Major League Baseball's ownership committee voted unanimously to approve José E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones as the controlling owners of the San Diego Padres. The transaction, which closes within 30 days, ends Peter Seidler's estate's search for a buyer following his November 2023 death. Neither MLB nor the buyers disclosed purchase price, though people familiar with the matter estimate the valuation at $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion including assumed debt.
Feliciano controls Clearlake Capital Group, a Santa Monica private equity shop managing $85 billion across technology, industrials, and consumer verticals. Jones, who married Feliciano in 2018, runs SUPERCHARGED, a venture and impact fund targeting underrepresented founders; she also chairs the music catalog company Sonic Swirl. The pair already co-own Chelsea FC through Clearlake's $5.2 billion 2022 acquisition alongside Todd Boehly. Neither has prior MLB ownership stakes.
The Padres carry $470 million in debt, most of it raised to fund the $350 million stadium district redevelopment announced in 2022 and the $217 million payroll that ranked fourth in MLB last season. Revenue grew 19 percent year-over-year in 2025, reaching $487 million, per estimates compiled by Forbes. Broadcast remains the friction point: the team's local TV deal with Bally Sports San Diego expires in 2027, and the regional sports network filed for bankruptcy in March 2023. Clearlake has minority stakes in Venu Sports, the Disney-Fox-Warner streaming venture launching in October, and in Fubo, which carries several MLB clubs. Feliciano personally knows Diamond Sports Group CEO David Preschlack from overlapping board tenures at Viacom in the mid-2010s.
The approval also resets the Padres' front office. General manager A.J. Preller reports to team president Erik Greupner, who was appointed by the Seidler family in January 2024. Greupner's contract runs through 2027. People close to the sale say Feliciano and Jones plan to retain both men through at least the 2026 season, then evaluate based on playoff performance. The Padres have missed the postseason twice in three years despite carrying the National League's third-highest Opening Day payroll.
San Diego's stadium lease with the city runs through 2046, though the team holds opt-outs in 2030 and 2035 if attendance falls below 2.65 million for two consecutive seasons. The Padres drew 3.01 million in 2024, seventh in MLB. The new owners inherit a $170 million public-private infrastructure project that includes a hotel, residential tower, and retail corridor surrounding Petco Park; construction began in April 2024 and finishes in spring 2027. Clearlake specializes in real estate adjacencies around sports assets—the firm led the $1.8 billion Stamford Bridge redevelopment proposal Chelsea submitted to London planning authorities in June.
Major League Baseball now has six ownership groups with primary business interests in private equity or venture capital, up from two in 2019. Commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters in March that the league prefers buyers who can "pursue ancillary revenue streams around the franchise," a polite way of saying: bring capital, bring deal flow, don't just collect luxury tax checks.
Feliciano and Jones plan to attend the Padres' August 22 game against the Dodgers and will sit in the owner's box with Greupner and Preller. Clearlake's head of sports investments, Behdad Eghbali, who oversees the Chelsea stake, will join them. The real tell comes in November, when MLB's general manager meetings convene in Scottsdale and Preller typically signals his offseason spending posture.
The takeaway
Clearlake Capital's $85 billion war chest enters MLB with infrastructure upside and a 2027 broadcast cliff to navigate.
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