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San Diego Padres Back On The Market

Steven Covelman |
April 11, 2012 | 5:14 p.m. PDT

Staff Writer

The Padres own 30 percent of Petco Park in Downtown San Diego -- their home since 2004. (Nehrams2020/Creative Commons)
The Padres own 30 percent of Petco Park in Downtown San Diego -- their home since 2004. (Nehrams2020/Creative Commons)

So you lost out on buying the Dodgers, but you still really want to own a professional baseball team in California.

Well, why not try San Diego? It may not be as glamorous, but hey, the weather is still nice and you could even get a little discount.

San Diego Padres owner John Moores announced that his ownership group is moving forward with a plan to sell the club, he announced Tuesday. The massive, $2-billion sale of the Dodgers has kickstarted a marketplace for baseball teams and has big spenders knocking on the Padres' door.

According to a report by the San Diego Union-Tribunepotential buyers are already talking to team advisors Steve Greenberg of Allen & Company, and John Moag of Moag & Company about what amount of money it will take to buy the Padres.

Currently the estimated price for purchasing the Padres is $725 million. However, this figure does not include a potential 20-year TV rights deal with Fox that could be worth as much as $1.2 billion. According to the stipulations of the deal with Fox, the Padres would have a 20 percent share of the new Fox Sports San Diego network.

Greenberg reportedly has a history with hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen, who lost out on the Dodgers in the final round of bidding. The Tribune is also reporting that two baseball sources believe that former Dodgers owner Peter O'Malley is interested in purchasing the team, as is former player agent Dennis Gilbert. Both parties lost out on the Dodgers as well.

For Padres owner John Moores, the sale of his franchise has been a three-year ordeal. Tuesday's announcement comes weeks after a deal to sell the team to a group led by Jeff Moorad fell through. Moores was ready to hand the team over to Moorad this winter, but his fellow franchise owners refused to approve the sale, forcing Moores to go back to the drawing board.

However, waiting a little while longer is mostly likely going to make him an even richer man. Moores, the current franchise owner, who bought the Padres for $80 million back in 1994, is most likely going to receive more than the $530 million that he was expected to receive from Moorad for his team.

In 2008, Moores put the Padres up for sale while he was going through a divorce. That winter he cut the team's payroll from $74 million to $47 million. Currently, the Padres have a payroll of $56 million, the second-lowest in Major League Baseball.

San Diego has not made the playoffs since 2006 and has one of the youngest teams in the league. Moores told the media that the sale could take anywhere from six months to a year to complete.

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