By Mike Allen
Even for a seasoned sports executive, completing a March deal for a third of the San Diego Padres felt hectic for Jeff Moorad.
“It’s been drinking out of a fire hose,” said Moorad, who made a name for himself as a sports agent in Orange County.
If Moorad’s hinting he’s challenged with all the myriad details surrounding his $500 million transaction,the sum that he and his group will pay when they acquire 100% of the team,you wouldn’t know it.
Unpretentious and relaxed, the Padres’ 53-year-old pending owner has an easy way about him. Yet clearly Moorad has a no-nonsense attitude when it comes to achieving his goals.
“This is the lifestyle that I’ve chosen. It’s a passion about business and sports,” said Moorad, who now serves as the Padres’ chief executive and vice chairman. “I’m a competitive person and I like to compete. I won’t rest until San Diego has a world championship.”
Moorad leads a group of 12 partners in a deal that’s a result of the ongoing divorce of current Padres owner John Moores and wife, Becky.
In an unusual arrangement worked out in a four-month span, Moorad’s group advanced $200 million as a down payment, agreeing to transfer the remaining cost during a period that could last five years.
With a strong reputation among Major League Baseball owners and holding the largest ownership share among the Arizona Diamondbacks’ general partners for the past four years, Moorad had a leg up on competing bidders for the team. Moorad and Moores also have developed a friendship in recent years.
But there were other reasons he was able to close the deal, said Wainwright Fishburn, a Cooley Godward Kronish LLP lawyer who represented Moorad in the transaction.
“It was a combination of a strong price, favorable terms and the certainty that the transaction would be completed,” Fishburn said.
Partnership Details
Moorad’s a 40% stakeholder in the group, which includes former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman and developer Alfred Baldwin, whose Newport Beach-based company is developing Otay Ranch in Chula Vista.
The dozen partners are investing $10 million to $20 million each in the Padres.
Before negotiations could begin, Moorad had to resign as chief executive of the Diamondbacks, who play in Phoenix.
“I am forever grateful to my partners in Arizona for the opportunity at the Diamondbacks,” Moorad said. “But the Padres offer a chance to get back to Southern California and a 40-year tradition in San Diego.”
Moorad said there was a critical point when the deal could have easily dissolved.
Just before Thanksgiving, following the turmoil on Wall Street, Moorad said he met with Moores, telling him, “The world as we know it has changed, and we are unable to go forward with the agreed upon terms.”
The two friends renegotiated and came to a new agreement, he said.
The deal could close in as little as a year or as many as five, according to Moorad.
“The timeline we control depends on the economy. We may choose to accelerate the timeline or take advantage of the full five years,” he said.
Moorad, who split his time between Arizona and his adopted Newport Beach home while with the D-backs, was the first sports agent to make the jump to team owner in 2004.
Earlier, he headed Newport Beach-based Moorad Sports Management Inc. as part of Canada’s Loring Ward International Ltd.
Moorad spent 20 years as an agent and left a stable of about 40 Major League Baseball players and a handful of National Football League players behind when he joined the D-backs.
The Newport Beach agency, no longer part of Loring Ward, now goes by LS Legacy Sports Group LLC and represented pitcher CC Sabathia in his $161 million offseason deal with the Yankees.
Moorad grew up in Modesto and graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1978 before getting his law degree at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.
As an agent, Moorad in 2000 signed Manny Ramirez to an eight-year, $160 million contract with the Boston Red Sox, which at the time was baseball’s third-largest deal and still ranks as No. 5 today.
In 1985, Moorad and Leigh Steinberg, who inspired the movie “Jerry Maguire,” started an agency together that they later sold for about $100 million to Canada’s Assante Corp., which later became Loring Ward.
Moorad, Steinberg and partner David Dunn continued to run the business until Dunn left, taking 50 athletes with him.
The move sparked a court battle.
Steinberg now runs his own Newport Beach sports agency.
Baseball Challenges
Moorad said he’s well aware of what the Padres are up against on the field, having competed against the team for four seasons. He said the challenges the club faces remind him of those the D-backs had to deal with when he took over as general partner and chief executive in 2004.
Moorad had to cut Arizona’s $105 million player payroll to $50 million. He said it was later “re-crafted” to $70 million.
The team still won the National League West title in 2007. It finished second last year.
Moores cut the Padres’ payroll last year in advance of the sale. From last year’s opening day $73 million payroll, the figure is now $43 million, ranking the Padres 29th of baseball’s 30 teams, just ahead of the Florida Marlins.
By comparison, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim ranked No. 6 with an opening day payroll of $113 million, down from $120 million a year earlier.
The New York Yankees, as usual, were tops at $200 million.
Moorad said from what he knows about professional sports, it’s possible the team could turn things around soon.
“Fortunes in baseball can change in a hurry as evidenced by this club, which won its division in 2005 and 2006 and just missed by one game in 2007, before it hit bottom in ’08,” he said.
But Moorad was noncommittal about boosting his budget or making moves right away.
While Moorad may not be as free spending as Angels owner Arte Moreno, he is adopting Moreno’s approach to attendance.
Keeping games affordable to families will be a focus, “especially in the short term when this economy is such a significant factor,” Moorad said.
For the long term, “It’s all about crafting an organization that supports a club that has a chance to win year in and year out,” he said.
Allen is a staff writer for the San Diego Business Journal.
