{"id":554526,"date":"2026-02-04T17:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T17:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/554526\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T17:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T17:21:12","slug":"feliciano-friedkin-among-potential-buyers-interested-in-padres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/554526\/","title":{"rendered":"Feliciano, Friedkin Among Potential Buyers Interested in Padres"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTwo different billionaire English Premier League owners are among those who have expressed interest in buying the San Diego Padres<\/a>, according to multiple people familiar with the process.<\/p>\n

\n\tDan Friedkin, whose Pursuit Sports owns Everton<\/a> and AS Roma, and Jos\u00e9 E. Feliciano, whose Clearlake Capital<\/a> is a backer of Chelsea<\/a>, are two of a handful of potential bidders engaged in the ongoing sale process, said the people, who were granted anonymity because the details are private. Others include Golden State Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob, who has hinted<\/a> about his potential interest. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Padres, Feliciano and boutique investment bank BDT & MSD, which was retained last November to explore a potential sale<\/a> of the MLB<\/a> club, declined to comment. An email sent to the Friedkin Group was not immediately returned.<\/p>\n

\n\tFriedkin is worth roughly $10 billion and Feliciano an estimated $3.9 billion<\/a>, according to Forbes. The Padres are worth $2.31 billion<\/a>, per Sportico\u2019s latest MLB valuations, up 14% over the previous year, thanks to strong results on and off the field. Attendance in 2025 was 3.44 million, which ranked second in baseball behind the Los Angeles Dodgers. Gross revenue topped $500 million last year, Sportico previously reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe record sale price for an MLB franchise is $2.42 billion for Steve Cohen\u2019s purchase of the New York Mets in 2020.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Padres\u2019 sale is viewed as a litmus test for valuations at a critical time for baseball. Many investors believe the sport\u2019s clubs are undervalued\u2014the MLB revenue multiple is 6.6x in Sportico\u2019s valuations, by far the smallest of the five major U.S. leagues\u2014and there are potential structural changes coming that could grant owners greater cost certainty. To get there, however, the league and its players must navigate a labor battle that many believe could result in missed games in the 2027 season.<\/p>\n

\n\tFeliciano, who co-founded Clearlake with Behdad Eghbali in 2006, has become a more prominent sports investor in the last few years. Clearlake provided a large portion of the funding for the $3.16 billion purchase<\/a> of English soccer giant Chelsea in 2022 and now has more than $90 billion<\/a> under management. Feliciano was close to buying a minority stake<\/a> in the NFL\u2019s Los Angeles Chargers two years ago and was among those who bid<\/a> unsuccessfully for the Denver Broncos in 2022.<\/p>\n

\n\tFeliciano\u2019s bid would be through his family office and include his wife, Kwanza Jones. The two of them have been active recently in women\u2019s sports<\/a>, including a partnership with the Monarch Collective. If successful with his bid, Feliciano, who was born in Puerto Rico, would join the Los Angeles Angels\u2019 Arte Moreno as the only MLB control owners of Latin descent.<\/p>\n

\n\tFriedkin\u2019s Houston-based business spans automobiles and luxury hospitality, and he has also expanded into sports in recent years. In late 2024, his company acquired a majority stake in Everton, which joined a portfolio with other soccer assets. He\u2019s been discussed as a potential owner for an NHL expansion team in Houston and was a finalist<\/a> in the bidding for the Boston Celtics. Last year, he created<\/a> Pursuit Sports to house his sports investments and to seek more opportunities across the industry.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Padres\u2019 owners announced the team was for sale in November, amid a legal battle between family members of late owner Peter Seidler, who died in 2023. Seidler\u2019s widow, Sheel Kamal Seidler, sued his brothers, Bob and Matt, in Texas probate court last year<\/a>, alleging they breached their fiduciary duties as trustees of Peter\u2019s trust. One of the trusts\u2019 key assets is the principal ownership stake in the Padres.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Monday, a Travis County, Texas, court filing revealed that Sheel has dismissed most of her original claims.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe current Padres ownership group, which includes at least 10 people or entities, bought the team in 2012 for $800 million. The largest stake of roughly 24% is held by the Peter Seidler Trust, with Sheel and her three children the beneficiaries.<\/p>\n

\n\tMichael McCann contributed additional reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two different billionaire English Premier League owners are among those who have expressed interest in buying the San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,1815,73006,48748,4,18],"class_list":{"0":"post-554526","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chelsea","10":"tag-clearlake-capital","11":"tag-everton","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-san-diego-padres"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116013517429743549","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}