February 27th: Lin provided an update today, clarifying that Kudla and Brees did not submit a formal bid but are considering partnering with one of the other bidding groups.
February 26th: The Seidler family’s efforts to sell the Padres appear to have accelerated in recent weeks. Sheel Seidler, widow of former Padres owner Peter Seidler, dropped or settled most of her litigation against Peter Seidler’s brothers earlier this month. That cleared the way for the family to ramp up a sales process that began in November.
Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that five prospective buyers have submitted bids. Previous reporting had identified Joe Lacob, José E. Feliciano and Dan Friedkin as suitors.
Lacob, the owner of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, had previously shown interest in buying the Angels and Athletics. Feliciano is a Santa Monica-based private equity mogul whose firm is a lead owner of the English Premier League team, Chelsea F.C. Friedkin was born in San Diego but is now based out of Texas. He has various business interests and also owns a Premier League club, the Liverpool-based Everton F.C.
Most American sports fans will be more familiar with another potential buyer. Dennis Lin and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported this afternoon that Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees has partnered with Vuori CEO Joe Kudla to make a run at buying the franchise. Vuori is a San Diego-based clothing company that specializes in athleisure. Brees played the first five seasons of his career with the Chargers.
Assuming Lacob, Feliciano, Friedkin and the Kudla/Brees groups have made offers, that’d be 80% of what seems to be the remaining field. The identity of the final bidder isn’t known.
Earlier this month, Sportico estimated the franchise value around $2.31 billion. It seems the Seidler family is aiming a fair bit higher. Acee writes that people within the industry anticipate the sale price will land north of $2.5 billion. Rosenthal and Lin report that the Seidlers are seeking a purchase price closer to $3 billion than to the estimation from Sportico.
Anything north of $2.5 billion would be a record for an MLB franchise. Steve Cohen’s 2020 purchase of the Mets from the Wilpon family was for roughly $2.475 billion. That remains the high-water mark. More recent sales of the Orioles and Rays have landed in the $1.7 billion range. Peter Seidler’s group purchased the Padres for $800MM in 2012. The reports from the Union-Tribune and The Athletic — each of which are worth a full read for San Diego fans — suggest an agreement could be reached around Opening Day.
$2.5 billion +. Plenty of applicants to join the billionaires club and yet owners cry poverty.
The franchises routinely sell for a billion dollars more than the previous owner paid for it and yet they’ve still managed to convince some fans the sport is in trouble if they don’t cut salaries.
At least on the surface and based upon what has been reported, this would seem to be a “deepest pockets versus strongest links to the community” solutions with the known bidders. Certainly, the Brees/Kudla group has the most direct affinity to the San Diego community, but may be thin on working capital in an age of ever-rising player salaries. Dan Friedkin — whose grandfather founded San Diego-based Pacific Southwest Airlines — also presumably has some affinity to the local community, if not directly. The other two groups are likely better positioned from a capital standpoint but may not have the same community focus outside of the franchise that Peter Seidler had.
Current ownership has proven that the Padres, under stable and well-capitalized ownership, can compete with any team in MLB on and off of the field. The wild card in terms of valuation is going to be a resolution to media rights and the revenue streams from them. The Padres have a more compact local footprint than some teams with larger local media markets, so it’s not likely they will be in a position to set up their own media outlet like the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Braves or Rangers.
Pretty sure Friedkin is the richest individual of them all.
You are correct, according to the latest Forbes estimates.
Dan Friedkin, est. $11.0 – $11.3 billion
José Feliciano, est. $3.88 – $3.9 billion
Joe Lacob, est. $2.3 to #2.37 billion
Drew Brees/Joe Kudla (combined), est. $160 – $270 million
Looks like Brees and Kudla will need a large investor group to meet the estimated $2.45 billion price tag for the franchise.
I don’t want Brees or Kulda owning the Padres either.
It’ll be interesting how the Padres organization pays up 5% of its value to the state of CA assuming the crazy tax passes and a concrete valuation is set via a sale.
You’re talking around $135m chunk
She dropped the suit without the chance to refile because the brothers couldn’t sell without her. None of them care about the team, they are just blood-sucking scumbags that have Peter looking up in shame
Don’t make me come up there you punks!
I posted about that at the end of the comments. Rumors are the 3 Seidler brothers agreed to turn over control of Peter Seidler’s trust to her if she agreed to allow them to sell the team. As you said, they could not do it without her approval as the beneficiary of the trust. That will put a half billion or more under her control.
If you want fully loaded Nachos, I highly if you can go to Coors Field for the mountain high nachos. Pull pork not the chicken
Come on down to Petco. We have tri-tip nachos. Best in the majors.
It’s been aehile since I’ve been to Petco Park. I hate prior to the game(s) I went to. Didn’t know they had nachos. I’ll definitely have to make a trip there.
“Looking up?” I’m guessing you didn’t mean it this way, but one could read into that an unfortunate connotation as to where Peter’s soul went after he died.
