Major League Baseball is close to having its first Puerto Rican and Black woman owners of a franchise, according to Wall Street Journal report.
If a proposed $3.9 billion purchase offer for the San Diego Padres is accepted by the current owners, and then approved by MLB, Jose Feliciano would be the first Puerto Rican to own an MLB team.
Kwanza Jones, Feliciano’s wife, would be the first Black woman with majority ownership of an MLB team.
The sale must be approved by 75% of league owners, and the Padres expect to finalize the deal by June.
The $3.9 billion purchase price would be the highest in MLB history, topping the $2.4 billion Steve Cohen paid for the New York Mets in 2020.
The New York Times reports that Feliciano is a co-founder and managing partner of Clearlake Capital, a private equity firm based in Santa Monica, Calif.
Clearlake and Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly led a consortium that purchased the Premier League’s Chelsea franchise in 2022 for $5.24 billion.
Forbes’ annual list of billionaires estimates that Feliciano’s net worth is $3.9 billion.
Jones met Feliciano while they attended Princeton University and later founded and became CEO of the media and personal development company Supercharged.
The married couple co-founded the Kwanza Jones & José E. Feliciano Initiative, an investment and philanthropic organization that has committed more than $250 million to various efforts.
While there have been persistent rumors that the DeWitt family could sell the St. Louis Cardinals in the near future, owner Bill DeWitt has said that is not being considered.
All MLB team owners now know that the lowest bid for a franchise would be at least $4 billion. The Cardinals could certainly draw an even larger amount based on the team’s history, downtown stadium, and fan base.