Amid warnings of a severe thunderstorms and 3-inch hail, it looked questionable whether the Green Bay Packers' 1 p.m. shareholders meeting on July 27 would take place outdoors at Lambeau Field. As it happened, the storm was much worse in the Fox Valley, where a tornado was reported, than in Green Bay, although, if the meeting had its frequent 11 a.m. start, it would have been chased indoors, as happened in 2018.But by the time 3,215 fans and the Packers leadership took seats in the stadium, the sun was out and it was in all respects a typical Packers shareholders' meeting. Well, typical in most respects. Presiding over this meeting was Ed Policy, completing his first year as Packers president and CEO after 17 years of leadership by Mark Murphy.Policy reiterated his philosophy for the Packers, which includes three elements: Win football games, keep the Packers in Green Bay and strengthen the community. "We are sure that every decision we make is in furtherance of one or more of these goals," he said. "We should never be in a position where we can't make a smart football move because we don't have the resources."General manager Brian Gutekunst kicked off the meeting by acknowledging that the 2025 season did not play out favorably for the Packers, who were 9-3-1 before finishing 9-7-1, then losing to the Chicago Bears in the playoffs."The season had great promise, but ultimately fell short of our goal," Gutekunst said. "We have no illusions about areas where we must improve."Player expenses add up in 2025 seasonOfficially, the Packers reported net income of $132.5 million for the 2025-26 fiscal year, a 54.8% increase over the previous year, but that's mostly an accounting mirage. As a practical matter, the team reported a $1.1 million loss in profit from operations. Total non-operating income, which includes increases in investments, was $133.6 million.Total expenses increased $118.7 million, from $635.4 million to $754.1 million. The breakdown was $444.2 million for players costs, $79.8 million for team costs, $87.7 million for sales, marketing & fan engagement, $82.6 million for general and administrative expenses and $58.7 million for facilities, exclusive of $18.2 million from the Green-Bay Brown County Professional Football Stadium District for facilities costs.Total revenue (not including non-operating income) was $753 million $453.2 million from league-wide revenue sharing and $299.8 million from local sources. Both were up 4.7% or more. Total revenue was the highest on record for the Packers, as were total expenses. National revenue comes primarily from media deals in the form of revenue sharing.Packers treasurer Karl Schmidt said national revenue was 60% of total revenue for the team and local revenue is "the key differentiator to competitiveness." The team got a big accounting boost (as opposed to actual cash) from the NFL's investment in 10% of ESPN in return for NFL Network, NFL Fantasy and the rights to distribute the RedZone channel. The league divided up the equity among the 32 teams. The Packers would not say how much their share was because fellow NFL teams already are perpetually annoyed that the Packers are required to make financial information public every year, which also allows a look at elements of their own finances, such as revenue sharing."I'd probably leave it to the NFL to answer exactly how the teams would benefit from that [ESPN] transaction," Policy said during a meeting with reporters on July 24. "Whether or not there would be dividends over time or whether or not at some point you'd have the ability to sell that 10% at a profit. Those would generally be the way you would profit. You would monetize a transaction like that. That's a league-wide transaction, we didn't have direct involvement in."Packers reinvest, save or give away their moneyBecause Packers stock does not pay dividends, all revenue is available for team use. Policy said they do one of three things with the money, "We will reinvest it, save it or give it away," primarily through the Packers Foundation. The Packers contributed more than $15 million to their corporate reserve fund, which stands at $701 million, compared with $579 million last year. The remainder of the increase was because of investment gains.The team contributed $5 million to the Packers Foundation, which brought its endowment to $66 million. The Foundation has distributed well over $30 million since it was founded in 1986.Policy said the team will continue to try to strike a balance in ticket pricing, between raising income and being fair to fans."We do have to balance that, especially as it relates to ticket pricing, because we also owe it to our fans to field a championship-caliber team," he said to reporters July 24. "I think for the most part they probably want us to focus on that more than anything else. We have to balance what's right and what's fair to the best fan-base in all of sports with what it's going to take to really field and the resources it's going to take to field a championship-caliber team."We are going to have to look at our ticket-pricing strategy. Let's assume we are one of the top three teams in terms of ticket demand throughout the entire league. We are going to stick with our strategy of staying somewhere in the middle of the pack in terms of ticket price. Even that's going to become more and more difficult as you get these new and refurbished stadiums , which is only going to increase ticket prices. Our goal will remain to have a ticket price that is somewhere in the middle [of the league]."Other meeting takeawaysFormer Packers chairman, president and CEO Bob Harlan's name will go up on the Lambeau Field facade next to Ted Thompson's name during the 7:15 p.m. Oct. 29 game against the Carolina Panthers. Harlan died on March 5. He is credited with rescuing the organization from 20 years of mediocracy and worse when he hired general manager Ron Wolf in 1991 and led the 2003 renovation of Lambeau Field.Policy said the team renovated nearly every football space in the stadium in the last three years, including most recently the locker room, training rooms and equipment rooms. The two Luke Combs concerts at Lambeau Field in May drew nearly 93,000 people. The Saturday night turnout was the largest ever for a concert at Lambeau Field, including for Paul McCartney and Billy Joel.The Packers will pursue marketing in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany, the areas approved for them by the NFL. Policy said the NFL might be reaching a saturation point in the United States, but is only starting in the rest of the world. "We will have millions of new fans making multiple-generation decisions [in picking favorite teams]. We can't afford to not be involved in that," he said. To that end, the Packers Pro Shop is opening a store in Munich, Germany, on Nov. 12."We could get to point where we have an 18-game schedule, at which point ... we could be playing internationally every year. I was pleased this year when the schedule came out and we didn't have an international game, in part because it means so much to us and our community to have another home game here," Policy said on July 24.Omaha Productions, former quarterback Peyton Manning's production company, is developing a six-part series on the Packers, Policy said it might be released in December.Shareholders meeting turnout was 3,215 in person and 1,173 online. That was the smallest Lambeau Field turnout since at least 1998, the first time it was held in the bowl. Threatening weather can no doubt be blamed for the in-person turnout.Policy got applause when he said the Packers would not sell naming rights to Lambeau Field, and a prolonged "the Bears still suck" chant broke out when he mentioned the Chicago/Arlington Heights/Hammond team to the south. Three new directors electedShareholders elected three new directors, Harry Sydney, Glen Tellock and Robert Weyers. No board members retired this year, so that brings the total number of directors to 45. Directors must retire when they turn 70 years old.Sydney had a six-year career at running back, playing for the San Francisco 49ers and the Packers, and a six-year career as an NFL coach. He was on three Super Bowl teams, including two as a player with San Francisco and one as a coach with Green Bay. He also was coach of the Green Bay West High School football team for three years after leaving the NFL and is founder ofMy Brother's Keeper, a mentoring program for boys and men.Tellock is the former president and CEO ofLakeside Foodsin Manitowoc. Before that, he was chairman, president and CEO ofThe Manitowoc Co.Weyers is co-owner ofCommercial Horizons,a property development company that partnered with the Packers on Titletown district projects, among its other investments.Contact Richard Ryman atrryman@usatodayco.com. Follow him on X at@RichRymanPGand on Instagram at@rrymanPG.This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Weather cooperates for Packers shareholders meeting at Lambeau Field