In 2011, fans of the Green Bay Packers were offered the chance to buy shares in their favorite professional sports team. This was the first time Packers "stock" had been opened to investment in 15 years, and only the fourth time this had happened in history. Unfortunately for investors, it was an exceedingly bad deal.

Unlike stock in profit-making companies, Green Bay offered sports fans no share of the Packers profits, nor any chance to profit from the enormous growth in the price of the shares. $10,000 worth of Green Bay Packers shares bought at their first sale in 1950 would have grown in value to $100 million by 2011 -- but because the team reserved a right of first refusal on the shares, and set a buyback price of $0.025 per share, Packers fans were guaranteed to lose money on any resale of their stock.

Friday Night was lights out for profits on Green Bay's offering of Packers stock. Can sports investors do better? Image source: Getty Images.

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Source: Fool.com