The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They currently belong to the Northern Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The team is sometimes affectionately referred to as simply 'The Pack'.

The Packers are the last remaining example of the "small town teams" that comprised a majority of the NFL during the 1920s. Green Bay is by far the smallest media market to be the home of a North American major professional sports league (though their fanbase includes Milwaukee, the rest of Wisconsin, and beyond).

Founded in 1919, the Packers joined the NFL in 1921 during the league's second season. The team currently holds the record for the most NFL league championships with 12: nine NFL Championships prior to the Super Bowl era, Super Bowl I, Super Bowl II, and Super Bowl XXXI. The team also holds the distinction of winning the first two AFL-NFL Championship Games that were held before the AFL-NFL Merger, later referred to as Super Bowl I and II.

The Packers are currently the only publicly owned major league level professional sports team in the United States (although other teams, such as the Atlanta Braves, the Chicago Cubs, and the New York Rangers are directly owned by publicly traded companies). Currently, a total of 4,749,925 shares are owned by 111,921 stockholders - none of whom receives any dividend. [2]

The Green Bay Packers were founded on August 11, 1919 by Curly Lambeau and George Whitney Calhoun. Lambeau solicited funds for uniforms from his employer, the Indian Packing Company. He was given $500 for uniforms and equipment, on the condition that the team be named for its sponsor.

The Packers became a professional franchise in 1921. Financial troubles plagued the team and the franchise was lost the same year. The Packers found new backers the next year and regained the franchise. The financial backers, known as the "Hungry Five," formed the Green Bay Football Corporation.

The Packers are now the only publicly owned company with a board of directors in American professional sports. Typically, a team is owned by one person, partnership, or corporate entity; thus, a "team owner." It has been speculated that this is one of the reasons the Green Bay Packers have never been moved from the city of Green Bay, a city of just over 100,000 people. By comparison, the typical NFL football city usually is populated in the millions. However, the Packers have long had a large following throughout Wisconsin and the Midwest; in fact, for decades, the Packers played four (one pre-season, three regular-season) home games each year in Milwaukee. The Packers did not move their entire home schedule to Green Bay until 1995.

Based on the original "Articles of Incorporation for the (then) Green Bay Football Corporation" put into place in 1923, if the Packers franchise was sold, after the payment of all expenses, any remaining monies would go to the Sullivan-Wallen Post of the American Legion in order to build "a proper soldier's memorial." This stipulation was enacted to ensure the club remained in Green Bay and that there could never be any financial enhancement for the shareholders. At the November 1997 annual meeting, shareholders voted to change the beneficiary from the Sullivan-Wallen Post to the Green Bay Packers Foundation.

In 1950, the Packers held a stock sale to again raise money to support the team. In 1956, area voters approved the construction of a new stadium, which on September 11, 1965 became Lambeau Field.

Another stock sale occurred late in 1997 and early in 1998. It added 105,989 new shareholders and raised more than $24 million, money utilized for the Lambeau Field redevelopment project. Priced at $200 per share, fans bought 120,010 shares during the 17-week sale, which ended March 16, 1998. As of June 8, 2005, 111,921 people (representing 4,749,925 shares) can lay claim to a franchise ownership interest. Shares of stock include voting rights, but the redemption price is minimal, no dividends are ever paid, the stock cannot appreciate in value, and there are no season ticket privileges associated with stock ownership. No shareholder is allowed to own more than 200,000 shares, a safeguard to ensure that no one individual is able to assume control of the club. As a means of running the corporation, a board of directors is elected by the stockholders. The board of directors in turn elect a seven-member Executive Committee (officers) of the corporation, consisting of a president, vice president, treasurer, secretary and three members-at-large. The president is the only officer who receives compensation. The balance of the committee is sitting "gratis."

The Packers have won more league championships (12, including three Super Bowls) than any other American professional football team. They are also the only American professional football team to win three straight titles, which they did twice (1929-1931 and 1965-67).

The Packers of the 1960s were one of the most dominant NFL teams of all time. Coach Vince Lombardi took over a last-place team and built it into a juggernaut, winning five league championships over a seven-year span. Green Bay won the first two Super Bowls. The Super Bowl trophy was ultimately named the Vince Lombardi Trophy in recognition of his and his team's accomplishment.

The Packers' fan base is notoriously dedicated: No matter how the team performs, Lambeau Field has been sold out every game since 1960. The Packers have one of the longest waiting lists for season tickets in professional sports. The current wait time for season tickets is approximately 35 years. For this reason, it is not unusual for fans to designate a recipient of their season tickets in their wills.

The Packers also draw the largest national TV audiences for the NFL's Monday Night Football telecasts.

Packer fans are commonly known as "cheeseheads," a derogatory nickname for people from Wisconsin, as the state is known for its cheese production among a variety of other items. To poke fun at this nickname, they wear foam triangles made to look like cheese on their heads, which further reinforces the "cheesehead" designation.