Padres Sold!

After three years of trying to sell the San Diego Padres, John Moores finally got approved to sell the franchise. The franchise was sold to Ron Fowler and his group for $800 million. Ron Fowler is a San Diego businessman, although he might not be well known his group already has connections to professional sports.

Professional golfer, Phil Mickelson, is apart of the group. The group also includes the O'Malley family. The O'Malley family was a large part of baseball for a long time. The O'Malley family owned the Los Angles Dodgers for 48 years until they sold them in 1998. Peter O'Malley's sons, Kevin and Brian will run the team with O'Malley's nephews, Tom and Peter Seidler. The O'Malley family tried to purchase the Dodgers back when they became available, but lost the bid.

John Moores owned the Padres for 18 years. In 2009 Moores' divorce forced him to put the Padres up for sale. In his 18 seasons of ownership, the Padres have made the playoffs four times and they won the National League pennant in 1998. The Padres have failed to make the playoffs since 2006.

New ownership hopes to excite the fan base. The fan base hopes that new ownership means money will be spent. The Padres are consistently at the bottom of the league for payroll. Peter Seidler talks optimistically about the future of the franchise. Seidler said, "We're a combination thrilled to be in this position, but also feel a great sense of responsibility to the game and the community of t San Diego. We really look forward to going to work and doing everything we can to make the city of San Diego happy with our leadership, particularly the fans. Bottom line, we're just happy to get going, work hard and take a bunch of good steps in the right direction."

Commissioner Selig also seemed optimistic about the sale. He said, "I think Padres fans have a right to be very happy today. Very happy. This group knows what it takes to compete. They're very optimistic. I'm optimistic. I've gone over their projections, gone over everything. I think their projections are optimistic, but realistic. This is a good day for baseball."

Final Thought
Although many say the price tag of the Padres was inflated by the recent sale of the Dodgers, I believe the deal is great for the city of San Diego. The Padres have been difficult to watch in most of the recent years due to bad play. Hopefully the new ownership will come in and look to spend some money to improve the product on the field. With the Padres sitting in 4th place in the NL West, the fans need something to be optimistic about and this could be it.


 @dmrosen7