The San Diego Padres are on the verge of being sold for a record price of $3.9 billion to Jose E. Feliciano, co-owner of Chelsea Football Club, and his wife, Kwanza Jones, a source confirmed to ESPN on Friday.
The sale price easily tops the previous record of $2.4 billion for an MLB franchise, set by Steve Cohen when he purchased the New York Mets in 2020. Before being finalized, the sale must be approved by 75% of Major League Baseball's owners, with the next owners meetings scheduled for June.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the news, adding that Feliciano will be designated as the controlling owner.
Feliciano, 53, is co-founder and managing partner of Clearlake Capital, a private-equity firm based in Santa Monica, California. In 2022, Clearlake and Todd Boehly, part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, led a consortium that purchased Chelsea for $5.24 billion.
In their purchase of the Padres, Feliciano and Jones beat out three other bidders, according to The Athletic, including Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores, Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob and Dan Friedkin, owner of Premier League club Everton.
The family of late owner Peter Seidler put the Padres up for sale in November and will soon end a 14-year ownership tenure.
In 2012, Seidler; his uncle, Peter O'Malley, son of former Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley; and Ron Fowler formed the group that purchased the Padres for $800 million. As Seidler assumed more control, the Padres went from a forgotten franchise operating in a relatively smaller market to a financial behemoth.
The Padres boasted payrolls that exceeded $200 million every year from 2021 to 2023 while locking in stars such as Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jackson Merrill, Xander Bogaerts, Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish. Petco Park became one of the most electric ballparks in the major leagues, continually setting attendance records while serving as a destination spot in downtown San Diego.
But Seidler's death in November 2023 triggered a legal battle between his widow, Sheel, and his siblings over control of the team. Two years later, with John Seidler serving as chairman, the team announced it was exploring the possibility of a sale. The uniqueness ultimately prompted a record valuation, even though the new owners will take on what sources have described as hundreds of millions of dollars of debt.
The opportunity to land a baseball franchise in Southern California, particularly in a city with no other major professional sports team, made the Padres especially appealing, as did their loyal fan base. The Padres have operated without a local media contract since the early part of the 2023 season, a major reason their revenues began to fall. But MLB's hopes to centralize local media by 2028 could ease those concerns.
The Padres, who are riding an eight-game winning streak, are still seeking the franchise's first World Series championship but have made the playoffs three of the past four years and, despite cutting back in recent years, still sport a payroll around $200 million. With Machado, Tatis, Merrill, Bogaerts, Musgrove and Mason Miller fronting their team, the Padres still have championship hopes despite sharing a division with the two-time defending champion Dodgers.
Speaking in spring training, John Seidler said he had received "tremendous interest" in the Padres. Asked what he would like in a prospective owner, Seidler said: "We would like to see somebody with ties to San Diego, a deep love of San Diego, and who grew up with baseball, so that they can continue doing the work that we do in the community and providing a product on the field that the fans enjoy."
Feliciano is a native of Puerto Rico who began his career in investment banking in the mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance groups at Goldman Sachs. In 2006, he co-founded Clearlake Capital alongside Iranian American businessman Behdad Eghbali. Forbes estimates Feliciano's net worth at $3.9 billion.
Jones is a Los Angeles native and singer who is also the CEO of Supercharged, a media and personal development company. She and Feliciano met when they both attended Princeton University. Together, they also run the Kwanza Jones & Jose E. Feliciano Initiative, a grant-making and impact-investment organization.