Joey and Jesse Buss didn’t take long to find their way back into sports franchise ownership. On Wednesday, the Buss brothers announced they had joined the San Diego Padres ownership group.
Shortly before finalizing the sale of their majority stake in the Lakers to Mark Walter last year, the brothers created Buss Sports Capital to return to ownership. Dave McMenamin of ESPN reported the details of the deal with the Padres.
Joey and Jesse announced they will be on the new ownership group’s advisory board
and apply their experience with player development, payroll management and roster construction to support this new era in Padres franchise history. Their stake in the Padres is in the neighborhood of 5%, sources told ESPN.
Joey released a statement to ESPN on the decision to join the Padres, their first move as a company.
“We are honored to join Kwanza and José and have the opportunity to contribute to the future of a team that Jesse and I have loved since we were kids growing up in San Diego,” Joey Buss said in a statement. “Sports have always been a part of our family’s story, and great organizations have a unique ability to bring people together and create a lasting sense of community. Padres fans have built one of the most passionate and loyal communities in all of sports, and we believe there is a tremendous opportunity to deepen that connection in San Diego and around the world.
“The Padres are on the cusp of something special, and through Buss Sports Capital, we look forward to bringing our experience and perspective to the ownership group and doing our part to build on the strong foundation already in place.”
This move should not be contingent on anything with the sale of the minority stake the siblings are trying to complete. That said, I’m sure they’d love to add more money to this venture with another sale, which might be part of their motivation to cash out.
McMenamin also noted an interesting point later in the article about potential future endeavors for the Buss brothers.
The minority ownership position with the Padres is Buss Sports Capital’s first major business move since its launch; however, the Buss brothers continue to pursue an ownership stake in the upcoming NBA Europe league, sources told ESPN.
The NBA Europe league still doesn’t feel like it’ll be a real thing, but that’s not really based on anything of note. Commissioner Adam Silver has pushed hard to expand into Europe, so it’s clearly a priority for him. Smaller developments over the years seem to be laying the groundwork for an NBA Europe league.
One would think that the Buss brothers would be good candidates to get involved with the league. Both wanted to remain with the Lakers before Jeanie fired them and had success with the franchise.
Now, it’ll just be a matter of how much money they may have to invest in the new league.
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