The Seidler family is nearing a deal to sell the Padres to a group led by private equity billionaire José E. Feliciano and his wife Kwanza Jones, per Jared Diamond and Miriam Gottfried of the Wall Street Journal. The deal values the Padres franchise at close to $3.9 billion, which would shatter the previous record for a big league franchise in a sale. Steve Cohen’s $2.4 billion purchase of the Mets in 2020 currently stands as the record.
Dennis Lin of The Athletic reported yesterday that the sale process was nearing its conclusion, suggesting that the Seidlers could find a price upwards of $3.5 billion. Per the Wall Street Journal duo, San Diego received multiple bids valuing the franchise at more than $3.5 billion. In addition to Feliciano’s group, the three finalist bidders were groups led by Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores, and Dan Friedkin, who owns the English Premier League’s Everton club.
Feliciano himself is the majority owner of the EPL’s Chelsea F.C. He’s also the co-founder of Clearlake Capital, a private equity firm with more than $90 billion of assets under management and a focus on the technology, industry and consumer sectors. Jones is the founder and CEO of Supercharged, a media company based in Santa Monica.
Padres ownership has been in a state of relative tumult since late owner Peter Seidler passed away in November of 2023. Seidler’s willingness to spend at aggressive levels well beyond prior iterations of Padres ownership ushered in a new era of baseball in San Diego — one that saw the Friars emerge as perennial contenders and major players in free agency. From 2009-14, the Padres ranked in the bottom six MLB teams in terms of payroll each season. Under Seidler’s watch, payroll soared to north of $200MM, including a record $249MM Opening Day payroll in 2023. The Friars have run a $200MM+ Opening Day payroll in four of the past five seasons.
Since Peter’s passing, there’s been infighting among his widow and siblings. Sheel Seidler, Peter’s wife, filed suit against his brothers Bob and Matt Seidler, alleging that they breached fiduciary committed fraud as successors to his trust. She accused them of selling assets to themselves at below-market prices in an effort to consolidate control of the franchise. Matt countered by accusing Sheel of “manufacturing claims” to secure control of the franchise herself. The allegations were never litigated in full; Sheel’s claims were settled outside of court earlier this year.
In the meantime, Peter’s other brother, John, was approved as the franchise’s new control person in February of 2025. John announced last November that his family had begun “a process of evaluating our future with the Padres, including a potential sale of the franchise.” In the months to follow, as many as five serious bidders emerged. The Feliciano, Lacob, Gores and Friedkin groups were the final four, it seems.
It bears emphasizing that nothing has been finalized just yet. Diamond and Gottfried report that an official announcement could come early next week, however. Even after the deal is agreed upon, Feliciano and Jones won’t immediately take over control of the club. They’ll still need to be approved by 75% of the league’s other owners at the next MLB owners meetings in June. Lin, Ken Rosenthal and Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic add that the final net amount of the deal will need to factor in the approximately $300MM of debt the franchise has accrued. Regardless, it’ll be a record-shattering agreement if the proposed agreement is pushed across the finish line next week.
Time will tell precisely what the ownership transition means for future iterations of the Padres. Eye-popping sticker price notwithstanding, there’s no guarantee that Feliciano and Jones will have the same appetite for spending as their late predecessor, Peter Seidler.
Even in the two years since Peter’s untimely passing, payroll has been scaled back to an extent. The Padres have trotted out $200MM+ Opening Day payrolls in each of the past two seasons, placing them in the top-10 of the league in both instances, but that’s a ways removed from the team’s franchise-record $249MM mark set in 2023. In each of the past two offseasons, reports have surfaced about some degree of financial limitations for president of baseball operations A.J. Preller.
San Diego has made one notable free-agent acquisition in each of those offseasons — Nick Pivetta last year, Michael King this year — but the rest of their additions have all been much smaller in scale. Even Pivetta’s four-year, $55MM contract required a creative structure that paid him only $4MM in 2025 before his salary jumped to $19MM in 2026. The final two seasons of the deal are player options, giving him the right to opt out at season’s end (though his recent injury could very well sway him to forgo that opportunity).
While there are instances of new ownership prompting a radical uptick in spending — e.g. Cohen’s purchase of the Mets and Peter Seidler’s rise from minority stakeholder to majority owner of the Padres in 2020 — that’s certainly not true in every instance. The Orioles have spent more under David Rubenstein than under John and Lou Angelos, for instance, but haven’t pushed payroll beyond the levels previously established by the late Peter Angelos (John and Lou’s father). Jeffrey Loria’s sale of the Marlins to Bruce Sherman hasn’t pushed Miami out of the perennial payroll cellar. The Royals’ payroll under current owner John Sherman, who purchased the team for $1 billion in 2020, hasn’t been all that different than it was under former owner David Glass.
Regardless of what happens with club payroll, the new ownership group should bring about some stability and continuity, ending the tumultuous uncertainty that has surrounded the club over the past few seasons. And the colossal sale price for the franchise — further evidence of the game’s broader financial health — figures to be a number that is routinely cited in upcoming labor talks between the league and the Players Association as the 2022-26 collective bargaining agreement nears its conclusion on Dec. 1.
