Packers Say Other NFL Teams Have An ‘ATM Machine’ They Lack

The Packers are currently in a solid financial position, but that status is increasingly threatened as the NFL’s accelerating growth curve potentially conflicts with the team’s unique, publicly held status. 

Three days after the release of the Packers’ latest financial report, the team held its annual shareholder meeting Monday afternoon at Lambeau Field. There, franchise executives continued to lay out a daunting, long-term scenario: the other 31 NFL teams have access to additional resources such as private equity and minority stake sales that are incompatible with the Packers’ ownership structure. 

“Other teams have access to this ATM machine that we just don’t have,” said Packers president and CEO Ed Policy. “It’s getting more expensive to run an NFL team. … Candidly, I think we have to be more aggressive in terms of revenue generation going forward.”

Despite posting a franchise-record $753 million in revenue for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026, some signs of stress are already showing up on the Packers’ balance sheet. Due in part to accelerated player costs through acquisition such as defensive end Micah Parsons, the Packers posted a $1.1 million operating loss, its first non-pandemic year in the red since 1990. 

The Packers are also pushing for additional events at Lambeau Field as securing additional local revenue becomes more of a priority. The team, however, continues to rule out selling naming rights for Lambeau Field, one of the most iconic venues anywhere in sports—prompting a hearty cheer from the shareholder meeting attendees.

Lambeau Field and Soldier Field are the only current NFL venues without any naming rights, though the Chiefs do have field naming rights for Arrowhead Stadium. As the Bears and Chiefs develop new stadiums, and likely pursue naming rights for those forthcoming venues, the Packers will remain an anomaly within the NFL. 

“We might be a little more aggressive with some of the other entitlement inventory we just hadn’t taken advantage of in the past,”  Policy said. 

Monday’s shareholder meeting in Green Bay was the first to be led entirely by Policy after he formally succeeded longtime team executive Mark Murphy last year.

As the league’s only publicly owned team, the Packers provide a unique window into the financial state of the NFL, which continues to assert itself as the most dominant sports league on the planet. 

National Profile

Even as the Packers have some structural challenges, the team still enjoys the fruits of the NFL’s power. The club pulled in $453.2 million from the league during the fiscal year, meaning the NFL generated $14.5 billion in annual national revenue. Most of that is from domestic media deals that are about to be renegotiated.

The Packers’ shareholder meeting alsom brought a familiar dose of regional rivalry.

“The Bears still suck!,” attendees chanted at one point, referring to the rival Chicago team that had a breakthrough 2025 season, reaching the divisional round of the playoffs.

Policy, meanwhile, lauded the team’s push for organizational stability, marked in part by offseason contract extensions for GM Brian Gutekunst, head coach Matt LaFleur, and EVP Russ Ball.

“We had 10 head coach openings throughout the league this past offseason, and that caused a tremendous amount of chaos in a lot of other organizations,” Policy said. “I believe that players, and especially quarterbacks, in championship-caliber teams develop best in an environment of continuity — not chaos.”