Padres CEO Jeff Moorad Resigns, Ownership Bid In Jeopardy
Bud Selig and Major League Baseball are getting pretty adept at stonewalling potential owners. For Jeff Moorad, it’s becoming increasingly clear that he won’t ever own the San Diego Padres. Perhaps his fellow colleagues don’t like his agent background, maybe there’s financial caution in the installment plan he worked out with outgoing owner John Moores. But as Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman wrote a week ago,
Moorad does not have the votes of other owners, and there is no sign of him getting them soon. One person familiar with the process called Moorad’s attempt at ownership an “uphill battle.”
Moorad resigned as CEO of the Padres but remains with the team as a vice chairman in charge of completing the regional television deal with Fox Sports.
He also keeps his 49 percent ownership stake, but for how long?
If Selig and the majority of baseball’s owners aren’t likely to ever allow him into such a prestigious club that’s included people like Marge Schott, Moorad may just sell.
And there’s documented enemies according to the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Issues Moorad initially described as “technical” proved to be more than that, and the prospect of his gaining controlling interest in the club met with stern resistance from a group of owners spearheaded by Chicago White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and Ken Kendrick, managing general partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Moorad previously was a partial owner in Arizona so I’d assume Kendrick’s involvement against him means that partnership didn’t flourish. Maybe they disagreed on the day-to-day use of the pool beyond the right field fence. Those types of arguments have the tendency to blow up into multi-million dollar grudges.
Even if he’s currently trailing in accruing votes, Moorad doesn’t have to decide his course of action immediately. His agreement with Moores allows him two years to finish buying the other 51 percent stake in the Padres.
But as Selig proved in this post-Frank McCourt world with Jim Crane and the Astros, approving new owners requires lengthy diligence.
This baseball fan thinks his best play is getting back in the agent game and making the lives of the owners a living financial hell, one ridiculously stupid guaranteed contract at a time.
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