José E. Feliciano and his wife Kwanza Jones are the incoming majority owners of the San Diego Padres after MLB granted initial approval on August 4, 2026 — in a deal worth $3.9 billion, the highest price ever paid for a franchise in Major League Baseball history. Until the transaction closes in mid-to-late August, John Seidler remains the registered control person with the league.
What makes this sale stand out goes beyond the price tag. Feliciano is one of the very few Latino majority owners in MLB history, and Jones will become the first Black woman to serve as majority co-owner of a big-league club.
Ownership at a Glance
- Lead owner: José E. Feliciano
- Ownership group: Kwanza Jones & José E. Feliciano personal investment group
- Purchase price: $3.9 billion
- Most recent franchise valuation (Forbes, March 2026): $3.1 billion
- Owner’s estimated net worth: $3.9 billion
- Group in control since: 2026 (pending final vote)
Note: The Seidler family agreed to sell the franchise to Feliciano and Jones for $3.9 billion. MLB granted initial approval on August 4, 2026, with a final vote by all 30 owners expected in mid-August. John Seidler remains the registered control person until the sale is official. This page will be updated once the deal closes.
Who Is José Feliciano?
Feliciano, 53, was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico — the same island that gave baseball Roberto Clemente, Iván Rodríguez, and Francisco Lindor. He earned a degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton in 1994, then an MBA from Stanford, and launched his career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs. He later served as CFO of govWorks — a dot-com that folded in 2000 — and was a partner at Tennenbaum Capital before co-founding Clearlake Capital with Behdad Eghbali in 2006. Today, the firm manages more than $90 billion in assets and ranks among the twelve largest private equity firms in the world. Forbes estimates his personal fortune at $3.9 billion.
His wife and business partner, Kwanza Jones, was born in Los Angeles. She won Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater while a Princeton student and went on to record music professionally — her single Think Again reached No. 21 on the Billboard charts in 2011. She holds a law degree from Cardozo and a master’s in dispute resolution from Pepperdine.
Together, Feliciano and Jones have donated more than $200 million since 2017 to universities and schools. Feliciano sits on the boards of Stanford and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino. This purchase is made by Feliciano personally, separate from his role at Clearlake Capital and his stake in Chelsea FC.
How the Padres Changed Hands
The Padres last sold in 2012, when the Seidler-O’Malley group bought the club for $800 million. Peter Seidler became control person in 2020, followed by his brother John Seidler in 2025. Now the family is selling to Feliciano and Jones for $3.9 billion — nearly five times what they paid fourteen years ago.
The path to the sale wasn’t smooth. In January 2025, Sheel Kamal Seidler — Peter’s widow — sued her brothers-in-law Matthew and Robert Seidler, accusing them of flagrant self-dealing with her late husband’s estate and family trusts. By February 4, 2026, she had dismissed most of those claims with prejudice, though allegations of breach of distribution duties and a request for an accounting remained alive. A Travis County, Texas probate court appointed a neutral representative to ensure any agreement would bind all beneficiaries. Matthew Seidler even suggested publicly that the lawsuit was part of why the Padres lost out on Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki in January 2025.
| Year | Buyer | Price |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | John Moores | — |
| 2012 | Seidler-O’Malley Group (Ron Fowler, control person) | $800M |
| 2020 | Peter Seidler (assumes control person role) | — |
| 2025 | John Seidler (assumes control person role) | — |
| 2026 | Kwanza Jones & José E. Feliciano | $3.9B |
What Else Does Feliciano Own?
Beyond Clearlake Capital — which has acquired companies including Alteryx and Dun & Bradstreet — Feliciano has been a co-owner of Chelsea FC since May 2022, alongside Todd Boehly and BlueCo, in a deal worth more than £4.25 billion. That makes for an interesting overlap: Boehly is also a minority partner in the Dodgers, San Diego’s NL West rival.
Feliciano and Jones also run the Kwanza Jones & José E. Feliciano Initiative, an impact investment and philanthropy fund with $50 million committed to entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities. Jones separately founded SUPERCHARGED, a media and motivation company.
What He’s Inheriting
The Padres posted $452 million in revenue in 2025 and were valued at $3.1 billion by Forbes in March 2026 — the biggest valuation jump in the league that year. The Seidler era left a legacy of bold payrolls, with names like Manny Machado, Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr., Yu Darvish, and Xander Bogaerts — but no championship. Peter Seidler, who built that roster, was a nephew of Peter O’Malley and a grandson of Walter O’Malley, the man who moved the Dodgers to Los Angeles. He died without seeing a title in San Diego.
Feliciano also inherits a club with deep Latin roots: the Padres play 20 miles from Tijuana, have had Mexican partners like Alfredo Harp Helú since 2012, and broadcast all 162 games in Spanish on XEMO-AM 860 La Poderosa, with a transmitter based in Tijuana.
Where to Watch the Padres
All local Padres games air on Padres TV, the MLB-branded channel that replaced Bally Sports San Diego on May 31, 2023. In 2026 it’s available on Cox 83, DirecTV 694-3, AT&T Uverse 781/1781, and Spectrum 305/443. Streaming — with no blackouts — is available at Padres.TV for $19.99/month or $99.99/season. Ten Saturday games also air free over the air on CBS 8 and The CW.
Don Orsillo calls games on TV alongside Mark Grant and Tony Gwynn Jr. On radio, all 162 games run on 97.3 The Fan in English and on XEMO-AM 860 La Poderosa in Spanish with Eduardo Ortega, Carlos Hernández, and Pedro Gutiérrez. Spanish audio is also available via SAP on television.
Numbers Worth Talking About
- $3.9 billion is an absolute MLB record — it breaks the $2.4 billion Steve Cohen paid for the Mets in 2020 and the $1.725 billion David Rubenstein paid for the Orioles in March 2024.
- The Seidlers bought in 2012 for $800 million. That’s nearly 5x their money in fourteen years.
- Among all 30 MLB clubs, the Padres rank #10 by current franchise value, #1 by nominal purchase price, and #12 by owner’s personal net worth.
- Note: purchase prices are nominal and unadjusted for inflation — comparing decades-old sale prices to today’s valuations overstates the real gain.