Or they’re implying Pete’s rolling over in his grave after looking up and seeing what’s become of his padres since his departure.
@informed sportsball. Just meant looking up from 6ft under. Not a believer in afterlife stuff, my bad for that.
@AllTheFully
Fair enough. Thank you for clarifying.
When it comes to the “afterlife” there are two types of people in the world, those who believe & those who will believe. 🤣
Or those who don’t believe and those who will wonder why they did…
If there is no afterlife, they won’t be able to wonder why they did. They will just be gone.
The law of conservation of energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed or transferred. That would point towards an afterlife for some part of us.
The transfer/transformation of energy after death is to the planet in the form of decomposition. If that is considered an “afterlife” like my energy will potentially feed plants or vultures (sky burial sounds sweet) then I do believe. If it’s some realm tied to religion, then I find it hard to believe our grain of sand on the cosmic beach knows the truth or is more special in some way.
While decomposition breaks down 100% of the organic matter, only 68-70% of the energy contained in your body will be transferred in decomposition if you are buried. If you are cremated, where does it go? More than 20% dissipates before your body is even processed for burial or cremation. 7-10% is removed as the body is prepared for burial/cremation in blood and fluids. Our bodies are literally a generating station for energy. What happens to the rest? That is tied to physics and biology, not religion.
From everything I have read, Peter Seidler was the real deal, a guy that walked the talk and gave of himself. The kind of guy you would like to sit down, have a beer, and get involved in helping out the community along side him.
Is it good to have a bidding war for your team? I guess its better than having no interest.
I’m rooting for ya @Gwynning! Happy bidding and good luck!
Just service level without doing any digging, sounds like a decent mix of potential owners. My Seahawks are for sale and hoping a similar mix of interest from owners with smarts who prefer a hands-off philosophy…we all know how dysfunctional meddling owners can ruin a franchise for a generation.
That should be “surface level” not “service level” excuse me I’ve had a beverage.
Mahalo gentlemen! LFGSD
Went to my first Padres game last season. I’ve been to most of the mlb parks. That one is now my very favorite. What a great fan experience at Petco. The best.
Coming into LA and going to my first Angels game next month. Already did the Dodgers.
I’m glad you had a great time, Roob! The city prides itself in the team and ballpark, and hopefully everybody made your visit a top shelf experience!
My wife and I went to a series there in early September last year. It was Monday to Wednesday and all the games were packed. 40k plus each game. Playoff atmosphere. The fans are incredible.
It was our first time so we got there early to explore the ballpark with some friends that live in Coronado. That park in the outfield is huge and a lot of fun. The view of the bay from the bar up on the top level on the 3rd base side is amazing. We had seats in what they call left field boxes where our friends have season tickets.
It was one of the best ballparks I have been to. Several are just as beautiful, like Pittsburgh, but not as fun all around. The whole experience there is awesome.
I gave our friends kid the Manny Machado stuffed toy giveaway but I still have the Dylan Cease no hitter bobblehead someplace.
You guys have to check out T-Mobile in Seattle if you haven’t yet. Often rated in the Top 5. For optimal weather conditions I would shoot for a mid-June thru September date. Pacific Northwest summers are to die for , and T-Mobile is quite a nice place to experience one if you haven’t. Cheers!
The Reds series? 3 great games. Too bad the Reds took 2 of them.
So jealous.
Really hope this works out well for the Padres.
Thank you.
Same here. I want the Angels to be sold, and the ridiculous small spenders like Jerry Reinsdorf should sell his team too.
Arte can’t live forever
So you want him to die?
Just like everyone poops, everyone eventually dies.
Life lesson #1
If they are worth 2.5 billion. How much could the Dodgers fetch?
Pandas – I would guess 7.5 – 10
forbes.com/mlb-valuations/list/
Forbes hasn’t published 2026 yet. They were spot on when the O’s sold.
3.5 billion with deferrals
Panda: The Dodgers should buy the Padres.
Denim move them to LA
The 2005 Dodgers lost 91 games and still pulled in 3.6-million fans for the season. Thanks to that record they drafted Kershaw the next year. That franchise will always make money.
they got Kershaw because of Hochevar not signing
Good post!
Always fun to think of alternate history! As a Royals fan always enjoyed Hochevar and thought he gave all his effort to the Royals for his entire career—which is might be surprising with that sort of start with the draft.
Ultimately he was an underrated bullpen piece when they ended up making the push years later.
Dodgers won the division in 2004, the hype from that carried over a bit.
Their attendance never waned much until maybe 2010.
And the 9th inning has been notorious for seeing brake lights behind the outfield pavilion.
14thor: 3.6 million fans after the third inning. Innings 1-3, not so much.
mab, or after the 7th.
If you went to any games that season at Chavez Latrine you know that there were not many fans actually in the stands. They may have sold 3.6 million tickets, but the stands were only half full most games.
