A People’s Championship

Posted on: February 7th, 2011 by Neil Aquino 4 Comments

The Green Bay Packers, who just won the Super Bowl, are the only community-owned non-profit team in American major league sports.

(Above--Citizen-owners at the Packers game. Photo by yunggunn2k3.)

From the Georgetown University newspaper The Hoya---

"Unlike the 31 other professional football teams, or any other sports team for that matter, the Packers are not owned by some wealthy individual (or group of individuals) seeking a profit. Instead, they're owned and managed by 111,968 devoted fans. In that lies their power....Green Bay fans themselves vote on and serve as part of the board of directors, which appoints the pivotal managerial and coaching staff of the Packers. Unlike most other teams across the nation, when Packers fans are frustrated, they don't have to suck it up. They have the ability to enact change through shareholder votes and air their grievances directly with Packer management.Socialism has worked pretty well in this case."

Socialism seems to work pretty well for the Packers.

Not only that, legendary Packers Coach Vince Lombardi, for whom the Super Bowl trophy is named, was a loyal Democrat.

Coach Lombardi was close friends with John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy.

Here is a great quote from Coach Lombardi---

“People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.”

Congratulations to the citizen-owners of the Green Bay Packers.

Building on a foundation of teamwork provided in good part by the enduring example of the visionary Vince Lombardi, a true people's championship has been won at Super Bowl XLV.

(Below---Coach Vince Lombardi--A Great American.)

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the history of the Green Bay Packers is kind of cool to read. One of the major stakeholders in the Green Bay Packers did not like Vince Lombardi. He almost didn't get the job.

Well, that was touching (snark). Forgive me for sounding bitter (I am), but not yet over my disappointment that the Steelers didn't win... :-) Okay, seriously though, great article. I thought all team ownership was the same; rich guy football fan with enough money to buy a team (or rich guy who basically inherited a team). The fact that the Packers are such a successful franchise begs the question why is there only one team with this ownership structure?

it's hard to get a bunch of rich people to agree on anything. That's the main reason. Now, this collective structure is looked at as a weakness and not a strength. The NFL is looking for one guy with incredibly deep pockets. Thanks your comments.

Looks like you're right about those deep pockets. According to that fount of all knowledge, Wikipedia, it's against the rules now for this form of ownership and the Packers' set-up was grandfathered in. I'm totally intrigued by this. Not to mention that while conducting my drive-by research I allowed myself to get side-tracked with a trip down memory lane by spending a few moments reading a bit about Reggie White's career. He was The Man when I was younger and I remember how my Dad always spoke of him with much respect for his talent. Thanks for putting this out there.