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.
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
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.
So jealous.
Really hope this works out well for the Padres.
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.
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.
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.
Can’t use Cohen purchase price as comparison since he took on a lot of debt. Mets really sold for over $4 billion.
I hope they pick my bid. I included a family suite in the deal.
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.
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.”
Seidlers taking a page out of the Scott Boras playbook with the mystery bidder.
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.