In the latest MLB rumors, San Diego Padres took out a $50 million loan in September, who has three winning seasons in four years since 2004-07.
The Padres took out a $50M loan just over a month ago because they have cash flow problems.
"We will pay you big money", they said.
"We are building a dynasty", they said.But in reality, they finished 3rd, missed the playoffs, and now can't afford to pay their players…
— Dan Clark (@DanClarkSports) November 1, 2023
According to The Athletic, the $50 million loan in September was to address short-term cash flow issues and meet their obligations, including player payroll.
The Padres have been one of baseball’s biggest spenders in recent years and ran the third-highest payroll in the sport in 2023 at $256 million,
They are behind the Mets ($344 million) and Yankees ($279 million) and also went 82-80 and missed the playoffs, finishing only behind the Dodgers and Yankees in attendance.
San Diego CEO Erik Greupner shared with The Athletic,
“The Padres organization continues to have access to all the resources, financial and otherwise, it needs to field a championship-caliber team for the fans of San Diego. We established a capital plan for 2023 with our ownership group and lender partners and are operating our business in accordance with that plan.”
As per the report, some officials suggested the Padres were creditworthy enough to draw the loan, and it is commonplace among teams in MLB.
A Padres official unauthorized to speak publicly told The Athletic,
“If the question is, despite all the revenue growth, why would we need to be borrowing more money? I mean, you can connect those dots. The levels of payroll that we’ve been at have probably reasonably been in excess of what we could have supported, but it was part of the larger plan.”
Apparently, The Padres sold a lot of tickets, with a franchise record of $3.3 million sold as a part of the hype for the team.
They have Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts, Yu Darvish, and Fernando Tatis Jr. on lucrative contracts and right now the tax number is at $296 million.
