{"id":870332,"date":"2026-08-25T01:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T01:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/870332\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T01:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T01:18:11","slug":"new-padres-owners-jose-e-feliciano-and-kwanza-jones-vow-to-pursue-san-diegos-first-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/870332\/","title":{"rendered":"New Padres owners Jos\u00e9 E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones vow to pursue San Diego’s first championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN DIEGO (AP) \u2014 New San Diego Padres<\/a> owners Jos\u00e9 E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones entered their introductory news conference Monday to the rhythm of an upbeat song about the team written and performed by Jones herself, a professional singer.<\/p>\n

That might be a baseball first, but Feliciano and Jones are much more focused on accomplishing another historic first \u2014 a championship for a team that has never won it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to win a World Series,\u201d Feliciano said. \u201cIt\u2019s that simple, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feliciano and Jones, who are married, exuded energy and excitement in their first public appearance since securing their purchase of controlling ownership in the Padres earlier this month at an MLB-record valuation of $3.9 billion. Feliciano is a private equity billionaire whose investment firm owns English soccer club Chelsea, but the Padres are his team alongside Jones, his partner in business, philanthropy and life.<\/p>\n

Jones said the couple will throw all of its considerable passion into consistent success for the Padres, but also into the improvement of life for people and communities across San Diego and in nearby Baja California.<\/p>\n

\u201cJos\u00e9 and I have built a life on understanding (how to work) together, and we are all in,\u201d Jones said. \u201dIt\u2019s not lip service. We take it as a baseline that in everything we do, we\u2019re all in. We\u2019re absolutely committed to this organization, and we are absolutely overjoyed. If you heard (the lyrics in the song), we\u2019re gonna win. We\u2019re gonna win it all! We hope it\u2019s sooner rather than later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feliciano and Jones are taking over the Padres during the most successful stretch in the history of a franchise that has never won it all. General manager A.J. Preller\u2019s teams have made the playoffs four times in the past six seasons, and the current group has streaked into playoff position again by winning 21 of its last 28 games.<\/p>\n

The new owners praised the lively fan base that packs Petco Park for every home game, and they paid tribute to former owner Peter Seidler, whose aggressive pursuit of winning is still energizing San Diego even after his death in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to continue that legacy that Peter left \u2014 to dream big, to do the impossible, right?\u201d Feliciano said. \u201cThe impossible becomes possible when somebody does it, so let\u2019s do it. … We are taking on this legacy at a great time, but I think there\u2019s always more that you can do. You can always leave the world a slightly better place than you found it. That\u2019s our aim.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new owners also are aware of the obstacles to building a contender in a division and a sport currently dominated by the back-to-back champion Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> and their seemingly bottomless budget. Dodgers owner Mark Walter joined Feliciano\u2019s company in its purchase of Chelsea in 2022.<\/p>\n

San Diego is considered a smaller market in the majors despite a local population topping 3 million, and the Padres are currently without a local media-rights deal.<\/p>\n

Feliciano indicated his support for CEO Erik Greupner and Preller, who has long used his top prospects as currency to acquire veterans for immediate success. Feliciano also didn\u2019t say whether he wanted to emulate Seidler\u2019s ultra-aggressive spending, which has left San Diego with several veterans locked into massive long-term contracts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been blessed with a team in a city that is supporting us in a way that is allowing us to invest back in that team, in the stadium and in the city,\u201d Feliciano said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re committed to doing that. We are going to live within our means, and that could mean different things in different years. But again, we want to win, and we\u2019re going to continue supporting that goal in many different ways, and that means at some moments we\u2019re going to be aggressive, but we\u2019re always going to do it with the long-term health of the team in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new owners later took the field at Petco Park during batting practice before the Padres hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a> \u2014 an appropriate opponent for lifelong baseball fan Feliciano, who chose No. 21 for his new Padres jersey in honor of Roberto Clemente, a personal hero and fellow Puerto Rican.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Padres are one of the pillars of this city and this community,\u201d Feliciano said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to engaging in many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones spoke extensively about her desire to make the Padres even more important to the greater San Diego community. She also said her song was partly inspired by Fernando Tatis Jr.<\/a>\u2019s sensational, grand slam-denying catch against the Mets last week.<\/p>\n

She asked Feliciano to provide backing vocals, but he declined.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy only musical talent is my name,\u201d said a grinning Feliciano, who uses his middle initial to distinguish himself from the famous Puerto Rican singer.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full MLB coverage here <\/p>\n

Greg Beacham, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO (AP) \u2014 New San Diego Padres owners Jos\u00e9 E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones entered their introductory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-870332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}