Businessweek: “The Green Bay Packers are a historical, cultural, and geographical anomaly, a publicly traded corporation in a league that doesn’t allow them, an immensely profitable company whose shareholders are forbidden by the corporate bylaws to receive a penny of that profit, a franchise that has flourished despite being in the smallest market in the NFL—with a population of 102,000, it would be small for a Triple A baseball franchise.”
I’m from a little town in the San Joaquin Valley of California called Exeter. It’s a tiny farm town. Next to our tiny farm town was the City of Visalia, a city of over 100,000, similar in size to Green Bay. I’ve talked about how unusual Green Bay is to my wife and I’m pretty sure she thinks I’m crazy, but I’d get excited about the thought of having an NFL football team in Visalia. That’s exactly what Green Bay has!
Back when the Raiders were in L.A. a lot of folks joked about having the Visalia, or Fresno, Raiders. Could you imagine? I can’t.
I’ve never been to an NFL football game, never. I love football. I’m a bit jealous of the folks in Green Bay, but I’m also very happy for them. They have a great thing.