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MLB owners unanimously approved the purchase of the San Diego Padres Monday to private equity billionaire José E. Feliciano and his wife Kwanza Jones. The deal values the team at $3.9 billion and is expected to close in the coming days, per a statement from the team. The price shatters the record for an MLB franchise sale, previously set when Steve Cohen bought the New York Mets for $2.42 billion in 2020. Feliciano and Jones will own a reported 40% of the club. Feliciano, who will be the control owner, and Jones emerged from a competitive bidding process for the team led by BDT & MSD, which was retained last November to explore a potential sale. The three other finalists for the Padres included Dan Friedkin, whose Pursuit Sports owns Everton and AS Roma; Golden State Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob; and Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores. The Padres had three bids of at least $3.5 billion, including the winning one. The record price tag for an MLB team surprised many fans, considering San Diego ranks outside the 15 largest U.S. metro areas. The Los Angeles Angels, Washington Nationals and Minnesota Twins were all recently up for sale in bigger markets and didn’t find new control owners. Nonetheless, the Padres are a robust business that is stronger than any of those three teams, leading to multiple billionaires making final bids. In 2025, the team posted gross revenues of $530 million and EBITDA of $20 million, according to multiple people who reviewed the pitch deck distributed during the sales process. Net revenue after revenue sharing and cost of goods was an estimated $483 million, which ranked 11th among the league’s 30 teams. Petco Park is one of the best-drawing venues in MLB. San Diego had the league’s second-best attendance figure last year, with 3.4 million fans, and it has been in the top five each year since 2021. Fan enthusiasm has persisted even as ticket prices rose by more than 50% since 2022. The club now caps season tickets at more than 25,000 and has sold out of them four straight years, with a waiting list for an undisclosed number of fans. The team has also turned Petco Park into a robust year-round destination for events, with the stadium set to host more than 150 non-MLB events this year; that includes stadium concert acts, such as Ed Sheeran, as well as concerts on a separate stage in Gallagher Square at Petco. Feliciano, who co-founded Clearlake Capital 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 of English soccer giant Chelsea in 2022 and now has more than $90 billion under management. Feliciano was close to buying a minority stake in the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers two years ago and was among those who bid unsuccessfully for the Denver Broncos in 2022. MLB rules restrict private equity ownership to 30% of a franchise. Feliciano and Jones are funding their individual stake from their personal wealth. The Padres’ owners announced the sale process in November, amid a legal battle between family members of late owner Peter Seidler, who died in 2023. Seidler’s widow, Sheel Kamal Seidler, sued his brothers, Bob and Matt, in Texas probate court, alleging they breached their fiduciary duties as trustees of Peter’s trust—one of the trust’s main assets was the Padres. In February, a court filing revealed that Sheel had dismissed most of her original claims. The former Padres ownership group included at least 10 people or entities and bought the team in 2012 for $800 million. The largest stake of roughly 24% was held by the Peter Seidler Trust, with Sheel and her three children the beneficiaries. The Padres are on track for their fifth straight winning season, which would be a first for the franchise which started play in 1969.