With the Dow Jones Industrial Average cracking 13,000 for the first time since May 2008, you may be interested in buying some stock today.
But if you hope to buy some stock that isn’t really stock, today is the last day to do it.
The Packers’ non-stock stock sale closes on Wednesday. According to the Green Bay Press-Gazette, the team sold as of Valentine’s Day (yet another occasion for buying someone a $250 gift that has no inherent value) 263,000 shares, raising $65.75 million.
As to the existing 112,148 shareholders, their “ownership” of the team has been considerably diluted. But those 112,148 own more than 4 million shares, even though (as the Packers are required by law to explain when trying to sell the items) “stock in the Packers does not constitute an investment in ‘stock’ in the common sense of the term” and “the Packers have no obligation to repay the amount a buyer pays to purchase Packers stock” and “anyone considering the purchase of Packers stock should not purchase the stock to make a profit or to receive a dividend or tax deduction or any other economic benefits” and “the Packers bylaws and NFL rules severely restrict transfers of Packers stock.”
The first one is my personal favorite. Stock in the Packers does not constitute “stock” in the common sense of the term. And yet 263,000 shares of stock that isn’t “stock” in the common sense of the term have been sold.
Only the Packers, who have been publicly owned for decades, may sell stock that isn’t really stock. Other NFL teams have privately complained that the ability of the Packers, and only the Packers, to sell non-stock stock is a license to print money.
And for good reason. Anything else that NFL teams try to sell fans at $250 a pop costs a lot more to produce than a piece of paper.