Joey and Jesse Buss, the youngest heirs of the family that long controlled the Los Angeles Lakers, are part of the new ownership group buying Major League Baseball’s San Diego Padres. The group is led by private equity billionaire Jose E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones, and is closing its purchase this month at a valuation of 3.9 billion dollars, a record for an MLB franchise. The brothers, who grew up in San Diego County, confirmed their involvement in a statement.
Both were executives with the Lakers before their family sold its majority stake in the NBA club last year to Mark Walter, who also owns the back-to-back World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, the Padres’ longtime rivals in the National League West. Their move into the Padres places the pair on the opposite side of one of baseball’s sharper regional rivalries.
To invest the proceeds from the Lakers sale, the brothers formed Buss Sports Capital last year. Their windfall was substantial, reflecting the soaring valuations that have swept through professional sports ownership. Feliciano’s group secured the Padres at a price that underscores how far franchise values have climbed, with private capital increasingly drawn to teams as long-term assets.
The confirmation came a week after five of the six Buss heirs voted to sell their remaining 17.8 percent minority stake in the Lakers to a group led by Josh Kushner and Bob Iger. Walter had recently passed the Lakers to that group, extending a rapid series of high-value transactions around the storied franchise that Jerry Buss bought in 1979.
Not all of the family agrees on the path forward. Jeanie Buss, who has served as the Lakers’ governor since her father’s death in 2013, is contesting her siblings’ decision. Reports say she filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior Court challenging the legality of the vote, arguing that the family trust would be better served by holding on to an interest in the club given what she described as its continuously rising value. The dispute leaves the family’s Lakers legacy unresolved even as its youngest members turn toward a new venture in San Diego.
