Green Bay Packers
Green Bay Packers With the nation pushing through a crippling economic downturn, the Green Bay Packers have announced that, according to last years numbers, they are actually making a profit.

The NFL's only publicly owned franchise turned a $20.1 million operating profit last year and even with a significant amount investment losses, the Packers still managed $4 million in net income for the fiscal year ending at the end of March. Those numbers may be down from previous years, but Green Bay is in the black.

A rarity in today's economy.

"We have been able to weather it OK," Packers treasurer Larry Weyers said. "We're still a strong institution and we still have the strength to support football operations and maintain the quality of our football team."

Weyers went on
to say that the organization is still very concerned anytime their profits drop off as much as theirs did this year.

Future economic challenges have team officials even more concerned. They see player costs rising faster and faster every season, a trend that makes Packers brass likely to join other NFL owners in taking a firm stance against the players' union in upcoming collective bargaining negotiations.

"It's a real concern that our player costs continue to grow at a rate much higher than our revenue's growing," Packers president and chief executive Mark Murphy said. "It's not sustainable, and it's the reason we opted out of the collective bargaining agreement."

The Packers will issue a full report to shareholders this summer, but team officials offered an overview of the team's finances to the media this week.