“half full most games” is patently false.
Not at all. I attended 22 games there that season. All the Padres and Giants games there and others when the Padres were on the road. Rivalry games. The stands were half full and I am not just talking about the 1-3 innings and 8-9 innings.
that would mean you were at at least four or five bobblehead games and those all physically sell out. which bobbleheads did you end up with?
also other popular promotions like world series replica trophy. you probably got a bunch of promotional stuff and spent a lot of money since those are premium priced games.
I’m thinking closer to 3B with that many bidders unless they start to drop off. The brothers have never seemed to match Peter’s passion for the team.
None of them are Padres fans. Before he became the Padres control person, John Seidler had attended 2 Padres games. Matt, Bob, and their families are Dodger season ticket holders and even after their families were part of purchasing the Padres, they were all seen at Dodgers games.
Like John Fisher and Family were all Giants fans, not A’s fans.
Rumors are the John, Bob, and Matthew Seidler were willing to step away as executors of Peter Seidler’s trust if his widow was willing to allow them to sell the team.
Now she gets control of the hundreds of millions that 24% of the team will equal in this sale. The other brothers get to cash in on what Peter built.
Padres fans, you could do much worse than Joe Lacob as owner.
Now the Seidler bros can go back to cheering for the Dodgers. Good riddance to the lot of them.
Just don’t pick that private equity ahole
Giants fan. San Diego fans would really like Lacob as owner. He’s been the best thing that ever happened to GSW. He has always done everything possible for the Warriors to keep competitive. Great owner. Hope it happens.
Sadly I don’t think they will sell based on who will actually take care of the franchise best moving forward
Dusty: Good point.That could unfortunately be bad for SD fans. I’m a Giants lifer and hopefully it all works out. San Diego is a good city and your fans are some of the best.
Joe Lacob had a standing offer to buy the Oakland A’s on the table for 10+ years according to an interview.
He was going to build the A’s a New Stadium in the Bay Area with private funds.
Lacob even offered to partner with Fisher owning the A’s if Fisher refused to sell the A’s.
Fisher, Selig and Manfred blocked the sale of the A’s to multiple very rich investors to,allegedly, destroy the A’s economic viability in the Bay Area and to force the A’s to move out of that area.
The SF Giants were also big villians in the A’s saga in the Bay Area.
After former A’s Owner Walter Haas Jr. (Levis) helped save the Giants for the Bay Area and was instrumental in blocking the Giants move to Tampa in the 1990’s. Haas and the A’s were repaid by the Giants with (allegedly) constant backstabbing and blocking the A’s from building themselves a new stadium in the Bay Area.
As far as Lacob goes, he would be a great Owner with his can do attitude
and success in building the dynastic NBA Champion Warriors
But, Lacob’s Net Worth is lower than many of the other groups bidding for the Padres. So, it makes fans wonder if Lacob would have the finanical wherewithal to compete with high spending teams like the Dodgers.
The NBA has a salary cap and an entirely different pay and revenue structure than MLB.
Lacob would not run losses to build a Championship team with the San Diego Padres.
And with the Dodgers MLB behemoth to the North of the SD Padres anb competing in the NL West, it might take running some losses to overtake the Dodgers in the NL West and win Championships.
At a $2.5 billion net worth, Lacob does have the lowest net worth of the 3 known lead investors. Friedkin the most at $11.4 billion. Both would be part of an ownership group that would include many others, they would not be cutting a check out of their personal accounts to buy the team.
Alfredo Harp Helú who has a net worth of $1.2 billion USD has said that he would retain his interest in the Padres if they are sold. Several other minority partners have expressed interest in remaining part of the ownership and as far as I know they cannot be forced out.
The same happened when the Mets, Rays, and Orioles were sold. There are still minority partners that hold a piece of those teams.
I may be wrong, but I believe Ron Fowler was a minority partner in the Padres going all the way back to 1994 when John Moores was the majority partner. Fowler was the control person with MLB from 2012 to 2020 when he sold enough of his interest in the team to Peter Seidler to allow Seidler to be the control person with MLB. From what I can find, Fowler still holds a small interest in the team.
Ron Fowler was part of the group that bought the team along with Moores as the majority investor.
Then he was part of a group of minority partners that held 49% that partnered with Moorad to buy the team from Moores.
When that failed he joined the group that included the O’Malleys and Seidlers and as the largest single investor he was named the control person and executive chairman.
Then when he had some ill health he sold most of his interest to Peter Seidler who then owned the single largest share of the team and became the control person. He still is a minority partner.
Can’t use Cohen purchase price as comparison since he took on a lot of debt. Mets really sold for over $4 billion.
Wonder if New Guy comes in and guts the place. Hope not. Might be nervous time out there given histories. They’ve lost the Rockets, Clippers, Chargers, even the Conquistadors.
Speaking of Drew Brees, raise your hand if you have also seen him and HoJo, Howard Johnson himself, at the same store home improvement store on the same day. (Anyone? Bueller? Preller?)
