2014 Thowball Wild Card- ‘9ers @ Packers

An easy pick.  Have I mentioned recently that I’m only half troll?  You see in Michigan a troll is anyone who’s from under the Mackinaw Island bridge.  If you were born in God’s country, which is the Upper Peninsula, they may call you a Yooper but what do you care anyway?  They’re trolls!

Now along with that comes certain allegiances- there is only one Football team and that is the Green Bay Packers.

For me it’s not just an accident of birth.  To quote from Wikipedia–

The Packers are the only non-profit, community-owned franchise in American professional sports major leagues. Typically, a team is owned by one person, partnership, or corporate entity, i.e., a “team owner.” The lack of a dominant owner has been stated as one of the reasons the Green Bay Packers have never been moved from the city of Green Bay, a city of only 102,313 people as of the 2000 census.

…

As of June 8, 2005, 112,015 people (representing 4,750,934 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 – though private sales often exceed the face value of the stock, and stock ownership brings no season ticket privileges. No shareholder may own over 200,000 shares, a safeguard to ensure that no individual can assume control of the club. To run the corporation, a board of directors is elected by the stockholders.

…

Green Bay is the only team with this form of ownership structure in the NFL; such ownership is in direct violation of current league rules, which stipulate a limit of 32 owners of one team and one of those owners having a minimum 30% stake. However, the Packers corporation was grandfathered when the NFL’s current ownership policy was established in the 1980s, and are thus exempt. The Packers are also the only American major-league sports franchise to release its financial balance sheet every year.

The ‘9ers are a fine team and San Fransisco a lovely town, but they no longer play there having moved to Santa Clara and ending San Fransisco’s bid for the 2016 Olympic Games about which (to her credit) even Dianne Feinstein is incensed.

They’re unlikely to win anyway as this game will be played on the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field (named for a real human being and not a slave labor exploiting blue jean company), Titletown USA, in conditions projected to rival the fabled Ice Bowl.