Green Bay Packers

This one is courtesy of the cheesehead over at HeathGordon.com.

The Green Bay Packers are a community-owned team. That is, the team has no principle owner who calls all the shots. Instead, the team has over 100,000 shareholders that elect a 45-member board of directors, and from that board, seven members are chosen for an executive committee. The executive committee is made up of the president, the only member of the board who earns a salary, a vice president, a treasurer, secretary, and three other members.

The 4,750,937 shares are owned by 112,158 owners. No shareholder may own more than 200,000 shares, preventing any one person from gaining control of the organization. Additionally, the shares pay no dividends and the redemption price for the shares is quite low. However, when shares are sold privately, they fetch quite a bit more than the redemption price. Forbes.com estimates the team's worth at $927 million, or $195.12 per share. During the last public sale, in 1997, the organization sold shares at $200 each. Judging from that figure, I'd say either Forbes has undervalued the team by a good bit, or the Packers are not doing well (financially). I would be extremely interested to know what shares are going for in private sales today.