Drew Brees helped the San Diego Chargers score plenty of points during his time with the NFL team. Now, he is hoping to push a local bid to purchase MLB’s San Diego Padres across the goal line.
The quarterback, who will be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year, has joined Vuori founder Joe Kudla, the CEO of the Carlsbad-based athletic leisure clothing company, in an attempt to buy the Padres, according to a report Thursday by The Athletic.
Sources told The Athletic that the Kudla-Brees team is one of five groups that submitted initial bids by Wednesday’s deadline. Also in contention are Joe Lacob, owner of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries, and Jose E. Feliciano, who is part of the group that owns Chelsea of the English Premier League. Feliciano’s ClearLake Capital is based in Santa Monica. The names of the other two bidders were not explicitly mentioned in The Athletic report, although San Diego-born Daniel Friedkin, like Feliciano, an EPL owner (Everton), had previously been mentioned as a candidate. That leaves one mystery entity pursuing the Padres.
The sources who spoke to The Athletic said the five bids were “strong.” The Seidler family is seeking nearly $3 billion to sell the Padres, who were valued at $1.9 billion last year. Sportico has reported that the Padres’ value has since increased to $2.31 billion. The record price for an MLB franchise was the $2.42 billion paid by Steve Cohen in 2020 for the New York Mets. Peter Seidler and Ron Fowler’s group bout the Padres in 2012 for $800 million.
The sale appears to be moving fast. While it wasn’t known how many of the five groups would be advancing to the next stage, The Athletic said a sale agreement could be done by Opening Day, which is four weeks away. BDT and MSD Partners are the banks overseeing the sale. That is the same firm that helped handle the sale of the NBA’s Boston Celtics for a record $6.1 billion. Any sale needs to be approved by MLB owners.
The Seidler family announced in mid-November that it was seeking to sell the team, but there were still some legal issues among the family following the death of Peter Seidler on Nov. 23, 2024, that needed to be settled.
John Seidler, the oldest of three brothers who took over as team chairman in February 2025, said last week that he was hoping for a local group to join the pursuit of the Padres.
Kudla certainly fits that role. He graduated from the University of San Diego and founded Vuori in 2015. The company was valued more than a year ago at $5.5 billion. Kudla and Brees are friends and workout partners, with Brees occasionally still attending Padres games.
The Seidler family owns less than 50% of the Padres, including 24% held by Peter Seidler’s trust, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. The trust’s beneficiaries are Peter Seidler’s widow, Sheel Seidler, and their three children. There are between 10 and 12 other entities that are minority owners.
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