@the-gipper said:
Here is this blurb:
The Packers stock is but one element of its unique organization. Founded in 1919 but with roots going back to the origins of American football, the team operates as a publicly held nonprofit company. NFL rules don’t allow other franchises to use the Green Bay model, and Green Bay is the smallest city hosting a major team (2010 population: 104,057).
In 1950, to save the franchise and keep it in Green Bay, shareholders—mostly residents—bought 4,700 shares at $25 each, with a limit of 200 per investor. In 1997, before the last sale, there was a 1,000-to-one stock split. The current prospectus says two shareholders own 200,000 shares each, but Popkey declined to identify them.
In addition, the Packers’ Articles of Incorporation specify that if the team is dissolved, “all profits and assets” must go to community programs and charities. Until 1997, the sole beneficiary was one American Legion post in Green Bay. Since then it has been the Green Bay Packers Foundation, which benefits a number of local and state causes.
So meager are the monetary benefits of owning Packers’ stock that Willens, the tax expert, thinks a purchase might be tax-deductible right after shares are bought. “They meet the conditions of worthless stock, in that it has no pecuniary value for the owner,” he says. “Better a small tax benefit than none at all.”
Ed Kleinbard, a former top tax staffer in Congress who’s now a professor at USC’s law school, is an Oakland Raiders fan but he disagrees about the tax deduction. “The stock isn’t worthless as long as someone will buy it, although I wouldn’t,” he says. “Maybe it’s a collectible.”
We'd have to dig up how many shares are outstanding. If it's 5 million and the Packers are worth a billion, each share would be worth $20. Not exactly a penny stock.
