field was named City Stadium, but after the death of founder Lambeau in 1965, on September 11, 1965, the stadium was renamed Lambeau Field.

Another stock sale occurred late in 1997 and early in 1998. It added 105,989 new shareholders and raised over $24 million, money used for the Lambeau Field redevelopment project. Priced at $200 per share, fans bought 120,010 shares during the 17-week sale, which ended March 16, 1998. As of June 8, 2005, 112,015 people (representing 4,750,934 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 - though private sales often exceed the face value of the stock, and stock ownership brings no season ticket privileges. No shareholder may own over 200,000 shares, a safeguard to ensure that no individual can assume control of the club. To run the corporation, a board of directors is elected by the stockholders. The board of directors in turn elect a seven-member Executive Committee (officers) of the corporation, consisting of a president, vice president, treasurer, secretary and three members-at-large. The president is the only officer to draw compensation; the rest of the committee is sitting "gratis."

The team's elected president represents the Packers in NFL owners meetings unless someone else is designated. During his time as coach, Vince Lombardi generally represented the team at league meetings in his role as general manager, except at owners-only meetings.

[Secret Weapon]

Would the Packers system work without the NFL salary cap?

[Arthur Dent]

The NFL changed its rules to prevent any other team from taking the Packers' route. I don't know if baseball has implemented similar rules.