Just over a year after the sudden passing of Padres owner Peter Seidler, the organization has its new control person. While Seidler’s business partner Eric Kutsenda took over as interim control person in the immediate aftermath of Seidler’s death, he’ll now be succeeded more permanently by John Seidler according to a report from Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Kutsenda will remain part of the organization and the rest of the team’s senior leadership will remain in their current roles. Seidler’s ascent to title of control person will need to receive the approval from the league before it becomes official.
Seidler, 65, is the brother of the Padres’ previous owner and is among the members of the Seidler family who collectively hold what Acee notes is believed to be a 45% stake in the team. Previous reports have indicated that Peter Seidler intended for his family to maintain ownership of the Padres for generations to come and that the club intended to proceed with that plan following his death. John Seidler taking the reins of the organization appears to be the latest move toward making that plan a reality, and Acee added that a source familiar with the family’s plans confirmed to him that the Seidler family intends to own the Padres for “a long time.”
“Since Peter’s passing, Eric Kutsenda has served as our interim control person,” the Padres said in a statement provided to Acee. “Peter’s youngest brother Matt, as trustee of Peter’s trust, is pleased to announce that John Seidler, Peter’s oldest sibling, an accomplished entrepreneur and business executive, will be the Padres’ next control person, pending approval by Major League Baseball.
Peter never viewed the Padres as ‘his’ team. Instead, he saw the team as an asset of the community of which he was a faithful steward. John shares Peter’s vision and will continue to strengthen and nurture this great franchise, its players, fans and employees, and the entire San Diego community.”
Importantly, Acee notes that the upcoming changing of the guard at the top of the Padres organization is not expected to impact the club’s plans on the field in terms of payroll. In its final years under Peter Seidler, the Padres organization had operated hefty payrolls in hopes of speeding up the club’s timeline for contention, but starting last offseason began to lower payroll to something closer to the middle of the pack. Acee adds that the Padres believe that their current model for payroll is “more sustainable” and that it figures to continue going forward with John Seidler now at the helm.
For the 2025 season, that likely means the club’s payroll will need to come down as compared to current projections. RosterResource projects a $210MM payroll for the club next season as things stand, which is $41MM higher than last year’s $169MM figure. While previous reporting has indicated that the club has room to increase the budget beyond its 2024 level, that increase is expected to be marginal and leave the club to ponder trading pricey arbitration-level players such as Dylan Cease and Luis Arráez.
As a team, how much money did they lose / make last year?
The *real* numbers aren’t public, but I’m going to have my interpretor bet the house that they didn’t lose money. 56 out of 80 games were sellouts, franchise record attendance and a moderately successful streaming model co-owned and co-operated with The League. They’re the biggest deal in town… they’re a huge deal and likely printing money.
Their padres tv streaming deal paid the padres somewhere around 4m plus their cable deals which are unknown. Padres local tv money is terrible.
Bubs – Lost $116M per Forbes.
Forbes said that the Braves had $473 million in revenue when the Braves publicly available information had them at $574 million.
Forbes said that the Padres had $345 million in revenue but the Padres became a revenue payor in 2023 which means the minimum their revenue could have been was $410 million.
We know from the books of the Braves and the Blue Jays which are publicly available due to those teams being owned by publicly traded corporations, just download their shareholder reports, that at least those 2 teams have a total of around $134-137 million in non-baseball operations expenses. That is everything else other than players, coaches, trainers, training facilities, scouting, and benefits. I don’t see other teams s being all that different from those two teams. Do you?
$410 million revenue
– $137 million non-baseball operations expenses
– $227 million CBT payroll which includes 40 man payroll and benefits
That leaves $46 million for coaches, trainers, training facilities, minor league salaries, scouting, and benefits.
The Padres may have lost a small amount of money, but to even try to say they lost $116 million when we know what the other expenses were is not believable.
Forbes also said that the Blue Jays had $328 million in revenue when we know from their shareholder reports that it was $541 million, more than $200 million more than Forbes reported.
Pads – It would help if you actually read their stated methodology.
For instance, the stated revenue is Net of Revenue Sharing.
Sorry but as a highly respected longtime financial institution I am going to trust Forbes has the most accurate estimates possible.
