The Green Bay Packers have turned into a nice little investment hub.

The NFL team’s just-released annual report shows that as of March it boasts an investment fund worth $533 million, 8.6% more than the previous year. The Packers fund their investments with operating profits, which were $77 million last year. Since 2013, the size of the portfolio has almost doubled (see table below). In 1998, the team’s investment fund was only $61 million, meaning it has increased nearly nine-fold over the past 24 years.

Such a cushion provides the team with a huge safety net. For example, during the 2020 season, when the pandemic kept fans from attending games, many NFL owners were borrowing money or injecting capital into their teams. But the Packers’ investment fund posted a gain of $120 million, turning an operating loss of $39 million into a net profit of $61 million. During the 2020 Covid season, the Packers debt increased only $12 million, to $156 million.

“No other NFL team has an investment fund like this,” says Marc Ganis, president of Sportscorp. This is partly because the team does not have an owner. Instead, the Packers are community-owned by more than 537,000 shareholders. Adds Ganis, “Other owners invest but do so on their own or through their vehicles. For example, Jerry Jones is the largest owner of Comstock Energy. Dave Tepper has [hedge fund] Appaloosa. The Kraft family are major investors in many different industries.”

Green Bay may be the NFL’s smallest market, but the Packers’ half-billion-dollar investment fund is the league’s biggest, Ganis says. That’s one of the reasons the Packers are worth $4.25 billion, 15th among the league’s 32 teams.