One of them have to might go back looking to build an Owner’s Box.
Why would anyone be stupid enough to gut the place? They are the only game in town and they are printing money. Revenue has more than doubled since COVID. Several local sources have it at over $500 million for 2025. They are winning. The house is packed every night. Season tickets were sold out for 2026 months ago and there is a 5000+ person and growing waiting list of people paying $100 per year to be on the waiting list. If they win a WS on this run the money would rain from the sky.
its about profit and they havent even hit the meat for 4 players they have signed really long term in machado, tatis, merrill, and bogerts. through 2032 just those 4 alone is i believe is over 120M per year in a year or two.
I believe while their revenue is higher than the orioles they have less profit than them (probably due to those large salaries). Also if i recall correctly didnt the orioles clear a bunch of money before the new owner started to make it more attractive.
These teams generate revenue from numerous avenues and its hard to accurately estimate what they truly generate in profits. On top of that the real $ is in leveraging the value of the franchise to further build wealth. Profiting annually from baseball operations alone is not that significant in hrand scheme of things
According to the best guesses out there, Padres revenue in 2024 was $60 million more than the Orioles and in 2025 was $120 million more.
Looking at it strictly as an outsider and judging from the comments of John Seidler and their CEO both in December and since spring training opened about the level of spending being “sustainable” means it is profitable. Taking a loss year after year is not sustainable. That would imply revenue over $500 million, which is exactly where the estimates are from Sports Business Journal.
Of course we can’t say for sure and won’t be able to until there is more financial transparency.
If the Padres continue with similar budgets, then they may have to run some losses or trade someone (Bogaerts?).
Are you seriously trying to say that you know the Padres finances better than their control person John Seidler and their CEO? Really?
They said that the payroll they had in 2024 and 2025 was sustainable. Their word, not mine. That means they can continue to have similar budgets and also says definitively that you are wrong.
@SportsFan The financials reported by and large show these pro sports are very profitable. Thats just what is reported and not even factoring in the amount they generate leveraging the value and through taxes and government subsidies.
Billionaires would not be buying these franchises if it did not increase their net worth.
Padres FO and ownership have been saying since 2021 and again this spring that the payroll is at a level that they can continue to spend long term.
They keep spending and people keep questioning that spending.
So much spitting into the wind.
MLB jumped in and said the Padres had too much debt.
It was all a big public thing in case you missed it.
MLB intervened in late 2023 regarding the San Diego Padres’ high debt levels, requiring the team to take out a $50 million loan specifically to cover player payroll and operating expenses. This action was driven by the team exceeding MLB’s debt-service ratio limits, forcing them to cut payroll to the $200 million range in 2024.
The New York Times
These are the Facts.
Padres are on MLB’s watch list
for exceeding MLB’s debt-service ratio limits, forcing them to cut payroll to the $200 million range in 2024.
The New York Times
Those are not facts. After losing so much revenue in the 2020 season MLB said in 2021 that all except 5 teams had too much debt.
We have already covered ad nauseum that the loan the Padres took out was not to cover payroll, it was taken out AFTER the season was over.
The loan from Ascendant Capital was to complete the purchase of a piece of land from the city of San Diego where the current tailgate parking is located and that was part of a planned $1.6 billion development and also to pay for the $20 million in improvements at Gallagher Square. Google Tailgate Park Development Cisterra for more details on the development.
That whole thing fell apart after 3 1/2 years in court in December of 2025 when Cisterra decided to walk away from the deal. It was front page news in the SDUT.
As usual both Rosenthal/Lin at the Athletic and Acee were dead wrong. Somehow you think that those were facts. Pay attention son. You may actually learn something.
Wrong. The Padres cut payroll to dip under the CBT threshold to keep from being over for the 3rd straight season. They didn’t stay under $200 million as their CBT payroll was $227 million. Then they went right back over the CBT threshold in 2025 and even went over the 2nd tier. They will be around $270 million again in 2026.
Do you even pay attention to what is going on, or just spout stupidity from Rosenthal and Lin?
Do you realize that what you are posting as the New York Times is actually The Athletic?
@SportsFan MLB did not jump in and intervene, the loan was taken out in the Padres team name which requires teams to
inform the league.
You also conviently left out the part of that article where they point out the Padres, like most teams had budgeted for a loan to ease available capital.
Do you really think these billionaires are buying these franchises to lose $??
….
Maybe they could partner with Arte Moreno and offer a “buy one get one” deal with the Angels…please.
I offered 3.5 billion. A dollar a week for 3.5 billion weeks. I’ll let you know what they say. I’m only buying the team so I can fire A.J. Preller. Totally worth it……….even with no local tv deal.
“Sir, this is San Diego, not LA. We don’t do *that thing* here.”
Xpensiv: Does that include leap years?
I think you could do $1 per day?
