How Padres Owner Peter Seidler Took Over San Diego's Market This Offseason

Seidler looking to make the most of his big investments.

Even though San Diego offers plenty of attractions such as beautiful weather, a vast amount of beaches, and most notably your Padres, there is not a whole lot of other representation for the city in the sports world. Of course there are plenty of collegiate teams but when it comes to professional sports, the Friars stand alone.

Of the four major sports leagues in America, San Diego used to enjoy being home to an NBA team in the Clippers and an NFL team in the Chargers. However, both of the franchises opted to relocate to Los Angeles with the Clippers doing so back in 1984 and the Chargers announcing their move right before the 2017 season kicked off.

Since becoming San Diego's only professional squad, the Padres have only made the playoffs twice. Most fans would view that as a disappointment but the recent strides made within the franchise and roster have the entire MLB world talking about the dominance that could take place in Petco Park this year.

Southern California has 12 professional sports teams in the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS and WNBA. Only three have never won a championship:

Chargers, Padres and Clippers

— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) January 15, 2023

Following a 2022 season that saw the Friars come within just three wins of reaching the World Series without a healthy team, owner Peter Seidler decided he was going to go all in. An assembling of some of the brightest stars in the MLB first started with a blockbuster trade right before the playoffs that welcomed in Juan Soto.

Seidler's next target was star shortstop Trea Turner, who was just coming off of a stint with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Turner's preference for living in the East coast would lead him to join the Philadelphia Phillies in the end so the Padres shifted their focus to Xander Bogaerts and locked him in for $280 million.

Next up came some negation talks with star outfielder Manny Machado and despite his future being up in the air for a bit, San Diego's front office ensured he will be a Friar for life with $350 million hitting his pockets. Add a returning Fernando Tatis Jr. into the mix and rumors of adding Shohei Ohtani soon and the Padres have something incredible on paper.

Quite a lineup: pic.twitter.com/FDxU9qZZCO

— AJ Cassavell (@AJCassavell) March 18, 2023

Before the season has even started, the Padres franchise is already feeling their money returning with this new team. They had to cut off their season ticket sales two months ago just to make sure that other fans would be able to buy single-game tickets as well. Back in 2019, only about 11,000 season tickets were sold. That number has more than doubled this season with about 23,000 being recorded so far.

Even looking at the Padres' FanFest that took place a few weeks before Spring Training, the numbers were clear as day there as well. About 50,000 fans attended the event and waited in lines all day just to get the chance to meet their favorite players and listen to their predictions for the season.

Petco Park matches this season are set to have every seat filled and it will be Peter Seidler watching every single one proudly. San Diego may not have any other major league sports teams but Seidler probably prefers it that way, the sports market there is all his.