After the announcement by the Seidler family that they were exploring a sale of the San Diego Padres franchise, the internet was busy with suggestions of possible interested future owners. Padres fans
should not anticipate a public battle with competing parties making statements. With the issues hanging over the team (read: litigation and family turmoil), it should be expected that this process will take place in back channels and without public scrutiny.
We probably won’t know who or what group will own the team until the transaction is completed and the information can’t be kept private any longer. Despite knowing that a sale is all but assured, fans will have to wait months (if not more than a year) for any real conclusion to arrive.
But that should not stop us from exploring who could be stepping up and what we could expect from those interested parties. Any thought that the sale won’t occur was dispelled by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred in remarks made during the Winter Meetings in Orlando, Fla. When asked about the possible sale of the Padres, Manfred responded:
“It’s a really appealing franchise,” Manfred said, via Evan Drellich of The Athletic. “They’ve done a great job building a fan base. The in-ballpark experience in San Diego’s probably one of our best, they’ve got some great players, and I expect there will be people that will be interested in buying.”
This leaves no doubt that he expects the team to be sold, and he gives an enthusiastic recommendation for the franchise being in San Diego. This should reassure anyone who fears the team would be bought and moved. With the second best attendance in MLB, Petco Park sold out 72 times in 81 home games. There is virtually no scenario in which MLB would consent to the team moving.
With all that being noted, what has been floated regarding the interested parties and what could come about when the team sells?
The Washington Nationals, Minnesota Twins and Los Angeles Angels were all put up for sale in recent years but pulled off the market without a sale occurring. The Seidlers bought the team for $800 million in 2012, and it was recently valued by Forbes at $1.95 billion.
There is no way to know who the interested parties will be but a couple names were mentioned immediately.
Joe Lacob
On Dec. 2, the San Francisco Chronicle published an article floating the idea that Lacob could be interested in purchasing the Padres. This caught the attention of local and national media with Darnay Tripp of NBC7 San Diego reporting the news.
Lacob is a long-time NBA owner who purchased the Golden State Warriors in 2010 and has guided the franchise to four championships in 15 years. He was also an owner of the Boston Celtics in 2008 when they won the NBA title.
Lacob, 69, has shown that he is interested in owning an MLB franchise with his attempts to purchase both the Oakland A’s 20 years ago and the Los Angeles Angels in 2022. He offered to purchase the A’s again in 2023 and keep them in Oakland but was rebuffed.
According to Forbes, Lacob is worth $2.3 billion. Buying the Padres could be a return to Southern California for the Anaheim native. He was an Angels fan growing up and lived one mile from Angels stadium and was a peanut vendor there for seven years.
Lacob also owns the Golden State Valkyries, the WNBA franchise in the Bay Area. His partner in his ownership of the Warriors, Peter Guber, is also an owner with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He would obviously not be included in a Padres ownership.
Lacob made his fortune as a venture capitalist with the investment group Kleiner Perkins, which he joined in 1987. He also founded Shapira Capital, another investment firm.
In a podcast from 2022, Lacob made it clear he is all about wining as an owner – Lacob told the Point Forward Podcast, “I’m about only one thing the rest of my life and that’s winning and winning championships. I’m maniacal, it’s all I care about. That’s it.”
In a Nov. 10 article in the San Francisco Standard, Lacob was reflecting on his ownership of the Warriors and all their success.
“I mean, how could you have more fun than this?” Lacob told The Standard. “I can’t believe these tech guys who make all these billions on AI or whatever it is, and then, I don’t know, they go buy some island and live on an island. Who cares?
“I don’t want to live on some island. I want to do other fun stuff. And fun stuff to me is the world of sports. It’s live entertainment. It’s employing people. It’s creating dreams and making dreams come true.”
That sure sounds like someone who would do right by San Diego Padres fans. It is obvious the Seidler family is unable to fulfill Peter Seidler’s vision for the Padres and San Diego. Someone like Lacob could make that dream come true.
Part 2 will outline some of the other names mentioned as possible candidates to purchase the organization.