Seidlers taking a page out of the Scott Boras playbook with the mystery bidder.
that’s because Scott Boras is the mystery bidder
Lmao how funny would that be if true
Remember the Jeff Moorad fiasco and him wanting to buy the team on the installment plan? It turns out not all super agents have deep pockets.
Moorad’s default led to Ron Fowler and his group buying the team and — in turn — led to them flipping the team to the Seidler group.
Boras has a lot of $$$$.
He is also well connected with “BigMoney” and would not
have any problems assembling and fronting a team Ownership Group if he wanted to take on that challenge.
Very doubful!
Boras loves his business and is at the top of his field.
Why would he throw all of that away?!
Unless, he gets bored and wants a New Challenge?!
Ron Fowler was a minority partner when Moores bought the team from Werner.
Fowler was part of a group of minority partners that held 49% of the team along with Moorad when they tried to buy the team from Moores.
Then Fowler was the largest single investor when the O’Malley/Seidler families put together a group to buy the team.
He has been a part of the Padres ownership since 1994.
I can neither confirm nor deny that Mr. E bidder is interested in buying the Padres.
Brees has a higher net worth than Kudla and neither has a net worth of even $200 million. I don’t think that report is true or there is another person who is an actual billionaire in that group.
Kudla owns Vuori which has a private valuation of $5.5B. They’re leveraging name value and assets to borrow cash along with having other investors. See Jeter and Marlins and ARod and Timberwolves among others.
Turns out that Brees and Kudla were not bidding. Rosenthal is not a very reliable source of information about the Padres. Neither is Acee.
Right now, it’s just a lot of noise. I only trust Jeff Passan.
Acee has inside sources with the Padres
and is given the lead on Padres announcements and stories by the Padres team.
MLBTR and many other sports media quote Acee all the time on the lastes Padres news, info and rumors.
Would not be surprised if AJ Preller was one of his sources.
Acee rarely even gets his questions answered at press conferences. Preller did not even acknowledge him in his last presser. Acee burned those bridges with the Padres long ago.
This site quotes Acee all the time and normally Acee is wrong just like he was about multiple points on this sale.
Web, were you the one that posted Marty Caswell’s Youtube account on here? I have been watching the videos of all the Padres press conferences on her YouTube.
It was funny that Kevin Acee would ask a question and AJ Preller would just ignore him and answer a question from someone else. I take it that is a new situation? Usually the GM doesn’t ignore the beat reporter from their local newspaper.
I think Acee is a fantastic writer and storyteller. However, he’s a hit piece journalist covering the Padres often fabricating facts and events – “Let’s stretch this story a bit and then the Padres can refute it.” is his M.O. Entertain readers, not inform them properly.
Plenty of now respected national sportswriters walked that same path. Jeff Passan among others *was* one of them.
I don’t read that newspaper, I only see the things linked to here. He seems to get a large amount of pertinent information completely wrong. I found it hysterical that the GM of the team just ignored his questions in the spring training press conference. Never seen that before from a GM with the beat writer at the local paper. The Padres brass don’t like him apparently.
It was readily apparent the other Seidlers’ hearts weren’t in it, which is fine. Glad things seem to be moving forward steadily. Still the third best ownership group the team has ever had (not saying much after the first two.)
The Padres have had a few very good ownership groups
that cared about winning:
1)Ray/Joan Kroc Owners of McDonalds Restaurants
2) John Moores/Larry Lucchino (got Petco Park built)
Lucchino was given minority interest in team as part of his Executive compensation package.
Lucchino mentored and trained many as interns, trainees and early
Front Office career types including Kevin Towers promoted to GM,
Dr. Charles Steinberg, and very young trainees Theo Epstein, Jed Hoyer and more.
3) Fowler, Peter O’Malley, his sons Kevin O’Malley and Brian O’Malley, and his nephews Peter Seidler and Tom Seidler
And how’s that worked out for the athletics all these years?
Every owner wastes money on ridiculous contracts at one point or another
Padres tried the draft develop compete model for years under Towers Hoyer Byrnes to no avail
Really?
Since Preller has been GM you’ve had
4 winning seasons
4 playoff births
you’ve left Oakland
have to play in Sacramento
traded franchise icons in Olson Chapman Gray Donaldson
Didn’t pay Semien Bassitt
A’s were sabotaged by Bud Selig, Manfred, John Fisher
and competitor Giants Ownership
to allegedly make them non financially viable in the Bay Area.
MLB franchises are licenses to print money even better than casinos.
If you claim to be a “successful business person” and or “Investor”
and you cannot make money as Owner of an MLB franchise,
then you may be: an incompetent business person, intentionally sabotaging the team to move it
AND/OR
You could just be a very bad liar.
MLB has embraced the gambling online and everywhere
to hook young sports fans on betting on games and many other aspects of the game and players.
It is ridiculous and may lead to some serious gambling addiction for untold numbes of baseball fans.
