Why does a city the size of Green Bay (pop 120,000) have an NFL franchise?

Because A) they own it, the Packers are a publicly traded team, and B) they support it. People come to see the games, people live for the team between August and December.

You could have huge cities/media markets like LA, where people tend to stop caring about a team thats not doing well and stop coming to games, especially in cities that have other teams or other teams nearby. Green Bay pretty much is the Pack and only the Pack, and so the Pack have always done well there.

edit: If the financial/business answer isnt enough to satisfy you, then just consider it tradition - the Packers have always been in Green Bay, thats where Lombardi worked his magic, thats where the Ice Bowl went down. There's a lot of history and mystique at Lambeau Field.

Plus, back in the early 20th C when a lot of these teams were being formed, the franchise paradigm wasnt to put all your teams in major media markets, but to spread them around to cities that didnt already have a sports franchise to try to "claim" that city for your sport. Teams didnt start migrating from places like Rockport until the advent of radio, and especially television, when the idea of the "media market" first came to be.

You all realize that the league was call the NFL BEFORE the championship game was coined the 'Super Bowl' right? So who has the most NFL championships? Oh, that's right, the Green Bay Packers. So I guess it doesn't matter how many championships ever Dallas or S.F. have, since it isn't close to 12. They are also the only team to have won the championship three times in a row, and they did that twice, no other team has ever done that, and the Packers did it TWICE! So what team is the greatest ever? One could argue the Green Bay Packers, but it is hard the call one team the greatest ever. If one made a list though, Green Bay would definitely be in the top two or three and arguably the best ever.

Size of the city has nothing to do with it.

The Green Bay franchise is one of the original NFL teams...They won't be going anywhere, ever!...Can you imagine the Bears moving from Chicago?...The Giants out of New York?

While the Rams, Colts and Cardinals have all moved (some more than once), the more established original NFL teams will be staying.

What difference does it make how big Green Bay is?...They sell out every game.

There are many cities that don't have an NFL team but very few of them could be depended upon to sell out every home game once the newness wore off...Los Angeles comes to mind...They lost the Rams and the Raiders in recent years...There's a reason for that!!!

As an additional note to the above answers, my girlfriend and I took a road trip this past fall that included going to Lambeau for the Packers-Cardinals game. As we drove halfway across Wisconsin on game day, we saw Packers colors and insignias on well over half the vehicles we passed on the way, despite the fact that they were under .500 at the time and playing one of the worst teams in the league.

The situation with the Packers really is unique, and it's a shame that it's the only team whose fans will never have to worry about losing it. As we learned in 1995, even a team with as much fan support as the Browns (who were ranked #1 for fan support in Bizjournal.com) can be yanked away by a private owner.

The Packers are the last remaining example of the "small town teams" that comprised a majority of the NFL during the 1920s. Green Bay is by far the smallest media market to be the home of a North American major professional sports league team (though their fanbase includes Milwaukee and the rest of Wisconsin).

for example The Hammond Professionals from Hammond Indiana was one of the country's earliest professional football teams. When the American Professional Football League was formed in 1920, the Hammond Pros was a charter member, as it also was when the league changed its name to National Football League in 1922. However, four years later, when the NFL decided to reduce the number of teams, it did so by simply folding smaller franchises and the Hammond Pros was one of the teams folded.instead opting to say with the bigger franchise in the area. the Chicago Bears.

When the NFL started out, it was not the monstrous size business that it is now, and pro football wasn't nearly as popular. (Even the Chicago Bears actually started out as the Decatur Staleys.) Also because of all the factors of the above answers (loyal fan base, publicly traded team, and intrastate interests in the team), they have stayed in Green Bay, and probably always will. It's a unique situation that will probably never repeat itself.

First, I'm not a Packer fan but if the Green Bay Packers ever had to move out of Green Bay for lack of support, that would be the beginning of the end for American football.

The pack goes back to the beginning of football my friend. The longest standing rivalry is between the Bears and packers from 1920. Bears lead the series 88 WINS, 79 LOSES AND 6 TIES if I'm not mistaken.The packers are owned by the people or fans.Should they move to another city??? I don't think so.

"Monsters of the Midway"

DA ...B E A R S ..

Dave fm. Knox,Tn.

Its the only proffesional team green bay got. The fans go to every game and they make enough money to keep it. They not gonna take away the packers from the cheese heads.

im going to take a guess and say that size doesn't matter........another note is my town 16,000 is getting a minor league baseball team and stadium....and just like my town green bay might bring in thousands and thousands of people (fans) to their town