Alden Gonzalez
Multiple Authors
SAN DIEGO — As half of an lively information convention that signaled a brand new period for the San Diego Padres, co-owners Jose E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones referred to as their buy of the franchise a “family investment” and vowed to spend “ambitiously” but “judiciously.”
“We have been blessed with a team in a city that is supporting us in a way that is allowing us to invest back in that team, in that stadium, in that city,” Feliciano stated in his formal introduction inside a Petco Park interview room Monday. “We’re committed to doing that. We are going to live within our means. That can mean different things in different years. But we wanna win. And we’re going to continue to support that goal in many different ways. That means that at some points, we will be aggressive. But we’re always going to do it while keeping the long-term health of the team in mind. I think those are things that we’re going to balance.”
Feliciano and Jones, a husband-and-wife duo with ties to a private-equity agency and the English Premier League, agreed to buy the Padres for a report $3.9 billion valuation across the center of April and have been unanimously accredited by Major League Baseball’s 29 different house owners final Monday.
Feliciano, a Puerto Rican businessman and investor, was designated management individual, however Jones, a former Division I monitor athlete who based her personal media and private growth firm, can have simply as a lot a say within the path of the franchise. In an hour-long media session — one which kicked off with a track Jones wrote and recorded herself and ended with her and her husband donning personalized Padres jerseys — the couple typically talked about carrying on the legacy of late proprietor Peter Seidler.
To what extent stays to be seen.
Between turning into the management individual in November 2020 and dying in November 2023, Seidler spent at report ranges and took the Padres’ reputation to new heights. But within the years since, whereas below the management of longtime enterprise accomplice Eric Kutsenda and later one of his siblings, John Seidler, the Padres have scaled again payroll, limiting normal supervisor A.J. Preller in his quest to construct the primary World Series champion in franchise historical past.
Feliciano and Jones didn’t go into specifics on the payroll Monday, which regardless of one other frugal offseason sits at roughly $220 million, ninth within the majors.
But they made their intentions clear.
“We need to win the World Series,” Feliciano stated. “It’s that simple. That’s what we’re going to do.”
Feliciano is the co-founder and managing accomplice of Clearlake Capital Group, a private-equity agency that’s based mostly in Santa Monica, California, and is concentrated on the economic, know-how and shopper sectors. Through that agency, Feliciano additionally co-owns Chelsea soccer membership within the EPL. Jones and Feliciano, who met whereas attending Princeton University, additionally co-founded the Kwanza Jones & Jose E. Feliciano Initiative, an funding and philanthropic group dedicated to varied efforts.
Jones and Feliciano’s stake within the Padres is over 40%, in keeping with a supply. Others making up the possession group, in keeping with a supply, embrace: Joey and Jesse Buss, the youngest sons of former Los Angeles Lakers proprietor Dr. Jerry Buss; Alfredo Harp Helu, additionally a minority proprietor below the earlier regime; Behdad Eghbali, who co-founded Clearlake alongside Feliciano; Padres CEO Erik Greupner; and members of the Seidler household who’ve retained a stake within the staff.
There has been a latest wave of personal fairness taking on skilled sports activities, prompting franchises to deal with maximizing earnings and leaving native followers feeling squeezed out. But Feliciano and Jones burdened that Clearlake is not going to be concerned with the Padres. Their feedback counsel they see the franchise as an integral half of the neighborhood.
“That’s the reason we say we’re family first — because the lens with which we look at this investment is very, very different,” Jones stated, evaluating the couple’s buy of the Padres with her husband’s affiliation with Clearlake. “The commitment is very different. The outcomes that we know we want — you always want outsized outcomes, but in here, we really are dedicated and committed to something beyond just a financial outcome.”
The Padres have surged to a 15-6 begin to August and are at present on tempo to succeed in the postseason for the third straight yr. But the franchise continues to be in search of its first journey to the World Series since 1998 and its first championship since its inception in 1969.
Fourteen years in the past, a gaggle led by Ron Fowler and Seidler, the nephew of former Los Angeles Dodgers proprietor Peter O’Malley, bought the Padres for an $800 million valuation. Now, the Padres have bought for almost 5 instances that quantity. Their assortment of stars — Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jackson Merrill and Mason Miller now, the likes of Juan Soto and Blake Snell earlier than them — helped them frequently set franchise information in attendance. Their present monetary image, hindered by bloated contracts and the shortage of a local-media contract, clearly didn’t dilute the franchise’s worth.
Where Jones and Feliciano take the Padres subsequent stays to be seen.
“I can’t think of a better fit for where we need to go as an organization,” stated Greupner, who has been with the group since 2010. “I think we’ve accomplished a lot. Obviously we have not yet accomplished our ultimate goal. And I think to take us there, there’s no better match than Jose and Kwanza. We’re all just incredibly excited to keep doing what we’re doing here. Working in professional sports and baseball in San Diego — doesn’t get much better than that.”