The San Diego Padres are finally set to be sold, and they will fetch a record-setting price for an MLB franchise.
The Padres are being purchased by a group led by private equity billionaire Jose E. Feliciano and his wife Kwanza Jones, according to Jared Diamond and Miriam Gottfried of the Wall Street Journal. The sale price is said to be $3.9 billion, nearly $1.5 billion more than the previous record-breaking sale of the New York Mets to Steve Cohen.
The sale should end the uncertainty over the status of the Padres, which has been in question since owner Peter Seidler died in 2023. There has been infighting among Seidler’s widow and siblings over who controlled the franchise since then, which has negatively impacted the team in certain ways.
Feliciano is also the owner of Chelsea F.C. of the English Premier League. It remains to be seen whether he intends to maintain a high payroll, as Seidler did. Seidler bolstered the team’s payroll to nearly $250 million, but it has fallen closer to $200 million since his death.
Forbes had estimated that the Padres would be worth $3.1 billion. One can only imagine how much money clubs like the New York Yankees or Chicago Cubs would fetch if they ever hit the open market.