Cool gift for those who already "have everything" ~ Sooz

Football fans get a chance to buy stock in Green Bay Packers
By Dinesh Ramde, Associated Press
Updated 1d 23h ago

MILWAUKEE – If you want to own a piece of the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers, now's your chance.

Own just one share and technically you're a team owner.

But be aware that Packers stock isn't like regular stock. The value doesn't go up, there are no dividends and it has virtually no resale value. Stockholders do get a certificate, plus voting rights, along with invitations to attend annual meetings where they can meet Packers executives, tour the Packers Hall of Fame and stick around for the kickoff of training camp.

Full details will be available Dec. 6 at packers.com.

There are currently 112,205 shareholders who own 4.75 million shares. Another 250,000 shares will go on sale Tuesday, available by mail or at packers.com. In either case, the shares cost $250 plus a handling charge.

The sale runs through Feb. 29, and could be extended. Stock can only be purchased by individuals, not businesses, and there's a 200-share cap, a figure that includes any stock purchased during the last sale in 1997.

Newly purchased shares can be given as gifts. However, once ownership is established, a share can only be transferred within the immediate family.

Staughton Wade, 29, of Fort Wayne, Ind., says $250 is a reasonable price to pay for a Packers share. His favorite team is the winless Indianapolis Colts (0-11), and he said he welcomed a chance to buy into the league's only undefeated team, the Packers (11-0).

"It's a completely unique item," Wade said of the stock. "You can't get this anywhere else, and who knows when the next opportunity will be?"

While being a shareholder might come with some perks, it won't help you move up on the season-ticket waiting list, which has more than 81,000 names. Also, cheeseheads who live overseas are out of luck. The offering is limited to people with addresses in the U.S., Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Soldiers and U.S. residents who are currently overseas will have to use their U.S. addresses.

All the money raised in the stock sale will go toward stadium renovations. The Packers plan to add thousands of seats and other amenities in time for the 2013 season. While other teams often ask taxpayers to help pay for building upgrades, the Packers will foot the entire bill themselves through the stock sale and private financing.

That's part of the reason Joel Tchao, 38, a San Francisco 49ers fan from Fremont, Calif., said he would "definitely" buy a share next week.

"It's showing my appreciation for how they're run as a team," he said.

The Packers have been a publicly owned nonprofit corporation since 1923. The team held its first stock sale that year, followed by sales in 1935 and 1950 that helped keep the franchise afloat even as other small-markets teams were sinking.

At the time of the last sale, in 1997, then-team president Bob Harlan was looking for ways to cover stadium renovation costs. He recalled that other owners balked, worried the Packers would use the money to compensate coaches or improve their roster in a way other teams couldn't.

It was only after Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney argued in favor of the idea that the proposal passed. Rooney said the Packers deserved unanimous support because they were a vital part of NFL history. The subsequent vote was unanimous.

Some 400,000 shares went on sale that year for $200 apiece. About 120,000 were sold, raising $24 million.

"We tried to come up with a figure that would be affordable to everyone," Harlan said. "We never got one complaint about them being too expensive."

There's been at least one complaint about the price this year. Michael Constantine, a Wisconsin native who now lives in Washington, had planned to buy a share when the rumored price was $200. When he found out the actual price Thursday, he said $250 is just over the edge of affordability.

"For me living in Seattle, I could spend $250 on tickets to go back to Wisconsin and go to a Packers game," said Constantine, 26. "For that price I'd be looking at other Packers-related activity I could use that money for."

Just as businesses have to enter a quiet period before going public, the Packers say they've been limited on how much they can say for now.

"We appreciate the interest that fans have expressed in our fifth stock offering," Mark Murphy, the team's president and CEO, said in a statement. "We are not yet in a position to fully discuss the offering. However, this information will answer some of the initial questions that we've received. We look forward to formally launching the offering next week."

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/stocks/story/2011-12-02/green-bay-packers-stock-sale/51587896/1?loc=interstitialskip

Privatizing more public funds.
If the Packers are a publicly owned team the public has already paid for it.
So now, those who want to keep it have to pay again.
Nice scam.

Speaking of people who have everything and are impossible to buy for.    I will be online Tuesday and trying to buy a share for my Cudahy, Wisconsin-born hubby!!!!!!

The Packers are "publicly owned" in the sense that members of the public hold shares in the team, not that they are owned via the government.It's a publicly-owned corporation, and the stadium improvemnts will be paid for entirely through private funds.

Somebody must have changed the meaning of community-owned somewhere

Or someone just misunderstood the concept in the article.  The Packers are a publicly-owned non-profit corporation, as the article stated.