And why the hell would you use CBT payroll? It’s only for luxury tax calculation purposes, it has nothing to do with the P&L.
Here’s the deets:
“Revenue and operating income (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) are for the 2023 season and are net of revenue sharing, competitive balance taxes and stadium revenue used for debt service. Ownership stakes in regional sports networks, as well as related profits or losses, are excluded from our valuations and operating results, as are investments in real estate and other businesses. (For all-inclusive sports ownership valuations, see the 2023 Sports Empires rankings.) Sources include sports bankers, team and league executives, public documents like leases and filings related to public bonds, and media rights experts.”
I’ve read earnings reports and pseudo-dossiers on this and that pertaining to Padre biz, FPG… and what really seems salient or tangible is just how transformed the Gaslamp District really is… and nowhere have I found the *real* numbers because, well… the books are private… but looking at P&Ls doesn’t quite give the same pulse as just walking around downtown San Diego during GameDay. They own the buildings up and down the block, they own the parking lots that are bulging with overflow (at $50, $60 a car!) and they own the hearts and minds of every Brown and Gold-plad person walking around San Diego, let alone the ones dropping $200 a game on each member of the family. As I look around and truly gauge the splendor at which the Padres operate, they might be the worst company on Earth if they are truly… TRULY!… operating at a loss. It’s impossible to comprehend that, honestly. They own the city, and rightfully.
Perhaps the key factor in the amortization calculations is the pre-’24 stadium remodel at an approximate $80MM, but there is simply NO WAY the Pads are running in the red.
Gwynn – All that real estate is not part of the team’s Financials, and Forbes specifically states it’s not factored in the team’s bottom line:
“Ownership stakes in regional sports networks, as well as related profits or losses, are excluded from our valuations and operating results, as are investments in real estate and other businesses.”
As another example, Red Sox owners (FSG) also own Liverpool FC, Pittsburgh Penguins, The Boston Globe, and many other entities. None of it is part of baseball operations so why would it be included in the team’s financials?
I understand that, and that’s to my point- we don’t see *that* capital being reported. They simply aren’t losing money… especially when their public bottomline is obfuscated by smoky valuations.
Gwynn – Seidler Equity Partners owns all that. So yeah, I can see how they aren’t losing money. But that’s a separate discussion from Padres profitability or lack thereof.
All of everything you & a bunch of the Blindly Faithful have to say about the vibrant nightlife in the gaslamp & the Pobres being so financially stable would be reassuring, if they didn’t openly operate like the gaslamp’s ‘most vulnerable residents’
It would help if they actually got basic facts right. They can read the shareholder reports too. They are incredibly easy to get. Don’t even have to own the stock. Those shareholder reports are reality. Forbes’ guesses are not.
They could also get the actual numbers for their methodology from those reports. They chose to guess instead.
Instead of believing ANYONE, go download the shareholder reports.
Don’t TRUST anyone. Go look at the information yourself.
That is the point. Forbes is wrong. Period.
CBT payroll includes what a team pays in benefits, 40 man payroll, and things like pre-arb bonus pools. Other payroll figures do not.
Are you trying to say YOU are a “highly respected longtime financial institution”? Are you trying to say Forbes is? I have had multiple articles published in Forbes, you could too, so they are not a highly respected longtime financial institution. They are a publication that sells space in order to get more revenue and more clicks on their website. Look at most of the articles. They say “contributor”. Those are not journalists on the Forbes payroll, they are people like you and I that know a little bit about our industry and submitted an article and paid Forbes to have it published to boost the resume.
Unless it says Forbes Staff next to their name, its clickbait that someone paid to put there so their name is on an “article” on Forbes.
When it comes to MLB, since Maury Brown stopped writing the Business of Baseball, its not respected much at all.
Braaack. Wrong FPG. Seidler Equity Partners does NOT own all that development around Petco. JMI Realty owns much of it. The Padres bought some, including the land the city owned for Tailgate park, but John Moores developed much of the land directly around Petco and JMI is still listed on public documents as the owner.
Congrats John. Let’s go win one for Pete!
Find it interesting that Peter younger brother Matt is in charge of the trust and not his wife or his older brother John.
