Apr 23 2011
Packers Aaron Rodgers Brings Up A Good Point
The New Lambeau Legend.
Green Bay, Wisconsin maybe one of the best sports towns in all of sports. You would be hard pressed to find a townie that isn’t obsessed with the Green Bay Packers, so when Quarterback Aaron Rodgers speaks, everyone listens.
He tells ESPN 850 WKNR Radio his real concerns over the lockout spilling into September.
Rodgers says his biggest concern isn’t that he could miss one of his own paychecks, he fears what could happen to all the people in Green Bay whose jobs depend on the revenue generated by the Packers.
The city of Green Bay could be one of the most effected teams if the NFL Lockout continues into September.
“There’s too many people affected,” Rodgers said on ESPN 850 WKNR, via Sports Radio Interviews. “You look at a community like Green Bay, those businesses that are around Lambeau and are in Green Bay, the hotels, stores, the restaurants, and bars are all really affected by a lockout, a prolonged lockout where we miss some time so I hope we consider them in this process and find a way to get something done that both sides can agree upon.”
If you didn’t know, the Green Bay Packers are the only non-profit, community-owned major league professional sports team in the United States. Basically, what that means is the fans hold the minority shares of ownership of the team. Instead of one owner with a billion dollars, they have a billion owners with one dollar. Stocks are offered at $25 apiece; and no one may hold more than 200 shares; shareholders have no voting rights and receive no dividends. (112,158 stockholders) Although the fans dont have the final say in roster and coaching moves, that belongs to president and CEO Mark Murphy, and general manager Ted Thompson, the fans (or shareholders) are involved in the electing of positions inside the team, and other pricing/revenue sharing. Sounds small, but I for one would love to own a part of my team, especially my baseball team, the Mets. We know how pitiful their ownership is.
All that aside, the Packers have themselves a real keeper in Rodgers, not only is he on the fast track to becoming one of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL after his Super Bowl victory this past February, but the guy is one of the more personable athletes in all of sports.
Oh yeah, and as if Packer Nation needed any more of a reason to forget that other guy who used to play quarterback, that wore #4.