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Green Bay Packers—Why Cheeseheads Rule the NFL: Industry: Sports

Industry: Sports

The Story

The city of Green Bay in Wisconsin would be a small home even for a minor league baseball team. The fact that a major NFL franchise like the Green Bay Packers is based there might seem like a full blown mystery. Given the number of larger cities in the United States who might support a team in the most popular sport in the country—why Green Bay?

The simple reason is because back in 1919, when the Packers team was first founded, it was common for small cities to have NFL teams. Green Bay happens to be the only one of the small city teams to survive. And they are much smaller than the competition. Green Bay is the smallest market in the NFL, with a population of just a little over 100,000 people.

Their long history also means that they have a structure unlike any other team in the NFL. While most teams have individual owners who are usually billionaires and businessmen, the Packers are owned by the people of Green Bay—fans known as “Cheeseheads,” named after the famed Wisconsin cheeses and their choice of headgear. People hold shares in the team, and while those shares are never worth any real money; they are a source of pride for the community. Thanks to the community ownership, the team also operates under different rules than the rest of the league.

While teams like the Dallas Cowboys or Washington Redskins are “cash cows,” minting money through the sales of corporate stadium suites and ...