The Seidler family’s sale of the Padres franchise is nearing a conclusion, reports Dennis Lin of The Athletic. Four finalist groups of bidders remain in the mix, and the sale price could approach a record $3.5 billion, per the report.
A sale of the franchise has been in the works since November. At the time, chairman John Seidler announced that his family had “decided to begin a process of evaluating our future with the Padres, including a potential sale of the franchise.” As of February, five bidding groups were in the mix. That’s down to four, with Lin listing a quartet of groups led by Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores, Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, and a pair of English Premier League owners: José E. Feliciano (Chelsea) and Dan Friedkin (Everton). The identities of all four lead investors in those bidding groups were already known, but it’s notable that there are still four strong bidders with existing interests in professional sports teams.
Padres ownership has been in a tumultuous state for more than two years now. Late owner Peter Seidler, who had an aggressive willingness to spend, passed away in November of 2023. His brother, John, was eventually approved by the league’s other owners as the team’s new control person, but not before some legal in-fighting among the family.
Peter’s widow, Sheel Seidler, sued two of her brothers-in-law, Matt and Bob Seidler, alleging that they had breached fiduciary duty and committed fraud as successors of their late brother’s trust. Sheel Seidler accused Matt and Bob of selling assets to themselves at “far” below-market prices as they attempted to consolidate control of the franchise. Matt vehemently denied the allegations in a formal statement, wherein he accused Sheel of “manufacturing claims” against other trustees in an effort to secure control of the franchise herself. Sheel Seidler’s suit was largely settled outside of court back in February, paving the way for the family to accelerate efforts to sell the team.
Anything north of $2.4 billion would set a new record for the largest sale of a franchise in MLB history. Steve Cohen’s $2.4 billion purchase of the Mets from the Wilpon family back in 2020 currently stands as the all-time record. Forbes ($1.9 billion) and Sportico ($2.3 billion) have pegged the Padres’ estimated franchise value considerably south of the $3.5 billion sum referenced by Lin, though the San Diego Union-Tribune reported back in February that the Seidler family was likely to seek a price far greater than those valuations in order to sell the club.
Peter Seidler was a great owner, and it’s a shame he left us so soon. Can only hope the new ownership group is worthy of the fans’ loyalty.
I hope they don’t ever have plans to replace Petco Park. Outside of Wrigley that’s my favorite park to visit. Which isn’t often but it’s such a great park.
I feel bad for guys like Seidler and Ilitch who did things right by the teams, right by the fans, but despite having some success and staying competitive, never got to experience the ultimate prize.
Unfortunately with the current disparity in the sport, there is only so far they can go. But those owners do their best, I agree, unlike several others. Also the Pads have great attendance and the Tigers went in with the Red Wings on a new TV deal.
If it wasn’t for Ortiz having an ALCS performance for all-time in what otherwise was great pitching by both teams, Ilitch probably got to see a WS in 2013 before he passed.
Now, as a Sox fan, im happy we won, I just wish one of those years we werent there his guys could’ve broken through.
They had the talent.
And I think a few seasons ago SD had the talent to get it done, sometimes theres just a guy or two on the other team who puts up career performances, or, lady luck doesnt go your way.
The biggest problem right now that I see is the post-bankruptcy gift MLB gave to guggenheim when they bought the Dodgers. It sort of elevated one of the ‘haves’ even higher above the others. It was an overreaction to the mccourt bankruptcy, but, its given them an advantage over every other team
Hey Gas, in 13 weren’t the Red Sox being no hit games 1-2 into the 6th maybe the 7th? And game 3 I thought it was Justin vs Lackey and Nap hit the HR to give us a 1-0 win… Followed Detroit early 80’s quite a bit, while it sucks for Illich, can’t be worse than Cleveland 07/16..
Well…one can argue that those Padres teams were flawed in that they overpaid alot of guys and traded away key pieces such as Woods, Abrams, Gore and Devries. The new ownership group will inherit all these bad contracts. They definitely tried to win but in the near future the cost of Manny and Xander alone will cripple them for years.
