Padres Sale Looms After Seidler Family Resolves Lawsuit

A legal dispute among members of the family who owns the Padres has been largely resolved. The development comes as the sale process for the MLB team appears to be ramping up.

Sheel Seidler, the widow of former Padres chairman Peter Seidler, has dropped most of the claims in the lawsuit she filed last January against her brothers-in-law who run the team, Bob and Matt Seidler (their other brother, John, is now executive chair of the Padres and was not a defendant in the suit). 

The petition, filed in Texas state court, alleged fraud, gross negligence, and racism against Sheel, who is of Indian descent. It said that Peter had expected his brothers would “zealously protect and promote Sheel’s interests,” but that instead they “immediately began pursuing their own objectives and self-enrichment.”

In a subsequent social media post on Jan. 6, 2025, Sheel had described the suit as a “last resort.” She has not posted anything about the latest update in the case.

The parties have reached an “agreement to resolve” most of the claims, according to the Monday filing, although two remain: breach of duty to distribute and demand for accounting. The former alleges that Bob and Matt have not made adequate payments as required under a trust from her late husband, who died in 2023; the latter demands a “complete accounting” of the brothers’ actions as executors of the Seidler family trusts.

Amid the suit, the Padres announced in November they had hired merchant bank BDT & MSD Partners to advise on a potential sale of all or part of the franchise.

The legal development could have implications for the process. The clearing of most of the claims in the lawsuit may signal that deal talks are ramping up, according to Irwin Kishner, co-chair of the sports law group at Herrick Feinstein LLP. Although he notes prospective buyers will likely feel more comfortable once the remaining two claims are also addressed.

“It’s not impossible to conduct a sale with something like this going on,” Kishner tells Front Office Sports. “But most buyers, unless they’re going to get a discount, are much better off going in with all these issues resolved.”

Reports indicate that the reduced uncertainty is helping move the sale process forward. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that executives for the team and league are “in the process of presenting the team’s financials to prospective buyers.” According to Sportico, those prospective buyers include Dan Friedkin, who owns English Premier League soccer club Everton and Italian Serie A soccer team AS Roma through Pursuit Sports, and José E. Feliciano, cofounder of investment giant Clearlake Capital, which has invested in Premier League club Chelsea. Warriors owner Joe Lacob has also reportedly shown interest in the Padres.

The Padres have an estimated value of $1.95 billion, according to Forbes, which puts them 17th in MLB. A sale could very well value them higher than that—the Twins, which Forbes values at $1.5 billion, recently sold two minority stakes at a valuation of about $1.75 billion.

Representatives for all the parties involved in the lawsuit, the Padres, and BDT did not immediately respond to requests for comment.