Blogs

More news & notes from financial report

In a meeting with a group of local reporters, Packers officials discussed some additional aspects to the team’s financial report, which featured a record operating profit of $43 million for the most recent fiscal year.

–President/CEO Mark Murphy explained the reason behind a hike in ticket prices for a third straight year in 2012 amidst the team’s record revenues and profits. He said that because the Packers share one-third of the ticket revenue on general bowl seats with the visiting team, it’s incumbent upon a team that always sells out and has tens of thousands of people on a season-ticket waiting list to keep its ticket prices from impacting other teams’ revenues.

“It’s a balancing act,” Murphy said. “We want to be fair to our fans, and be affordable, but we also want to be fair to our partners in the league. We strive to be at the league average.”

Paul Baniel, the team’s vice president of finance, said that in 2009 — after two straight years of not raising ticket prices — the Packers had dropped to 30th in the league in ticket prices. Now, the team’s prices rank 17th or 18th of the 32 teams.

–The Packers Preservation Fund has remained at $127.5 million for several years now, and the team hasn’t added anything to it. Murphy said the organization looks more closely at the total equity of the franchise, and rather than add cash to the preservation fund has been steadily increasing its investments in real estate around Lambeau Field.

“Investing in real estate to me is investing for the future,” Murphy said, not dismissing the preservation fund but explaining that the organization’s safety net is now those two items “in conjunction” with one another.

–Fans flocked to Lambeau Field for stadium and Hall of Fame tours in record numbers over the past year. Each tour averages around 90,000 visitors per year, but in the past year, the Hall of Fame saw 156,000 visitors while 137,000 fans took stadium tours.

–Officials couldn’t say for sure, but it’s possible the Packers could climb well into the top 10 in the league’s revenue rankings when they come out later this year. For the fiscal year ending in March 2011, the Packers had $282.6 million in total revenue, bringing their revenue ranking up from 13th to 10th in the league. This year, revenues hit a record $302 million.

“We’ll be interested to see when the rankings come out where we are,” Baniel said.

For the full story on the financial report, click here.

To see a video Q&A with Mark Murphy, click here.

Rodgers named Jaworski’s No. 1 QB

In what came as no surprise, ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski concluded his countdown of the top 30 quarterbacks in the NFL on Tuesday by unveiling Packers QB Aaron Rodgers as his No. 1 choice.

New Orleans’ Drew Brees, New England’s Tom Brady, Denver’s Peyton Manning and the N.Y. Giants’ Eli Manning rounded out Jaworski’s top five. In the NFC North, the next highest-rated QB was Chicago’s Jay Cutler at No. 8. Detroit’s Matthew Stafford came in at No. 14, and Minnesota’s Christian Ponder was No. 28.

“Aaron Rodgers is my No. 1 quarterback,” Jaworski said. “He has all the attributes that I love: accuracy, velocity, movement, toughness. Those attributes lead to elite play and wins. He’s won two out of every three starts and a Super Bowl championship.”

Jaworski noted Rodgers’ third-and-10 throw to Greg Jennings in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLV as the perfect example of Rodgers’ “exceptional combination of velocity and accuracy, elite arm strength and pin-point ball location.”

“You know what I love most about that throw? Rodgers’ instinctive willingness to pull the trigger. He made it because he knew he could make it. One critical measure of high-level play is the ability to execute versus the blitz. Rodgers’ rating in 2011 was 136, easily the best in the NFL. He was outstanding beating the man coverage that you primarily see with blitz. Again, a function of his accuracy, or as I’ve said many times, ball location.”