I don’t know, those ridiculous contracts seem to be working for LA. Also, the A’s have no pitching, like 3 SP and then AAAA guys. They will lose a lot of 7-6 games this year. So you need a good FO and an owner who is willing to dip into the pockets when required.
I’d like to see someone other then an owner who already has an EPL or NBA team purchase the team just for something fresh. But when bidding against these equity, funds and VC guys, they seem to have billions to spare to out bid anyone.
I’d like to see a World Series, personally. I have massive respect for the Brewers/Rays model but.. I think what wins in the regular season isn’t necessarily what wins in the postseason (of course there’s always inherent randomness). The proven model for success is what gets guys paid on the open market.
I was thrown by the new design of the articles and the comment section button being on the wrong side in a different color.
That said, Seidlebaum is gonna get you an extra couple points on the dollar. Manny says he’s good for it.
I don’t see how the Seidlers can get a record breaking deal for the Padres. Are they really that valuable, beyond that they overspent to please a dying man- not judging, just stating a fact- and how is it that some of these second and third tier teams can automatically be record breaking valuable just because they’re the latest to sell? Are the TV deals and revenue sharing just that lucrative for any and all teams?
Because the rich are getting richer, high priced assets can sell for more.
TTO
“how is it that some of these second and third tier teams can automatically be record breaking valuable just because they’re the latest to sell? ”
Well, it would appear that MLB teams are quiet profitable.
Id definitely assume they are profitable. I dont think most are crazy profitable those far as businesses go.
Id assume the big appeal is the ability to leverage the value of the franchise, the tax advantages, and the ability to transfer wealth through a trust. Im sure there are numerous other benefits, but profit from the business alone Id guess is a small piece of the puzzle.
Tig
” ability to leverage the value of the franchise”
Where does that value come from?
When leveraging something thats a determination made by lender.
Part of it is prices go up over time. The other part is the Padres revenue has continued to go up. If the mlb ever fix the tv deals they will be one of the teams to benefit.
Reports are the padres revenue was over 500m last year. While not top tier it’s still pretty good and has been growing each year. They keep raising ticket prices while increasing attendance each year…nearly 3.5m in attendance last year.
It might because they might not have a heavy debt load.
Read that Padres debt load could be over 500M.
Sports franchises are just amusement and hobbies for billionaires.
In MLB, there are only 30 franchise and they become available for sale and new ownership not very often.
Some families keep their teams for generations.
Corporate Ownership of team(s) could lock in team ownership for decades.
Presently, revenues are growing.
At some point in time revenues could level off and stagnate.
Will the Owners & Players “kill the goose that lays the golden eggs”?!
It could happen at some point.
Without some form of economic salary, payroll, media revenues parity in MLB, their could be an economic earthquake that would be very damaging
to MLB, its viability, its survival as a major pro sport.
Private equity firms are in the ownership groups of 16 major league teams. They are only interested in one thing, profits. The controlling partners, meaning the largest shareholder, in 5 teams are not billionaires. Your assessment that sports franchises are just amusement and hobbies is totally off base.
Revenues in MLB have steadily grown since the 1970s to record levels the last 5 years. At some point the sun could die and the earth could grow cold and all life could vanish. The point where revenue stagnates in MLB or the earth dies are both theoretical and not likely to happen any time soon.
Anything is possible, but that doesn’t mean it’s probable. The chance of the incredibly smart people that run the sport killing it off are miniscule.
who would have thought you could get a burger and fries combo from chilis for less than mcds combo,and you get an appetizer with chilis too, but here we are.
2020 stuff was alot less than 2026.
The Pacers are worth more than the Mets. Every NBA franchise is in fact more valuable than the Mets.
The NBA has a far more secure media deal as well as much more global appeal.
I agree it seems surreal from the perspective of an American fan. The global scale of appeal is what tips the values big time.
Mark Walter should buy them and turn the Padres into the Dodgers AAA affiliate.
Fun fact: San Diego was the Reds AAA affiliate once upon a time.
padres were AAA for Indians, White Sox, Reds and Phillies. Westgate Park, Lane Field
Somewhere in storage I have a autographed photo of Ted Williams batting for the Padres in 1936 in the PCL. Would that have been in Lane Field?
Let me guess the mystery bidder….a Nepobaby who will stomp his feet until daddy buys him everything he wants errrr sorry this isn’t a media company. Carry on.
I’m sure Gwynning put in the winning bid. 🙂
Sell it to Tacos El Gordo
I think this is great new for not just Padres fans, but baseball fans. Getting rid of a uninterested owner/owners, and putting in a group that wants to spend money and actually help a team and a city, win.
The more of these owners (crying poor) we can chase out of the game, the better the game will be. I’m all for more owners that are filthy rich and willing to spend over the penny pitching ones. Give me another Steve Cohen over a Bob Nutting, any day of the week.
Don’t get me wrong, love what the Brewers/Rays continue to do, but wouldn’t it make the game better if the Brewers could of signed a Pete Alonso, extended a Peralta. Those types of things are great for the game. Just my opinion but not sure where the argument against this would be.
