[PEN-L:11376] Re: The Pack Is Back

[Thad Williamson <thwilliamson@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

packers

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 > From pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  Mon Jan 27 11:39:47 1997
 > Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997 11:20:19 -0800 (PST)
 > Reply-To: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 > Originator: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 > Sender: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 > From: "Rosser Jr, John Barkley" <rosserjb@xxxxxxx>
 > Subject: [PEN-L:8350] The Pack Is Back
 > X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas
 > X-Comment: Progressive Economics
 >
 >      The Pack is back!
 >      Well, after that eruption I should confess that I
 > was a long time resident of the state of Wisconsin and
 > thus possess a certain regional chauvinism regarding
 > yesterday's victory by the Green Bay Packers over the
 > Boston Patriots in the Super Bowl.  But, I think that
 > there may be something of interest here, especially
 > for those who advocate reading the bourgeois press in
 > order to communicate with the workingclass.
 >      The issue is the rather peculiar ownership
 > structure of the Green Bay Packers, unique in American
 > professional football, and I suspect in major
 > professional sports in the US period.  It rather
 > resembles one of the cooperative form variations of a
 > Chinese town and village enterprise.  The team is
 > owned by a non-profit corporation whose stock is owned
 > by the citizens of the City of Green Bay, Wisconsin.
 > Now, this is not local socialism a la the power
 > company owned by the City of Cleveland.  Nor is it
 > worker-owned or worker-managed.  But it certainly
 > raises a lot of questions about the role of
 > billionaire owners and large corporations, and its
 > ownership structure has gotten a lot of attention in
 > the mass media.
 >      Many are attributing it as a factor in the team's
 > success, certainly to the enthusiasm of its
 > "cheesehead" fans (I note that Green Bay is a very
 > workingclass town).
 >     Keith Jackson, tight end has been quoted as
 > saying, "In Green Bay, you aren't working for an owner
 > you don't like."  This Super Bowl was marked by a much
 > larger attendance by workingclass people than the
 > usual wealthy glitterati that attend these events, and
 > most of them were "cheesehead" Packers fans.
 >      I think that this is a mind-opening issue for a
 > lot of people, who take sports more seriously than the
 > stuff discussed on these lists most of the time.  The
 > increasing alienation induced by market capitalism in
 > sports has really disgusted a lot of people, and there
 > are commentators noting that the ownership structure
 > of the Green Bay Packers may be a way for cities to
 > "stand up to the greed and power of large
 > corporations."
 > Barkley "Cheesehead" Rosser
 >
 > --
 > Rosser Jr, John Barkley
 > rosserjb@xxxxxxx
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