The Green Bay Packers Have Outperformed the Dow
Posted by: Joshua Green on December 12, 2011
The Bloomberg terminal has a seemingly boundless supply of fascinating data, along with a handy charting function — something I’m going to teach myself to use in hopes of sharing some of it on this blog. A good example of what’s possible comes courtesy of Bloomberg’s David Wilson, who was inspired by the current Green Bay Packers share offering — the Packers are the only publicly owned sports franchise in the country — to take a look at how Packers shares have performed historically against the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Shares of the Packers rarely become available — the last time was 1997 — and do not pay dividends, since the Pack is a non-profit company. The sales prospectus also stipulates that owners can only transfer shares to family members. Nevertheless, according to Wilson’s chart, which factors in a 1,000-to-1 split before the ‘97 sale, Packers shares have consistently outperformed the Dow over the last 60 years:
