From the song that played as they entered through what was essentially a pep talk at the end and the story about facing a virtual Mason Miller after that and then the heartfelt postscript soliloquy about Roberto Clemente, it was a news conference unlike any other.<\/p>\n
Especially one introducing billionaires as the new owners of a Major League Baseball team.<\/p>\n
Kwanza Jones and Jos\u00e9 E. Feliciano won Monday\u2019s news conference in a rout.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think hopefully we look back and we\u2019ll see that we even deepened the tie with the community (and) we have become engaged and part of that community,\u201d Feliciano said. \u201cKwanza said it. We are part of that \u2018we.\u2019 And that\u2019s much broader, honestly, than sports or baseball. But listen, I\u2019m a lifelong baseball fan. \u2026 And we need to win the World Series. It\u2019s that simple. That\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Feliciano had begun his remarks with a nod to the late Peter Seidler, the Padres\u2019 former chairman whose trust owned the largest portion of the team before the sale to Feliciano and Jones.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has left a legacy here that we\u2019re very proud of, and he has left this team, this club, this community, this city an incredible place,\u201d Feliciano said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re just lucky and very fortunate to be the stewards of that legacy. But of course, we want to move that forward. We want to create new memories and hopefully continue that legacy in a way that honors it and furthers it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proof of their commitment will come in the coming months and years, primarily as it becomes known how much they invest in payroll.<\/p>\n
But throughout their remarks Monday were sprinkled enough declarations to make their intentions clear.<\/p>\n
The name of the song written by Jones that played at the outset of the event \u2014 \u201cWe All In\u201d \u2014 invoked a bold statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you heard it,\u201d Jones said later of the lyrics, \u201c\u2018We gonna win. We gonna win. We gonna win. Win it all.\u2019 And hopefully sooner rather than later.\u201d<\/p>\n
From her opening remarks, Jones exuded an energy rarely seen on the dais at such a news conference.<\/p>\n
Her husband spoke first, saying, in part, that \u201ctoday is a dream come true. It\u2019s an amazing day for us, and we\u2019re very grateful, very honored.\u201d<\/p>\n
He then introduced his \u201clovely wife and partner.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it was on.<\/p>\n
\u201cJos\u00e9 mentioned we\u2019re \u2014 I\u2019m paraphrasing \u2014 thrilled and overjoyed and excited. Maybe those are my words. He said it with a little bit more reserve. I cannot even express it. Like, it\u2019s very difficult for me to sit in my seat.\u201d<\/p>\n
It might have been tempting to call the proceedings \u201cThe Kwanza Show.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the string that ran through the news conference, even as the more ebullient half of the partnership lit up the room, was the synergy between Feliciano and Jones.<\/p>\n
One spoke and then the other spoke, and sometimes that incited a follow-up from the other one. It is how Jones and Feliciano operate in more informal settings as well, according to several people who have spent time with them. (It was the manner in which they conducted an interview with the Union-Tribune over the weekend as well.)<\/p>\n
While Feliciano will be Padres\u2019 control person at the start, as MLB requires there be one voice for the team, Feliciano has been emphatic about his wife being a full partner in the running of the franchise. She is the designated successor to Feliciano. And multiple people have said she could one day serve as control person.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have had such shared dreams, goals and visions for as long as I can remember,\u201d Jones said. \u201c\u2026 We always dreamed about, \u2018What is the impact that we wanted to make?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
There is little publicly known about Feliciano and Jones, as their holdings and the way they have lived to this point have been largely private.<\/p>\n
Both are on several boards, among them the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee, Stanford Business School and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Feliciano) and the UCLA Medical Center (Jones). They founded the Kwanza Jones and Jos\u00e9 E. Feliciano Initiative, which says it has donated more than $250 million to support non-profit organizations that focus on education, empowerment, entrepreneurship and equity.<\/p>\n
Feliciano is the co-founder of Clearlake Capital, a private equity firm that manages $145 billion in assets, including Chelsea FC of the Premier League.<\/p>\n
But the stake Jones and Feliciano bought in the Padres is their largest family investment.<\/p>\n
Their share of the Padres is said by those familiar with the purchase to be around 45%. The valuation of the club that they and other members of the ownership group bought in at was $3.9 billion.<\/p>\n
