Community Ownership And The Bundesliga: The Green Bay Packers Experience

On Saturday, Bayern played at packed Lambeau Field; the stadium of the NFL's Green Bay Packers. A community owned club, the Packers highlight why German football should not lose sight of its values.

On Saturday, 78,128 fans packed into historic Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin, to watch Bayern Munich take on Manchester City as part of the Audi US Tour. Storms, thundershowers, and rain cut down the game to just 80 minutes, and Manchester City would win thanks to a tap-in goal by Erling Haaland (12’).

The most impressive part of the game, however, was Lambeau Field. A stadium with a capacity of almost 80,000 seats in a community with just, depending on who you ask, 100,000 to 110,000 people. To say Green Bay is a small town is an understatement. The downtown core consists of little more than one street, a few bars and restaurants, a river walk, and most importantly, a monument dedicated to the history of the Green Bay Packers.

Green Bay, in fact, had to annex territory from neighboring Ashwaubenon to find room for the stadium. In other words, the city’s biggest attraction is not even in Green Bay.

With that in mind, it is remarkable to think that in the Green Bay Packers, the city not only can afford to have an NFL team but also one of the most historic teams in the league. Dubbed Titletown, USA, the Packers have won 13 league titles—11 of them in the NFL, and four of them were Super Bowls. All that while playing in North America’s smallest sports market.