🧀 The Green Bay Packers' freshly sliced Financials

The NFL’s sole publicly-traded team have released their financials, and to say they look tasty would be an understatement.

We. Are. Almost…THERE! Oh my god we’re so close, we can just about smell it. August is a couple days away and NFL minicamps are already in full swing! HBO (excuse us, Max!) just dropped the Chicago Bears Hard Knocks trailer, which is set to premiere a week from today. And we can all have some fun watching our favorite quarterbacks throwing darts to their #1 targets! Can you tell we’re excited?!

Even though we could talk about all the minicamp drama and contemplate which team is going to thrive this year, let’s focus on one particular team…the Green Bay Packers. The Packers no doubt have one of the most unique ownerships structures in all of sports. Instead of being owned by one billionaire or a handful of rich partners, they are a publicly-owned, non-profit corporation. The corporation currently has around 537,460 stockholders who collectively own an estimated 5.2M shares of stock. Let’s review the business of the Packers. What’s the background of this interesting structure? How have they been doing financially? Could this give us insight into how (un)healthy NFL teams are from a cash perspective?

Let’s get after it…

What’s the background of the Green Bay Packers as a business?

• In 1923, the Packers found themselves in some hot water financially, so they sold shares of the team to local residents and fans so the team would continue to function.

• The Packers have since conducted five additional stock offerings: 1935, 1950, 1997, 2011, and 2021, most recently raising $65M to fund renovations at Lambeau Field.

• ~175K fans participated in the last stock offering, where each share sold for $300.

  • These shares come with a certificate to hang on the wall, the chance to purchase shareholder-only merchandise, and an invite to the annual shareholders meeting at Lambeau Field.

  • But don’t get too excited, day traders, these shares don’t have much value. Share are not allowed to be traded, there are no dividend payments, and shareholders have no say when it comes to team operations 🙄.

• But you know what you can do…you can take a look at their financials 😉 (we know you’re jumping for joy!).

What do the current financials look like?

• Revenue: Generated ~$654M (+7.2% from 2022) (see: Table 1)

  • ~$402M from the NFL’s national revenue distribution pool

    • The NFL’s national revenue distribution checks consists just about all of media rights payments — where the NFL does all its TV deals at the national level (think: Fox, CBS, NBC, ESPN, Amazon Prime)

  • ~$252M (+6.7% from 2022) from local revenue (ticket sales, sponsorships, parking, etc.)

• Expenses: Overall expenses rose by 9.7% from 2022 which lead to a decrease in operating profit to $60.1M (-12.5% from 2022).

  • Packers CEO Mark Murphy mentioned there were two reasons for the increase in expenses:

    • 1) Packers made several significant investments to their facilities last year, which increased depreciation expenses by $10M — this particular expense might have been necessary for the NFL to sign off on Green Bay hosting the 2025 NFL Draft.

    • 2) The team also took a hit on player costs when multiple players’ careers ended before their contracts did.

• Bottom Line: Posted a $64M gain on its income statement, reversing a ~$21M loss from 2022. The result…net income rose to $98M (+176% from 2022).

• Investments: Teams are now, more than ever, relying on corporate investments to sit quietly and watch their money grow. The Packers’ investments were +413% compared to last year, a reflection of the better performance of stock markets during that period.

  • The team contributed $12M to its corporate reserve fund, which stands at $536M, compared with $460M in 2022 (thank you Dow Jones and S&P 500!).

  • The team also contributed $5M to the Packers Foundation, bringing their endowment to ~$55M.

What could this mean for NFL franchises moving forward?

• We’ll keep yelling this from the mountain tops until we don’t have a voice anymore but…FOOTBALL IS KING! There’s a reason why a small-market team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin does so well.

• With a rich history, a stud quarterback recently locked up for the next 4 years with a $220M contract, an avid fanbase, and a competitive team that always seems to do well in big spots…it’s no wonder this is such a strong foundational franchise to mimic (and one we have the pleasure getting to view from under the hood).

• Even though it’s a small sample size, it says a lot about how well the NFL has done as a league by increasing the value of their leagues.

  • So much so, that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell might have no problem reaching his intended goal of $25B in annual revenue by 2027.

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Quick Hitters

• 🥇 Well hello there, Olympics! People love watching you! NBC Sports said viewership for last Friday’s opening ceremony averaged 28.6M viewers in the U.S. across platforms, marking the best figure since 2012, and bettering the comparable figure from 2021 by 60%. Those numbers were then improved Saturday, the first full day of competition from Paris, as that day averaged 32.4M viewers across all platforms, 83% better than the comparable figure from Tokyo.

• 🦚 Oh and what about NBC’s streaming platform, Peacock? How have they been doing? Well…let’s see more good news: For the opening ceremony, Peacock generated more than 2.5M viewers, representing the #1 entertainment event in the platform’s history. Across all of NBCUniversal’s streaming platforms, including Peacock, the company generated more than 1 billion minutes of consumption through Friday—6x the comparable figure from Tokyo. Saturday, brought 4.7M viewers to Peacock, marking its 2nd best day of engagement ever, trailing only the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Miami Dolphins Wild Card playoff game in January.

• 🎙️ Just when we thought the podcast bubble was just about it pop, leave it to the Kelce brothers (Jason & Travis) to bring us back to the good times! According to The Wall Street Journal, the brothers with their New Heights show are seeking a deal in the $100M range and have had discussions with Wondery. Wondery is owned by Amazon and the podcast is currently distributed and produced by Wave Sports + Entertainment, which produces shows from hosts including Bomani Jones and Paul George.