Last weekend, I had one of those unforgettable fatherhood moments when I took my 11-year old son, an avid pee-wee tackle football player, back to my home state to watch our Packers play the 49ers at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. From the moment we got off the plane and were greeted by Packers insignias and the smell of deep fried cheese curds, we knew we were in for a great weekend. We made our way past the single-story homes decked out with holiday decorations, the tailgate parties overflowing with brats and beer, and the front yards rented out for parking (my favorite sign was, 20 bucks: parking and toilet) until we reached the hallowed ground of Lambeau, with a statue of the great Vince Lombardi out front.

Aside from the fact that we watched a Packers victory on a warm afternoon or that the UW Marching Band played at halftime, there was something else that made this day perfect. It was the essence of the Packers themselves—the only team in the NFL owned by fans.

Packers lore has it that shortly after Curly Lambeau started the team, he ran out of money and kept the team afloat by selling shares in the team. The only catch was that you could own no more than one share and you had to live in Wisconsin. To this day, the Green Bay Packers are owned by their fans.

And it shows. In a city of just over 100,000 (the 70,000-seat stadium would hold most of them), every house, business, school, and street sign seems to show team pride. The stadium isn’t located ten miles outside of the city, surrounded by an ocean of pricey parking lots—it’s right in the middle of town, surrounded by regular houses, bars, and gas stations. The players and fans share a bond captured in the “Lambeau Leap.” The stadium’s name and logo doesn’t change every year, depending on who paid for the naming rights, it retains the name of the team’s founder and first coach.

It’s impossible to imagine some outsized-ego-owner shaking down Packers fans for more taxpayer money and threatening to move the team away, like what’s going on just to the west in Minnesota, or insider deals at the State capitol to win special breaks without benefits to the fans, like what’s going on in LA (where they still don’t have a team, by the way). The fan-owners wouldn’t allow it.

Every sports fan should make a pilgrimage to Lambeau Field at least once, just to see what professional sports looks like when the fans are given a meaningful voice, when fans control the destiny of a team. Leaving Lambeau with my son, who by this time was sporting a cheese-head and a Donald Driver jersey, I not only realized that this would be a fatherhood moment I’d never forget. I also was heading back to DC with a renewed resolve to give fans the seat at the table they deserve.

-David Goodfriend

Read posts from the SFC Chairman every Thursday here at www.SportsFansCoalition.org.