Kwanza Jones and José E. Feliciano are set to be introduced Monday as the new owners of the Padres, a move that comes with a Major League Baseball-record $3.9 billion valuation attached to the franchise.
The couple’s role in the Padres’ ownership group has been years in the making. Long before the purchase, Feliciano and Jones met for an afternoon in Central Park and talked through the goals they hoped to pursue over time. Feliciano said they tried to map out their dreams in terms of the impact they wanted to make, not in financial terms. Jones said they wanted to have an impact in their community in a way that was big and outsized.
Why the Padres deal matters
The headline number is the valuation, but the structure of the deal matters too. Major League Baseball rules require each team to have one control person, and Feliciano will initially fill that role. That makes him the key governance voice at first, even as the ownership transition formally begins with both Feliciano and Jones stepping into public view.
They are scheduled to sit on a dais at Petco Park on Monday afternoon and explain why they committed nearly $2 billion to become lead investors. Feliciano has described the move as a long-term investment and patient capital, while Jones said it is patient capital measured in decades and hopefully generations.
That framing matches the way they have spoken about sports overall. Feliciano said sports is much more than a business and that buying a team means contributing to society in a way that few organizations can. He also pointed to the broader role a club can play in bringing together a community, a town and a city.
For the Padres, the introduction marks the start of a new ownership era with a clear emphasis on stability and long-range thinking. Feliciano said the goal is to look 10 years, 20 years and 30 years ahead and ask whether baseball has a positive future. Their answer, at least publicly, is yes — and they want the Padres family to be part of it.