9
3 points to counter your comments for consideration.
1. DeVries at 18 – long way to mlb and odds are with all such prospects he does not have the career that he is projected. Also, not helping the team win in 2026-2028 window. However, Mason Miller is a lights out, top 2-3 closer in all of baseball on a league minimum contract with 5 years of control – right now. Competitive teams make that trade every day.
2. Woods, etc – aren’t putting Wash in playoffs like the return that was received did – first Soto and then the guys received back from Soto.
3. X and Manny are just fine and most teams would love to have their production. There are no long term contracts that are team friendly the last year or 2. So, who cares. It was a known factor. Both contracts are surplus so far.
Longtime,
Good points. overall, though I’m not sure Bogaerts’ contract will age well at all, and sooner than later. That was a big overpay. Machado extension probably will sting before it’s halfway over. Both are likely to be payroll anchors for significantly more than 1-2 years.
It’s worth what the market says. Teams don’t go on the market very often, these groups will pay more for the chance.
From my understanding, the Pistons guy partly owns the football team that pays rent to Stan Kronke. Locals won’t be too fond of someone that is in bed with a scumbag like Dean Spanos.
On the flip side, if he’s trying to usurp Spanos Inc. then he automatically has my respect!
Go Pads 💛🤎💛🤎
James – Well said! Baseball teams are like waterfront property, very very limited availability combined with high demand that makes owners a fortune when they decide to sell.
Pads fans may have to hear Feliz Navidad on the PA system a lot. 🤣
Hell, we’ll chant Feliciano Navidad 5 times a game if he just keeps the ball rolling…!
When Cohen bought the Mets in 2020, I believe that he already owned 4% of the team from the Wilpons’ 2011-12 sale of 4% shares of the team to 12 investors (including Bill Maher). The Wilpons retain 5% of the team, so Cohen bought an additional 91%. What I’ve never heard is whether $2.4 billion is what he paid, which would mean the team was valued at $2.55 billion in 2020, or the full value of the team based on what he paid to buy an additional 91%. It’s not a big difference and still pales in comparison to $3.5 billion
Cohen made a smart investment: that $2.4 billion is now worth triple that amount — plus he will soon be building a casino adjacent to Citi Field which should rake even in more millions in profit.
the Mets are worth 7.2 billion?
If the Padres are selling for $3.5B Cohen basically stole the Mets
6 years, especially the last 6 in regards to costs, is a long time.
More shocking is being about double the value of a few teams that sold or were on the market in the last couple years.
Attendance over the past 3 years:
SD – 10,039,300
NYM – 8,087,424
BAL – 6,021,582
*TB – 4,208,545
* since they had stadium issues and didn’t play at Tropicana field in 2025, I took their 2023-2024 attendance (2.7m) and divided by .66 to get a more fair number.
The Padres should sell for a lot more than the Orioles or Rays. The Mets are probably worth 40-50% more today than six years ago.
Wow! It has been six years already since he bought them. I’m sure he was expecting better results in this timeframe. Although he’s probably still made a good chunk of money even with all the spending
Peter Seidler was part of the investor group that purchased the San Diego Padres for $800 million in 2012.
If just 14 years later, the team sells for FOUR times that amount or $3.2 billion, then we know that the owners who are part of an elite monopoly that dozens want to join, are scamming the fans and players if they don’t maintain a $200 million annual payroll. The appreciation in equity and tv contracts alone are enough to break even and that does not count ticket sales, concessions, stadium advertising, etc. Shame on the low spending owners who are lying to the fans.
Appreciation on value doesnt mean liquid assets to spend, necessarily.
My house jumped a ton in value over the last few years. That doesnt mean my bank account magically grew money i could spend.
And, after problems with previous franchise ownership groups, MLB has limits on debt loads and loans teams can take.
For some markets, an owner’s net worth is primarily in the team.
