The San Diego Padres just raised the bar for the sale price of a Major League Baseball franchise. MLB announced Monday that its owners unanimously approved the transfer of control of the franchise to a group led by Kwanza Jones and Jose E. Feliciano, a sale that was first agreed to in April.
The billionaire investors agreed to purchase the Padres from the Seidler family at a reported valuation of $3.9 billion, the most ever for a baseball team. The husband-wife duo is buying more than 40% of the franchise, The Athletic reported, with other individuals and entities joining them at a smaller combined percentage. In accordance with MLB governance requirements, Feliciano was designated as the Padres' control person.
The official closing of the transaction and ownership transition is scheduled to occur in the coming days. CEO Erik Greupner and president of baseball operations and general manager A.J. Preller will continue in their current roles.
More news: Yankees Legends Pay Tribute to Tommy John “We are a family first, and becoming owners of the San Diego Padres means joining an even larger one,” Jones and Feliciano said in a statement. He has served as a board member of various organizations, including the LA28 Olympics & Paralympic Games, Cedars-Sinai and as a Trustee of Stanford University. More news: Mets Announce Death of Former Slugger Jones is an entrepreneur, investor, artist and former NCAA Division I athlete who specialized in the 800-meter run as an undergrad at Princeton.
She has served as a board member and advisor to numerous institutions, including UCLA's Ronald Reagan Medical Center, the Apollo Theater, and as former Chair of the Board of Bennett College. The Padres are one of only 30 teams in MLB, but are not considered a "marquee" franchise. They play in one of the league's smaller media markets.
So how were they able to set the record for a team's sale price? "They play in San Diego," said Jared Diamond, The Wall Street Journal reporter who broke the story of the Padres' sale, in an April interview. "They play in a city where they're the only show in town when it comes to major professional sports. [They] play in one of the best ballparks in the game, in a ballpark that is used 365 days of the year because of the incredible weather in San Diego.
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