Padres' New Owners Under Immense Pressure After $3.9 Billion Sale: Column

So the San Diego Padres have new owners, pending, of course, approval by Major League Baseball and customary closing conditions.

If Kwanza Jones and José E. Feliciano did a cursory walkthrough this past week, they would have seen a Padres club that went 2-4 against the two Chicago teams, ending a four-game losing streak on Sunday thanks to a strong effort by Griffin Canning in his Friars debut. They remain a half game behind the rival Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West.

The deal between the Seidler family and private equity billionaire Feliciano and his wife came together in April at an MLB-record valuation of $3.9 billion. The two sides announced a “definitive agreement for the transfer of control of the franchise” on Saturday.

Every ownership group has left some kind of mark on the Padres, good, bad or mostly indifferent. There have been some high points, many low points, lots of gaffes and drama, and no World Series titles.

Here’s a look back at the long, not totally illustrious history of Padres owners as the team gets ready to change hands again.

C. Arnholt Smith, 1969-1974

Smith was the first owner of the Padres, helping usher them from their Pacific Coast League years into the major leagues as an expansion franchise in 1969. He was a prominent San Diego businessman who was active in banking, tuna fishing, hotels and other interests. He was part of San Diego’s “old boy network,” which is alive and well today, as well as a close friend of and major donor to President Richard Nixon.

He got into legal troubles and sold the team to McDonald’s owner Ray Kroc in 1974. Later in the decade, Smith was convicted of embezzlement and tax fraud and served time.

Ray Kroc, 1974-1984

After retiring from running McDonald’s, Kroc stepped in when a hitch developed in the sale of the Padres from Smith to businessman Joseph Danzansky, who planned to move the team to Washington, D.C. Kroc bought the team for $12 million and called off the moving vans.

Kroc made an immediate impression with the fan base and is best known for his tirade during the eighth inning of the home opener on April 9, 1974, when the Padres were losing to the Houston Astros.

He grabbed the PA microphone and said: “I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is you loyal fans have outstripped Los Angeles. They had 31,000 on opening night. We have nearly 40,000.”

He was interrupted when a streaker ran across the field at what was then known as San Diego Stadium.

“Get him out of here. Take him to jail,” Kroc hollered.

“The bad news is I’ve never seen such stupid ballplaying in my life,” Kroc concluded.

At that very moment, Ted Giannoulas was making his stadium debut as the KGB Chicken, dressed in a red chicken suit while promoting a radio station. It was the precursor to Giannoulas’ act as the world-famous and much-beloved San Diego Chicken.

Giannoulas was petrified that Kroc might spot him, so he waddled straight to his car and drove away, still in his costume.

“This guy is going to look at me and say, ‘Get that chicken. We’re hamburger people around here,” Giannoulas has recounted over the decades.

Joan Kroc, 1984-1990

Ray Kroc died on Jan. 14, 1984, and his widow inherited his fortune and the Padres.

The two top memories of Joan Kroc’s stewardship were the Padres reaching the World Series for the first time in 1984, while wearing RAK patches on their jerseys, and being criticized by reliever Goose Gossage.

In 1986, Gossage was angered when the Padres banned beer in the clubhouse, saying that Kroc was ''poisoning the world with her hamburgers.”

Later that season he was suspended after criticizing team president and Kroc son-in-law Ballard Smith.

Gossage said Smith ''doesn't know anything and doesn't care,”' that he wanted ''choirboys and not winning players” and ''just listens to what mom says.”

Gossage was reinstated after apologizing and making a $25,000 donation to charity.

Joan Kroc sold the Padres for $75 million to TV producer Tom Werner in 1990. She left much of her fortune to philanthropic causes.

Tom Werner, 1990-1995

Werner and a group of Southern California businessmen — the notorious “Gang of 15” — bought the Padres and brought them no closer to a World Series.

The lowlights of the Werner ownership included the “Barr-Bungled Banner” of 1990 and the Fire Sale of 1993.