@Miles most all owners will be crying poor until the CBA is settled. A handful of teams like the Dodgers will likely just stay silent on the matter as they are not in a position to cry broke.
Im not saying its right or wrong, but from a strategic standpoint as a whole its on the owners nest interest to cry broke.
Idk, it’s not like the padres are running a small payroll. Think they are currently 6th in the league at least from a tax standpoint. Like 8th actual payroll. Given their market size it’s hard to complain about what they are spending.
Who said the new owners will care about winning and spending money?
Are the Mets worth more than they were 5-6 years ago? Inflation is a thing
The Mets are worth more than they were a few years ago.
The Mets have more tv revenue than the padres. The Padres in the other hand draw a higher attendance. The Mets likely still have a higher revenue and a bigger market to increase revenue. Reports that Mets owner took on debt beyond the sales price as well.
Padres sell for more than $2.6 billion.
If true that 2025 revenue was close to $600M. then the 5 year rule multiplier would suggest you’re right.
Something tells me that rule doesn’t apply to owning a baseball team the same as other companies.
That is not a hard and fast rule. It depends on the type of business. My partner and I sold one of our businesses for 7 times the annual gross revenue when we decided to open one where we are currently located.
In August we bought the deli next door to our academy for 28% of their average gross revenue for the past 3 years. We were told that for that type of business the rule is 25-30% and we paid towards the high end of that because they had 7 years left on a triple net lease at a favorable rate. That did not include inventory other than non-perishables, but did include supplier contracts.
I really have no idea what that multiplier is for a baseball team. The Orioles sold for 1.725 billion on revenues of $360 million. That fits with a 5 to 1 purchase price to revenue.
Generally it’s about net revenue. Though like you said the range can vary.
Some businesses are worth no money from a profit aspect. Yet someone currently in that same business may see it as an expansion opportunity with little buildout cost.
General rule is 3 to 5% of net revenue.
Do you mean 3-5 times annual net revenue? I recently paid $10.4 million for a business that had an average annual net revenue of $3.9 million and a gross profit margin of $1.78 million. In this industry that is about average. The ROI period is relatively short. If you were buying an existing McDonalds franchise you would pay as much as 8 times annual net revenue and it would take much longer to recoup your investment. As long as 20 years in some cases.
Web, what business did you just buy? 6 years is an incredibly fast ROI.
I predict 3B+
Vuori is fronted by Skenes’s girlfriend. Image and news searches of her + Vuori are quite rewarding.
Skenes to the Padres in 2027?
Pads could offer Skenes co-ownership when they sign him, adding another billionaire to the ownership group.
He could very well be the first MLB billionaire player not named Ohtani. Skenes has been in the league for only two years and already has sponsorships out the door.
Posey is pretty close.
The Nashville Padres
Nah, with the right owner, they could be the twelth Super League team in my worst case scenario of fallout from the lockout and the large market teams not agreeing with the others on how to share revenue.
Brees would be a great owner except for the fact that I doubt he would have a ton of financial backing to turn up the spending to the final Peter years
Homecoming for Brees going back to the final active major sports team in San Diego would be so cool
The Bree’s group would be a nice story but I feel like that group would be highly leveraged to be able to come up with the money. Which would give me concerns about their ability to spend.
None of them have a ton of net worth. I get the company is worth around 5b but borrowing against that may lead to some budget concerns.
It appears you’re correct with the latest update.
À la Garvey
Whoever gets the Padres please have them spend big.
They are top 6 or 7 in spending now aren’t they? Or was that sarcasm?
Lacob is probably the best choice. He took a terrible franchise like the Warriors and turned them into a multi-championship winning team. I’m surprised Fisher never took him up on any of the offers he’s made to buy the A’s. If he did they wouldn’t be leaving Oakland
If Lacob owned the A’s today they would be moving into a waterfront ballpark in Oakland this season in the 6th largest media market instead of playing in a AAA ballpark and moving to the 40th largest media market in 2028 or 2029.
Padres probably come down to a Marlins level of spending after the sale.
Based on your hunch? Cohen didn’t stop spending after buying the Mets. Rubenstein didn’t with the O’s. Fisher is opening up his wallet with the A’s move to Vegas. All three teams have risen in valuation since being bought.
The Padres have double the Marlins revenue. No reason to drop spending.
They can afford their current payroll. At least that is what the John Seidler and their CEO whose name escapes me right now have both said.
It will depend on what they see when they look at the books. If you see bidders dropping out suddenly, that will answer the question.
The books will play a part in the negotiations regarding the sale price, but it will not stop the sale of the Padres.
Many of the very wealthy people/groups bidding for the Padres could write a check on the spot for the )Padres debt and not blink.
Not saying that they will do that since business persons
at that level will always work to negotiate the best terms
for themselves and their Ownership Group.
