Packer shareholders to meet at night
GREEN BAY – The Green Bay Packers will hold their first nighttime shareholders meeting in July at Lambeau Field.
The meeting will be at 7 p.m. July 25. Training camp begins the same week. The Packers said the training camp schedule will be announced later.
The annual meeting will coincide with the kickoff of the Packers’ 100th year of football. The team will release details next week about its 100th year events, including a celebration the week of the shareholders meeting.
The later meeting means it will be possible for more Green Bay area shareholders to attend because it won’t conflict with work schedules. Meeting attendees come from across the country, with many of them attending training camp.
The meeting will include remarks by President and CEO Mark Murphy and general manager Brian Gutekunst, as well as reports by directors heading various committees.
It will be Gutekunst’s first shareholders meeting as general manager and his remarks will be eagerly anticipated by team owners.
Former general manager Ted Thompson made it a point to say as little as possible about the team or players during shareholders meetings, but Gutekunst has given hints he might be more forthcoming.
The Packers are the only fan-owned team in U.S. professional sports and the only one to publicly report its finances. Though the team in recent years curtailed the amount of information it provides, the report is the best look at the operations of an NFL team.
The NFL’s smallest-market team said revenue for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017, totaled $441.4 million, 8% more than 2015-16’s record $408.7 million. The team’s revenue has increased every year since Lambeau Field was renovated in 2003.
Revenue for the past year likely will be reported in July, before the shareholders meeting.
The Packers have 363,948 shareholders. Shares are not traded and they are rarely sold. The last sale was in 2012 to help pay for Lambeau Field’s south end-zone expansion. No additional sales are being contemplated, the team has said.
The shareholders meeting in 2017 was moved to Monday — Wednesdays have most often been the day of the meeting — with the thought that making it part of a long weekend would draw more attendees. Normally 8,000 to 12,000 attend the meeting, but only about 7,000 were at the 2017 meeting.
The meeting takes place in the stadium bowl regardless of weather.
Up to four tickets will be issued for each shareholder account. Proxy materials and information about tickets will be sent electronically or by mail in mid-June. The Packers said any shareholder who has not received communication from the team in the past 12 months should contact shareholders services at (855) 846-7225 or shareholderservices@packers.com.
Shareholders can register to receive proxy materials electronically by going to Shareholders who receive information electronically can print their meeting tickets at home.