www.TimothyReport.com
Proof Of Our Love
The Green Bay Packers of the National Football League are different from every other professional football teams in America, in that the team is publicly owned. In 1922, local merchants put up $2,400 to save the floundering football franchise, establishing a public nonprofit corporation.
Now the team is planning what will be only their fifth stock sale. This one would raise funds for renovations at Lambeau Field, where they play all of their home games. The people of the area are being asked to prove whether or not they really love the Green Bay Packers.
There are 112,205 shareholders who own approximately 4.75 million shares. The stock pays no dividends, and demand for tickets is so great that many of the shareholders will never get to see a game in person.
There is a season-ticket waiting list of about 86,000 names, with only about 90 people per year getting the chance to become ticket holders. It is said that a name placed on the list today would be eligible for season tickets in 955 years!
It is common in Green Bay and other Wisconsin cities to put a baby's name on the list as soon as the birth certificate is issued. You can even leave your season tickets to surviving family members in your will.
Lambeau Field is the NFL's second-oldest stadium, having been built in 1957. In the year 2000, the Packers asked for a half-percent increase in Brown County's sales tax to help finance a $295 million renovation.
Packer fans are known as the most faithful, but the tax increase to give their beloved Lambeau Field met much opposition. A poll taken by the "Green Bay Press-Gazette" found that only 53 percent were in favor of the tax increase. Tom Olejniczak served as chairman of Team Lambeau, a group which supported passage of the tax increase. He says, "I think people realize the Packers are the heart and soul of this community. I think this vote will be one heavily weighted in emotion -- for the Packers and against the tax."
SO IT IS IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD. We loudly and boldly declare our love for God, His Word, and our church. Yet when it begins to cost us something, we grow strangely quiet. There is much at stake. In our day, with all the world in turmoil such as we've never seen, it may be time for us to prove our love for God, to take a serious stand for the Kingdom, to "put up or shut up."
--Rocky Henriques, www.timothyreport.com
