Green Bay Packers a hot stock

GREEN BAY, Wis., Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Officials with the Green Bay Packers said 1,600 orders were placed during the first 11 minutes of the team's fifth stock sale Tuesday.

Mark Murphy, president and chief executive of the team, said the first $250 order for a share of the team's stock was placed by someone in Texas at 8 a.m. CST with another 1,599 transactions taking place within minutes, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Murphy urged patience among those who complained on Twitter of having difficulty accessing the sale's Web site, packersowner.com, and toll-free number, 855-8-GOPACK.

"Have patience," Murphy said Tuesday morning. "Be patient."

In its first stock offering since 1997, the NFL team put up 250,000 shares for sale. A sellout would gross $62.5 million. Murphy said after expenses officials expect the sale will net between $20 million and $22 million that will go toward $143 million in Lambeau Field improvements.