Padres ownership rumor quietly reveals an uneasy fear San Diego fans can’t shake

San Padres fans aren’t scared of a new owner because they’re allergic to change. They’re scared because San Diego has lived the nightmare before — the kind where you wake up and realize your team is somebody else’s relocation “opportunity.”

That’s why the Joe Lacob buzz hits big in the San Diego area. On paper, it’s just another rich guy with interest in buying a baseball team. In the gut, it’s a reminder that “for sale” signs come with whispers, even when nobody wants to say the quiet part out loud. Reports and recent coverage have tied Lacob to exploratory interest in the Padres as the Seidler family evaluates “strategic options,” including a sale. 

Padres ownership drama hints at a fragile fear that never fully left San Diego

Padres fans know the history. This franchise once came terrifyingly close to leaving in the 1970s before Ray Kroc stepped in and kept baseball in town. 

The fear isn’t totally irrational, even if the odds are. The Padres have real financial pressure points. Losing the Bally/Padres local TV deal and having MLB take over broadcasts was a seismic hit to the old revenue model. Reports of short-term borrowing during the high-payroll push only reinforced the idea that the operation, at times, has run hot. 

Layer in the very public Seidler-family control dispute after Peter Seidler’s death, and you get the kind of instability that makes fans assume the worst, even when the team says the right things. 

Relocation would be a brutal, messy lift in the near term. The Petco Park lease runs through 2033, and local reporting has indicated any sale process would likely include provisions that prohibit moving the club. 

So this rumor isn’t a “pack your bags” alert. It’s something more specific: a flare-up of an old anxiety San Diego earned the hard way. And until there’s real clarity on ownership, that uneasy fear is going to keep living in the background — even during an offseason, even with a full Petco, and even when logic says the Padres are staying put.