Not aure what news youve been watching, but ive been seeing a good number (admittedly not all) teams taking in LESS for their media rights than they had under old deals years ago.
If you believe that about media rights, I have a bridge I would like to sell you.
When overall revenue increases along with overall spending by the teams that supposedly are getting less for their media rights, something doesn’t add up.
No team is being seen on fewer channels now than they were with the RSN deals before, many are now available in more TV households, and now many are also reaping the benefit of being available on MLB.tv with no local blackouts. If you really think that MLB with all their negotiating power is getting those teams less money than they were before I don’t really know how to explain to you the realities of business.
The Braves books are open, they barely break even with a 240M dollar payroll. If it wasnt for the revenue they generate from a mixed use commercial real estate property they own around the ballpark, they would have posted a net loss in 2025. Braves drew 500K less fans, thats a decent chunk of revenue but they’d be far healthier running payrolls under 200M annually.
How much of the Braves barely breaking even has to do with the lucrative tax benefits the owners get being able to depreciate the entire purchase price over a 15 year period as well as player salaries and lots of other goodies that create revenue?
greenberglawoffice.com/roster-depreciation-allowan….
Makes sense why the values go up so much and a team like the Padres with 500m owed to two 33 year olds in Machado and Boegarts isn’t a hindrance at all to a new ownership group paying so much for the team. And why franchise owners try to buy more franchises in other sports, sweet lucrative gig.
In 2025, the Braves posted Baseball Revenue of 635M, that figure includes 97M in revenue from the mixed use commercial real estate property.
Depreciation is a big line item at 75M and attributes to an operating loss of approximately -15M — ex-DA the Braves would post an operating income of around 60M.
After they pay the interest on their long term debt, collect their revenue sharing, ex-DA they would post a 50M net profit on which they would pay taxes.
The Braves as a business has positive cash flows, and they do get a tax savings as a result DA but take away the 97M in revenue from the real estate and they are operating at a loss no matter how you slice it.
*I misreported those figures, baseball revenue of 635M, total revenue of 732M —
OIBDA of 107M but remove the 97M from the real estate and the Braves have an operating income before interest and depreciation of around 10M.
If they experience a loss in TV revenue or if attendance drops off even slightly and they are operating at a loss running payrolls at 240M.
I thought that there were only 4 groups from the beginning. That the guy from the newspaper there screwed up and tried to say that Brees and Kudla were bidding when they were just wanting to joining one of the other groups bidding on the Padres.
Yeah, that’s correct. The mythical 5th was an Aceeism
Brew – no way. That 5th group was me and about 300 million investors!
Do all 300 million of us get our $10 back?
Non refundable deposit per the escrow instructions.
Dang! One less Starbucks for me this month.
From a strictly legal standpoint Sheel Seidler has not dropped the parts of her lawsuit that accuses the 3 Seidler brothers of selling assets of the trust to themselves at a discount. That is still pending and I believe that it will be settled by the brothers paying Peter Seidler’s widow out of the proceeds of the sale of the team. What was dropped is the portion that would have blocked the sale of the team she had rightfully accused them in the lawsuit of conspiring to pull off.
To get her to drop that portion it is my understanding that they had to release executorship of her late husband’s trust to her. That trust is the largest single owner of the Padres at 24%. She is also the sole beneficiary of that trust so if the team sells for $3.5 billion, that would be a windfall of $840 million for her.
The rest of the Seidler and O’Malley family own a combined 20% of the team. At a $3.5 billion sale price they would come away with $700 million.
Several minority owners including Alfredo Harp Helu and private equity firms Arctos Sports Partners and CAZ Investments have said they intend to retain their holdings in the team.
Look Arte! Look how many billions you could have if you sold the team too!
Arte will get more if he sells before he totally kills the Angel’s franchise. The team was nearly sold earlier, but Patrick Soon-Shiong would not take on the liability of the ongoing wrongful death lawsuit against the team. That is settled now. It won’t be long before Arte has the team back on the market.