On July 25, 1990, Werner, the producer of the sitcom “Roseanne,” invited Roseanne Barr to sing the national anthem in between games of a doubleheader. She screeched her way through an off-key rendition and then grabbed her crotch and spit on the ground. Not surprisingly, it didn’t go over well in this Navy town, and beyond.

In 1993, the Padres dealt stars Fred McGriff and Gary Sheffield at the start of a fire sale that gutted the roster but did land them unknown rookie reliever Trevor Hoffman, who 25 years later became a Hall of Famer.

After Werner sold the Padres, he became one of the key players in the Boston Red Sox ending their long World Series title drought. The Padres are still waiting for their first.

John Moores, 1994-2012

Moores bought the team in December 1994 and made the wise choice of hiring Larry Lucchino as his CEO and president. Lucchino had gotten Camden Yards built while with the Baltimore Orioles and led the charge to get Petco Park built.

A week after the sale closed, the Padres swung a 12-player trade with Houston that netted them Ken Caminiti and Steve Finley, who with Tony Gwynn and Hoffman helped form the core of the 1998 team that returned to the World Series. Not long after being swept by the New York Yankees, voters approved what is now Petco Park.

While Moores is credited with a major turnaround of the club’s fortune, he was embroiled in some off-field controversies. A federal investigation of his financial gifts to a city councilwoman delayed the construction of Petco Park for several months but led to no charges against him. A difficult divorce led Moores to begin the process of selling the team.

Lucchino was pushed out in 2001 and headed for the Red Sox. He took along boy wonder Theo Epstein to be the general manager and they started winning World Series titles, a feat Epstein would replicate as president of baseball operations of the Chicago Cubs in 2016.

The Padres haven’t been to the Fall Classic since 1998.

Jeff Moorad* 2009-2012

The asterisk is because Moorad, the former agent and executive with the Arizona Diamondbacks, began to incrementally buy the Padres, along with a group of investors, from Moores, but never sealed the deal. Moorad bought about 49% of the team’s shares and was CEO and vice chairman, but stepped down in 2012 because he couldn’t get the support of enough other owners to back a sale to him.

The Padres had a healthy lead in the NL West in late August 2010 before blowing it and missing the playoffs. In 2011, Moorad said the Padres’ 2012 payroll “will start with a five,” with the eventual “resting place” over the ensuing five years being $70 million. Their payroll that year did start with a five, and it was last in the majors.

Ron Fowler, 2012-2020

Fowler, nicknamed “The Sultan of Suds,” made a fortune from his beer distributorships and was a member of Moorad’s group that failed to buy the team from Moores. In April 2012, Fowler replaced Moorad as the general partner of the minority group. He joined a new group that included four heirs to the O’Malley family that owned the Dodgers for five decades. The group included, for a short time, Kevin and Brian O’Malley, the sons of former Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley, and, for the long haul, Peter and Tom Seidler, O’Malley’s nephews.

Fowler was focused on debt reduction, occasionally criticized the team’s play during radio interviews, secured the 2016 All-Star Game, oversaw the trade for Fernando Tatis Jr. and the free agent signing of Manny Machado, and saw the Padres return to the playoffs in 2020 for the first time in 14 seasons.

Peter Seidler, 2020-2023

Seidler bought most of Fowler’s stake in November 2020. He poured millions of his own money into signing players and the team reached the NL Championship Series in 2022, eliminating the hated Dodgers along the way.

Seidler had no problem dropping any loyalty he might have still had for the Dodgers, even calling them “the dragon up the freeway we're trying to slay.”

He also said, “One year soon, the baseball gods will smile on the San Diego Padres and we will have a parade.”

Sadly, he died in November 2023 at age 63. The Padres still haven’t had that parade.

Seidler’s widow, Sheel, sued brothers-in-law Bob and Matt Seidler for control of the team in January 2025. John Seidler became control person and Sheel Seidler settled most of the lawsuit earlier this year.

Kwanza Jones and José E. Feliciano*

Congratulations. As soon as the sale closes, you’re on the clock.

Routine sellouts at Petco Park are cool, as are the banana pudding and “Cardiff Crack” tri-tip nachos.

But what the fans really want is that ever-elusive World Series title and a parade.

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