Padres fans say Feliz Navidad!
You know, Jose Feliciano, you’ve got no complaints.
Peter Seidler was part of the investor group that purchased the San Diego Padres for $800 million in 2012.
Just 14 years later, the team sells for FIVE times that amount or $3.9 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 team appreciated in equity by more than $200 million per year! That does not even count cable/tv/internet revenue, ticket and parking proceeds, concessions, stadium advertising, etc.
The owners who are not capable of playing at the big boy table should sell partial stakes in their team to have enough money for cash flow while they take in the equity increases due to the monopoly and demand to join the billionaires club.
Chico and the man approve that comment.
looking good!
I think he’ll light their fire.
Santa Esmeraldo does not want to be let misunderstood
So, can we expect continued spending for player salaries?
If Chelsea’s history of spending is any indication of his plans with the Padres, then abso-fricken-lutely.
If Chelsea’s shoot-fire-aim approach to player procurement and return on said investments is any indication then absolut-frickr-lately.
Truth!
Obviously sometimes people surprise you, but I’d be really, really surprised if they were looking to drop almost $4 billion to buy a team just to slash it all down to the bones. To justify that valuation they’ll need to keep revenue flowing at a level that’s only attainable with consistent playoff runs and sold out stadiums.
Dirty – Exactly! As long as they are competitive, no need to get rid of the great ones like Tatis and Orsillo.
And typically when prospective buyers are ready to purchase a team, if they want to cut payroll they will have the sellers do the dirty work instead of saving it for the buyers.
Chelsea ponzi scheme says hello. Ponzi: when you can’t afford to acquire Fonzie at the top of his game so you attempt to pass off a Frankenstein of a Potsy -Ralph Malph facsimile
Yes. The Pads are a shining example of “if you build it, they will come”. “Crying-poor” team owners, take notice.
Didn’t he sing with Willie Nelson?
To all the girls I’ve loved before ….
That was Julio Iglesias whose son Enrique went on to have a good career of his own. Jose [don’t know his middle initial] Feliciano was best known for Feliz Navidad.
Maybe this purchase will “light a fire” under the Padres.
They have won 8 straight and 11 out of 12, so if it gets any hotter well, I’ll love it!!!!!
I’m curious how Feliciano and Kwanza Jones plan to continue to invest into the team, and Preller’s role moving forward.
Every year since 2023, I’ve predicted the Padres to falter and every year I’ve been proven wrong. They’ll overtake the Dodgers soon, I can feel it.
Players Union has to love this. This huge sales price for a team that lacks a large local media market and TV deal really undermines the assertions coming from many owners that they need a salary cap.
@norcalblue
Please explain to me what the sales price of the team has to do with whether there should be a salary cap or not?
There very well might be a correlation between the 2, I just don’t see how it is directly related.
I know the whole situation with the idea of a salary cap is a touchy situation. I lean to the side that believes there needs to be a cap, but that there also MUST be a floor.
Easily done: Because the value of a franchise is a function of its ability to generate a return on investment. Stated another way, the price investors are willing to pay to own the Padres clearly indicates that the team is highly profitable. The union will no doubt point to this sale as further evidence that a salary cap is simply a means of making franchise ownership even more lucrative than it is already.
@norcalblue I’m not sure I understand your point, but I’m trying. If a would-be salary cap is set by the league’s total revenue, including TV deals, sponsorships, etc…, then how does the purchase price of the team affect that?
I took a swing at that pitch, and made solid contact.
Will he be another John Henry and spend all his money on soccer by robbing from the baseball team profits?
Fire Sale. Who want a Tatis Jr or a Machado?
The new era of Padres ownership has started!
The Puerto Rico Padres, unless he changes his mind and sympathizes with Padres fans by moving them closer to SD in which case, The Mexico City Padres works as well
Wow 3.9 billion dollars for a small market team that invested and became a big player in free agency and the fans rewarded the team with sellouts at the stadium. This is proof that it can be done, so hopefully this new ownership keeps investing in the team and gives Padres fans a continuous flow of competitive baseball.
I guess Peter wasn’t insane after all
That man was a super fan of his team, it’s a shame he didn’t get to see the fruits of his labor.
Yeah. But as far as fruits, he did energize and bring hope to a fanbase that lacked both. But his ultimate goal was to bring a championship to the city and unfortunately, those fruits never ripened under his tenure. Hopefully the new ownership is a step in that direction.
Private equity bouta drained the Padres
Perhaps the groups that missed out on the Pads might be interested in acquiring the Angels… please… pretty please?
Moreno has to show some real willingness to sell.
LFGSD! 🤎💛🤎💛
I don’t see the logic in this.
Hmm. And it’s the players who should bend over and agree to limit their earning power?
I know its not direectly related, but if Joe Lacob loses out on the Frairs (which it seems like he will), he becomes the by far presumptive favorite to purchase the Angels if they come on the market any time in the next 4-5 years.
Yeah, well, it depends on the owner. You know, José Feliciano, ya got no complaints.
Feliz Navidad came early!
Ok, but how many tacos is that