Backing The Packers Takes More Than A Leap Of Faith

While the Dallas Cowboys call themselves “America’s Team,” the Green Bay Packers are the nation’s only real community-owned major-league sports franchise.

So Sunday’s NFC Championship game is a matchup of that small-town spirit against Jerry Jones’ famous football money machine.

“It’s like a family. That’s the difference between this team and a lot of other teams,” said Green Bay strong safety LeRoy Butler, known for jumping into the stands after touchdowns at Lambeau Field.

Butler invented the Lambeau Leap two years ago. It symbolizes the special relationship the players have with Green Bay, the NFL’s smallest city.

The Packers, more than any other NFL team, are tied to their community. There are some 1,890 stockholders in The Green Bay Packers Inc., the only publicly held, not-for-profit corporation in professional sports.

The stock, originally sold for $25 a share in 1950, has no financial value, but is lovingly transferred from one generation to the next, Packers president Bob Harlan said.

“There are no dividends, no benefits, no season tickets,” he explained.

By contrast, the Cowboys are owned by Jones, one of the richest men in America. He bought the franchise and Texas Stadium management rights for $140 million in 1989, mostly with his own money, and wants to further line his pockets.

The maverick owner has challenged the NFL’s most sacred concept - revenue sharing - and last year signed unsanctioned deals with Nike, Pepsi Cola and American Express.

The Packers announced profits of $2 million in 1995. The team’s highest profit was $4.96 million in 1993.

The Cowboys made $25 million from operations in 1993, and Jones said a year later that he owned a business that might have doubled in value to $300 million.

The Packers and the Cowboys “are at opposite ends of the spectrum,” said Daniel J. Alesch, a University of Wisconsin-Green Bay professor specializing in urban policy who has been on the Packers’ season-ticket waiting list for 22 years.

The Packers, who give $500,000 annually to charity, “represent town and teamwork,” while the Cowboys are “glitz and the greed and that win-at-all-cost,” he said.

“Dallas was America’s Team. Now, it’s Green Bay,” said split end Anthony Morgan. “Now, if we win the Super Bowl, just get that eraser, take Dallas out, put Green Bay in.”