The San Diego Padres appear to be moving closer to a potential sale, with initial bids expected around the end of February, people briefed on the process told The Athletic.
Prospective buyers include Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, according to league sources. Lacob, 70, is interested in buying the Padres and is exploring the idea, though he has not yet committed to bidding for the franchise. He has owned the Warriors since 2010, with the team winning four NBA titles over that period while becoming the most valuable franchise in the league.
Advertisement
Lacob has expanded his holdings in recent years. He brought a WNBA expansion team to San Francisco in the Golden State Valkyries, who just completed their first season. Although Lacob and his teams are located in the Bay Area, he would not look to move the Padres out of Southern California, according to people familiar with his thinking.
Lacob has previously pursued Major League Baseball ownership, including attempts to buy into the Athletics, Los Angeles Angels and Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Padres declined comment.
The full list of suitors is not known. Sportico reported this week that two owners of English Premier League clubs, Dan Friedkin and José E. Feliciano, are among other possible bidders who have expressed interest in the Padres. Friedkin, who was born in San Diego, owns Everton and Serie A club AS Roma and attempted to buy the Boston Celtics last spring. Feliciano’s private equity firm, Clearlake Capital, is the majority owner of Chelsea.
{“endpoint”:”https://api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com/graphql”}
Sportico’s latest valuations appraised the Padres at $2.31 billion.
Last March, Forbes estimated the team’s worth at $1.95 billion, more than double the $800 million price a group led by Peter Seidler and Ron Fowler paid in 2012. League sources told The Athletic last week that the Seidler family is seeking a sale price closer to $3 billion. The record sale price for an MLB club was set in 2020, when Steve Cohen purchased the New York Mets for $2.42 billion.
Imminent bids for the Padres will come at a time of rising franchise values and growing labor unrest. MLB’s collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, and teams and players are bracing for the possibility of missed games in 2027. The Minnesota Twins, after originally intending for a full sale, completed a partial sale in December at a $1.75 billion valuation. The Angels and Washington Nationals were put on the market in recent years and went unsold before being pulled back.
Advertisement
Although MLB is expected to have a lockout when the CBA expires, a new deal could also help increase franchise values if it includes a salary cap, which would create more cost certainty for teams.
In the meantime, an eventual sale of the Padres has been widely expected since Peter Seidler’s death in November 2023. San Diego, which went from a traditionally overlooked franchise to an aggressive spender under Seidler, significantly reduced its payroll that offseason and later became embroiled in a family fight over control of the team.
Padres chairman John Seidler, Peter’s older brother and the current trustee of the trust that controls the franchise, announced in November that he and his family had begun exploring a potential sale. Investment bank BDT and MSD Partners was retained to oversee what league sources said is the pursuit of a full sale.
Peter Seidler’s widow, Sheel Seidler, this week dismissed most of the claims in her lawsuit against two of her brothers-in-law, Matt and Bob Seidler, former successor trustees of the aforementioned trust. She also revealed that the two sides had reached an undisclosed agreement, removing a potential hurdle in the sale process.
A similar situation unfolded across the country earlier this decade, following the death of Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos and a lawsuit involving his family members. After the lawsuit was settled, a group led by David Rubenstein bought the Orioles in 2024 for $1.725 billion, with BDT and MSD Partners coordinating the purchase.