A deal to purchase the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball is reportedly close to completion for a record-breaking fee of $3.9billion.
According to The Wall Street Journal, private-equity billionaire Jose E. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones, are in pole position to get a deal done. The couple met when they were students at Princeton.
Purchasing the Padres for $3.9bn would see them smash the existing record, held by the New York Mets’ owner Steve Cohen, by a staggering $1.5bn.
A deal for the Padres, which have been owned by the Seidler family since 2012, is set to be announced next week.
Feliciano and his wife have won a competitive bidding war, which also included offers from Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob and businessman Dan Friedkin, who owns soccer teams Everton in the Premier League and Italian giants Roma.
Feliciano previously worked at Goldman Sachs before launching Clearlake with Behdad Eghbali. He is believed to have a net worth of just under $4billion, according to Forbes.
A deal to purchase MLB’s San Diego Padres is close to completion for a record $3.9billion
Even though the Padres will command a record figure, they have never won the World Series
Jones is the CEO of media and personal development firm Supercharged. She also co-founded a philanthropic platform that has so far committed in excess of $250m.
Even though the Padres are about to command a record figure, the franchise has never won the World Series.
They have only ever played in the World Series twice, losing to the Detroit Tigers in 1984 and the New York Yankees in 1998.
The Padres have not won a playoff series since the Wild Card round in the 2024 season. So far this season they are 13-6.