Not a single person rumored to be interested in buying the Padres has the liquidity to write a check for $2.5 billion. Billionaires don’t get to be billionaires by having that much money sitting around not earning them more money.
The ownership group will include multiple people and at least one private equity firm.
Certainly not without selling some stuff from other positions. Which they could do.
Most of the time you see a group of 5-10 owners. A lot of these potential buyers also like to have famous minority owner they can use to promote a deal as well. Though those groups don’t always win. Troy Aikman was apart of the last group that bought the padres.
Drew Brees brings a lot of fan fair with him as apart of a group.
I am very much aware of how people manage their businesses, profits, large business deals, taxes, fortunes etc.
No one “‘writes checks” for these deals just like no one “pays cash” even if they are bullshipping you and telling you that they are “paying cash” for a multi million dollar or billions of dollars deal(s)”
“Writing a check”is just a widely used saying that means the person, company, group has “deep pockets” and ample funds to do a deal.
(No he/she does not stuff his/her pockets with millions or billions). The phrase “writing a check” or, more idiomatically”writing a blank check” in the context of wealthy people, generally means having the financial capacity to provide unlimited funds for a project, desire, or cause.
It signifies a high level of trust, or a complete lack of concern for cost, allowing the recipient to fill in the amount needed, which in turn indicates immense, easily accessible wealth.
I think that is why he said liquidity. If you gave me a year I could come up with $40-50 million, but very little of that is liquid today. I could also borrow against assets and come up with $10 million in a few weeks to a month, but leveraging those assets would hurt my long-term liquidity and ability to grow my other businesses. Like most investors I don’t want to hurt business A’s ability to grow to invest in business B. The pools have to be kept separate.
None of those people have the “deep pockets” enough to finance a $2.5 billion purchase without involving others. Even Cohen has minority partners and his wealth dwarves even Friedkin.
You can be absolutely certain that any of these successful businesspeople have a huge concern about what they are investing their money in, especially in $2.5 billion investments that would require taking on debt or divesting other investments in order to make it happen. That concern is exactly how they got to be successful.
Sports zero, that is why I said liquidity. Do you understand what that means? None of those people have $2.5 billion just lying around. They also cannot borrow that large of a sum on a dime and they have to make huge choices, even some sacrifices, in order to borrow it. Read what Steve Cohen, a man worth $23 billion or 2-10 times what any of the people mentioned to be in on buying the Padres, said about the sacrifices he had to make to buy the Mets. Even he didn’t have unlimited funds. The people that buy the Padres will have to sell something or borrow the money which means just like we do, they have to pay interest on the money they borrow.
As Jerry Coleman would say Oh Doctor!!!!
As a baseball fan, I hope none of the current crop of bidders are likely to try to relocate the team.
Surprised to see MLBTR LATE IN REPORTING the developments on the bidding, the Buyer’s Groups, the fast approaching SALE OF THE PADRES, the dropped lawsuits by the Seidler Family, the 3B+ price tag the Seidler family is seeking etc…
Been following these developments on other Media outlets.
Commented on it a few times on MLBTR, but surprised to see that MLBTR
did not see this as a story to follow closely until now.
MLBTR is, usually, at the top of the list or near the top of the list for these kinds of MLB developments & factually based MLB rumors etc…
The “Unnamed Group” with strong interest in bidding on the San Diego Padres appears to be an Asian Consortium based in South Korea.
You’re barking up the wrong tree there, friend. MLBTR doesn’t do investigative reporting. They post updated news while putting the pieces together in order.
Not really.
No one was suggesting that MLBTR go “outside its wheelhouse”
But,
Many other National, Regional and local Sports Media Outlets
have been following the Sale of the Padres much more closely
and doing stories on it well before MLBTR picked it up.
Plenty of reports in the Media about the ongoing drama, finances and the proposed sale of the Padres.
All MLBTR had to do was pick up some of the stories already out there, check out some of the sources to make sure it was reliable info
and then run with it.
It is not about reinventing the wheel or insisting MLBTR go outside its confort zone or target market.
The Sale and ongoing saga of the San Diego Padres and the transition from the Siedler family ownership to potentially New Ownership
is right in MLBTR’s “wheelhouse”.
I’m surprised the Ellison boys don’t want to dip their toes, I know they tried to buy the warriors some years ago.
It is Larry and his son who are currently tied up in Media Mergers
and consolidations.
I was kind of being facetious, given last night’s news
Disgusting profits at taxpayer and innocent people expense
Those crying for a lockout don’t realize the entire issue for a lockout is franchise valuations.
Controlled costs allow for team values to increase faster.
$2.5b for the Padres is an excellent return on investment. But nothing compared to what they will be if they can control player salaries moving forward.
Yeah this has been reported. Controlled cost allows them to project and maintain profits.
A salary cap or something that controls costs gives them more certainty. You can plan around certainty.
It’s just not a good enough reason for anyone else to want a salary cap besides the owners.