Packers president worried about long-term chances to compete

In the first of Ed Policy’s term as president of the Green Bay Packers, general manager Brian Gutekunst made a gamble to go all-in for the 2025 season by trading for Micah Parsons.

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In addition to paying Parsons a four-year contract extension worth $188 million, Green Bay gave the Dallas Cowboys two first-round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark. Essentially, the Packers mortgaged their future in a bid to win immediately.

The Packers are also facing a potential existential crisis when it comes to fundraising. Because the team is publicly funded, the Packers cannot sell minority ownership like many league teams have done in recent years to bring in cash.

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In a recent interview, Policy told Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal that the team has built a corporate reserve fund that eclipses $600 million, but that number is still much lower than most league teams.

“If you think about, any other team, they’ve got deep-pocketed owners, most of them are worth significantly more than that, and they could sell less than 10 percent of their team, give up no controlling interest, and raise a heck of a lot more than that,” Policy told Fischer.

With the Chicago Bears set to build a stadium in the near future, the Packers will eventually be the only NFL team with a stadium that hasn’t sold naming rights. Policy hinted that Green Bay will likely sell the naming rights to Lambeau Field at some point.

In the meantime, the Packers first look at selling naming rights to the training facility and the Titletown campus.

Policy argued that the salary cap is the only thing keeping the Packers competitive in the current market.

“Thank goodness for the salary cap, because without the salary cap there would be no Green Bay Packers, and I would argue there probably wouldn’t be a number of existing, very successful NFL teams that are around now,” Policy said. “But it only caps one thing, and that’s player salaries.”

But players’ salaries are only one piece of the puzzle. 

Coaching salaries and buyouts aren’t capped. Other areas such as training, nutrition, and practice facilities are expenses each team funds, and there can be significant disparities.

Policy’s job is to create more revenue for the Packers so the team can be competitive in other areas not subsidized by the salary cap, and he wants to find those revenue streams now so Green Bay isn’t playing catchup in the future.

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