That is a record for an MLB team sale. And it is also the exact number Forbes lists as the couple\u2019s net worth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were saving up for a long time,\u201d Jones said, eliciting laughs from her husband and many others \u00a0in the packed conference room inside Petco Park. \u201cWe had a lot of dry powder. And we were like, \u2018You know what?\u2019 This is the place.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
They acknowledged the investment component to such a purchase but defined it broader than merely financial.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be sitting in this seat if we didn\u2019t think it was an incredible opportunity,\u201d Jones said. \u201cAnd not an incredible opportunity for, \u2018Oh, we\u2019re just going to make all this money\u2019 But an opportunity to really grow, expand, and there\u2019s a whole concept of a double bottom line. A double bottom line being a return on investment as a financial investment, but another part of that being a social. And I\u2019ll say societal, and I\u2019ll say city, and I\u2019ll say community impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cWinning is part of that community impact. Broadening and deepening relationships and strengthening relationships with communities is part of that impact. That is really going to be very important for us too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Feliciano, in particular, was clear about the new owners\u2019 intention to operate with fiscal responsibility but with the goal of making the postseason every year. That has largely been the messaging by the Padres as they have been to the playoffs four of the past six seasons.<\/p>\n
In an earlier interview, Feliciano and Jones said they were pleased with the job done by CEO Erik Greupner and president of baseball operations A.J. Preller. They maintained they did not have immediate plans to make changes based on the evidence they have seen that the operation has been successful.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to sound like the baseball executive here,\u201d Feliciano said Monday. \u201cWe\u2019ll work with A.J., we\u2019ll work with Erik. We 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, in the city, and we\u2019re committed to doing that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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 that at some moments, we\u2019re going to be aggressive. \u2026 But we\u2019re always going to do it with keeping the long-term health of the team in mind, and I think those are things that we\u2019re going to balance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones added: \u201cWe are competitive. You don\u2019t get to do what we do unless you are competitive, and it\u2019s important for all of you all to understand that we want to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the end of the press conference, Greupner was asked what sets apart the fourth ownership group under which he has worked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t think of a better fit for where we need to go as an organization,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we\u2019ve accomplished a lot. Obviously, we\u2019ve not yet accomplished our ultimate goal, and I think to take us there, there\u2019s no better match than Jos\u00e9 and Kwanza.\u201d<\/p>\n
With that, the table where the trio was seated was moved to the side, and it was time for pictures.<\/p>\n
Except Jones held up the \u201c00\u201d Padres jersey she had been handed and implored those assembled to \u201cbelieve in the infinite possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
She then launched into the story of when she and Feliciano toured the Padres spring training facility and he stood in the batting cage and faced a virtual Miller. There is, in fact, video evidence of his having put a changeup in play. He called it a pop-up to the pitcher.<\/p>\n
And before the photos commenced, Feliciano spoke of the \u201c21\u201d jersey he chose in honor of Clemente, the Hall of Famer and humanitarian who was from Feliciano\u2019s native Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n
A short while later, after meeting mayor Todd Gloria and Rep. Scott Peters, Jones and Feliciano departed the press conference with a group that included family and staff and a security detail that watched pensively from all angles.<\/p>\n
The group took photos on the field and addressed the team.<\/p>\n
According to those who were there, they walked into their clubhouse meeting with the team to the same song and departed to a Spanish version, \u201cVamos!\u201d<\/p>\n
The message they delivered was similar to the one expressed in the news conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re super excited to be a part of the Padres family, and they want to do it together,\u201d manager Craig Stammen said. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s a great message for our team. It\u2019s a message that we\u2019ve been talking about all year, and they brought that message from the ownership group down to the players.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the song that played as they entered through what was essentially a pep talk at the end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,1334,74,76,75,2611,127,1696],"class_list":["post-442900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}