Peter had a lot of different assets, his brother may have been in a better position to manage the trust.
Sheel Seidler, Peter’s widow, asked Eric Kutsenda, Peter’s business partner, to run the team temporarily and she asked Matt to be the trustee. The trust is still in her name.
“Instead, he saw the team as an asset of the community of which he was a faithful steward.”
Not to be crass but….that Bogaerts contract.
Yeah they didn’t see the TV money blowing up. But, this level of complete offseason inaction to improve the team, apparently due to finances, is no bueno. This franchise couldn’t afford that mistake. Someone else put it well: they have pieces for a $300 million team on a $200 million team.
It’s gonna really suck if or when they can’t re-sign Jackson Merrill. The way prices for star players are rising, it looks like he is only going go be in San Diego long-term if he wants to be. If he wants to get paid to the max, he is outta here in five years.
You can say that about any future free agent star.
Tell gutless “Uninformed” who muted me that Kutsenda and Greupner said they didn’t lose much TV money, none after 2023, and that MLB, which committed to paying teams 80% of all money lost to the RSN’s bankruptcies, only paid the Padres $6.8 million. That means that other than the one payment in May of 2023 that DSG defaulted on, the Padres have not lost any TV revenue. Facts are tough for some people, but that one is really simple.
No one in their right mind thought that Bogaerts at $25.5 million AAV was a bad deal. After all, the Red Sox offered him 6 years and $208 million or $34.66 million AAV. It was only ever the length that was a problem. So far Bogaerts deal is not upside down yet. Even with an injury filled, 1.2 WAR season in 2024, because of that low AAV the Padres have still broken even. He only needs to produce a 2.8 WAR for it to be a good deal for the Padres and a healthy Bogaerts not being moved from position to position is almost a guarantee to do that. After all, he hadn’t had a season with WAR below 4.4 since 2017.
But then “Uninformed” was whining about Bogaerts after a 4.4 WAR season that gave the Padres $15.5 million in surplus value, so it should be expected that he would be whining now.
Keep an eye on whatever Tucker gets next year. That will be the floor for Merrill’s contract. Unless he really loves San Diego, or runs into injuries/ineffectiveness
So am I still waiting for Preller to start trading
I will forever be grateful for Peter Seidler and the Seidler family for the resources and effort they put into changing the Padres perception nationally and internationally.
Now, how much control and say do the Seidlers actually have with this franchise is an unknown.
45% is a great deal.
“Returning to middle of the pack” is also a concern.
“Sustainability” is a concern.
The Dodgers are on the verge of a dynasty and
present an almost unmovable threat.
When I hear “sustainability” teams like the Reds, Pirates, Rays and Rockies come to mind.
“Sustainability” does not win championships.
Immovable?
It’s Acee. Doom and gloom is his shtick.
Watching “The Comeback 2004 Boston Red Sox” story.
Not a whole lot different with the Pads and Dodgers, really with the exception…
The 2004 Sox ownership was ticked when the Yankees sent the Sox packing for the umpteenth time.
I don’t see that with the current Padres ownership group.
Where’s the fire?
Where’s the “those guys took it from us. We want it, and we will do what it takes to get it”.
The Dodgers beat the Padres. Instead of “we are going to do what it takes to beat those guys” Padres ownership has waived the white flag.
Padres ownership has shown ZERO concern about a blossoming rivalry and let down the city of SD and a burgeoning die hard fan base.
Time to ‘Cowboy Up’ Padres ownership and show some heart.
They have been hogtied with some very maniacal spending by somebody who was not being responsible (whatever his motivation was).
Shut up dude. Are you a mouthpiece for current ownership to justify lack of spending?
Come on man, with your bogus narrative!
This is a great thing. John said at a fundraiser for Lucky Duck Foundation in Spetember that the #1 goal was to have a parade in San Diego for the Padres and that they were committed to continue Peter’s legacy with the Padres.
That doesn’t sound like they are cutting payroll to me.
Of course, Acee is almost always wrong except when he is reporting things after the fact.
Burnes & Alonso incoming….
They’re doomed with an elderly payroll commitment.
There should be a word limit on posts. My thumb hurts from scrolling down.