Four Groups Compete in Final Round to Purchase San Diego Padres

Four ownership groups are preparing to submit their final bids to purchase the San Diego Padres within the next month. The franchise could sell for approximately $3 billion, which would break the current MLB record by $600 million.

Four potential ownership groups are preparing to submit their concluding offers to purchase the San Diego Padres over the next month, according to a Saturday report from The Athletic.

Originally, five groups presented preliminary offers, but the field has been narrowed to four finalists. Representatives from these remaining groups recently conducted meetings with Padres leadership at the team’s spring training facility in Peoria, Arizona, The Athletic reported.

The current MLB franchise sale record stands at $2.4 billion, set when hedge fund manager Steve Cohen acquired the New York Mets in November 2020. That purchase surpassed the previous high of $2 billion when Guggenheim Baseball Management bought the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012.

The Padres were purchased for $800 million in August 2012 by an ownership group that included the late Peter Seidler, and the team is anticipated to fetch another record-setting sum. Seidler became the franchise’s controlling owner in 2020, and his family is now selling the organization.

“The Padres, they’re going to probably sell in the next couple months for close to $3 billion,” CNBC sports reporter Mike Ozanian said on the CNBC Sport podcast. “That’s going to set a new record for Major League Baseball by far, about $600 million more than the Mets. Why? One of the reasons why is they’ve really built up their non-baseball business. Concerts, all these other events that they have at Petco Park. Now they’re helping other teams and parks do the same thing.”

The deadline for the second round of bids is set for mid-April.

According to The Athletic, three billionaires who currently own sports franchises are among the potential final bidders.

These individuals include Jose E. Feliciano, who co-owns Chelsea Football Club in the English Premier League; Dan Friedkin, a San Diego native who owns multiple European soccer teams; and Joe Lacob, who has been a co-owner of the Golden State Warriors since 2010.