Green Bay’s books just told an uncomfortable story. The Packers posted an operating loss for the first time in a non-pandemic year since 1990, and team president and CEO Ed Policy isn’t dancing around what that means for the NFL’s only publicly owned franchise.
“It’s like other teams have access to this ATM machine that we just don’t have right now,” Policy said Friday, according to NFL.com, as the Packers released their annual financial report for the 2026 fiscal year. The timing wasn’t random. Green Bay’s shareholders meeting follows three days later, and as a publicly owned club, the team is required to open its books every year in a way no other franchise has to.
The numbers explain the mood. In operating costs, the Packers reported $753 million in revenue against $754.1 million in expenses, according to AtoZ Sports, which pegged the resulting shortfall at $1.1 million. Revenue climbed 4.7%. Expenses jumped 18.7%. That gap is the whole story.
Why the expenses spiked
Policy pointed to player costs as the driver, citing a $130 million increase tied largely to one blockbuster move. Green Bay acquired All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons from the Dallas Cowboys last year and locked him into a four-year, $188 million contract that included $136 million guaranteed. The team also accelerated payments owed to players who were traded away, a move that front-loads cost even when it clears long-term cap space.
None of that reads as a mistake. Parsons is one of the best pass rushers in football, and the Packers paid market rate to get him. But it does show up on the ledger, and Policy isn’t pretending otherwise.
Green Bay’s overall financial picture still looked healthy on paper. Net income actually rose 54.8% to $132.5 million, but that jump came almost entirely from outside football operations. The team collected $133.6 million in nonoperating revenue, a mix of corporate investment gains and its cut of ESPN’s purchase of NFL Network. Strip that away, and the operating side is running in the red.
League-wide revenue sharing remains massive. Each of the NFL’s 32 teams received $453.2 million from the league last year, mostly generated through national television contracts, according to RealGM. That check lands the same for Green Bay as it does for Dallas or the Rams. What doesn’t land the same is everything after it.
The structural problem: no equity to sell
This is where Policy’s “ATM machine” line cuts deepest. Privately owned NFL franchises can sell small slices of equity to raise cash fast, without giving up control of the team. Green Bay can’t do that. It has no majority owner, no ownership group, no minority stake to shop around — just shareholders who hold stock more as a keepsake than an investment vehicle.
“For example, a team can sell 5 to 10% of their equity without giving up any controlling interest in the team, and they could raise more money than we have in our capital reserve fund in just a matter of months,” Policy said.
That’s not a hypothetical dig. Other franchises have done exactly this in recent years as the NFL loosened rules around private equity investment. For Green Bay, that door simply doesn’t exist. The team’s public ownership model is part of its identity and the reason the franchise stayed in a small market for over a century. It’s also, per Policy’s own admission, becoming a competitive disadvantage as the cost of running an NFL roster keeps climbing.
Green Bay’s operating numbers
| Category | 2026 Fiscal Year | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Operating Revenue | $753 million | +4.7% |
| Operating Expenses | $754.1 million | +18.7% |
| Net Income | $132.5 million | +54.8% |
| Nonoperating Revenue | $133.6 million | — |
| NFL Revenue Share (per team) | $453.2 million | — |
What Policy plans to do about it
The team isn’t touching Lambeau Field’s name. Policy was direct about that. But Green Bay has already shown it’s willing to sell naming rights elsewhere. The practice facility at Titletown, the mixed-use development just west of Lambeau featuring shops, offices, restaurants and apartments, is now called Emplify Health Field under a new sponsorship deal.
The team is also leaning harder into non-football events at Lambeau. The stadium hosted Luke Combs concerts in May, and it’ll host a Notre Dame-Wisconsin college football game on Sept. 6. Both are the kind of one-off revenue plays that don’t require touching the team’s on-field product but still generate real money off a building the Packers already own.
“We’re going to have to be more aggressive with revenue generation going forward,” Policy said. “We all know the cost of competing in the NFL is going up, and other teams have access to capital sources that we just don’t have.”
Not a five-alarm fire, yet
Policy was careful to separate the long-term concern from any near-term panic. Green Bay isn’t cutting corners on the roster, and he made that point clearly.
“I feel very good about the Packers’ financial strength and condition in the medium term and the short term, certainly,” Policy said. “But we are keeping a very close eye on some of these long-term trends, looking at how they impact us and our financial health in the long term.”
He added that the club intends to keep investing in whatever it takes to field a contender, whether that’s player salaries, football staff, or facilities. For a fan base that’s watched Jordan Love get paid, Micah Parsons get paid, and a young core get built out over the past two offseasons, that’s the reassurance that matters most heading into training camp.
Still, the underlying tension isn’t going away on its own. Every other team in the league has a lever Green Bay doesn’t. Policy’s job now is figuring out which levers the Packers actually do have, and pulling them before the gap widens further.
