VOA常速英语:Green Bay Packer 美式橄榄球队

Some 4,000 people streamed in the Green Bay’s Lambeau Field one morning in mid-July, weeks before any scheduled game. These were not just any fans but stockholders in the publicly held not-for-profit Green Bay Packer Franchise. In effect they’re the team’s owners. They are here for their annual meeting. This is great that the people of Wisconsin and everywhere want a little chunk of them. I even own the chunk of dirt. At the last sale, a share of Packer stock costs two hundred and fifty dollars. It allows each shareholder to attend the annual meeting and vote for members of the team’s Board of Directors, but otherwise this stock is effectively a donation. It pays no dividends, gains no value and cannot be traded. Team president Marc Murphy says the Packers’ publicly-owned status has kept them alive. The team wouldn’t still be in Green Bay or not for this ownership structure and we’ve had five stock sales over the history of the organization, and the first three were really meant to save the team and to make sure the team stays here. Formed in 1919, the team was named after a local meatpacking company. It joined what would become the NFL in 1921, but by 1922 it was apparent the Packers would have to sell stock to survive. But the team’s early survival was also helped by what Packer’s historian Cliff Bristol calls Green Bay’s dirty little secret. This town never shut down in the Prohibition. The Prohibition which lasted from 1920 to 1933, outlawed the sale and consumption of alcohol in the United States, but Green Bay chose to ignore the law, making the small city a popular place for teams to come and spend money. They didn’t have enough people to support a team. They didn’t have a lot of money and to be truthful their crowds weren’t that big. But visiting teams loved coming here and they would come in early that stayed late. Following Prohibition the Packers survived and thrived because they won, a total of 13 championships, the most of any NFL Franchise. But as Murphy points out stock sales for the publicly held franchise did get the Packers through some tough times. My predecessor Bob Harlan often said it’s the greatest story in all of professional sports that the small market team just has overcome odds and had all kinds of success. NFL rules prevent other teams from copying the Green Bay model, making the small-town Packers unique. And Murphy says that’s a good thing.