Report: Padres took out significant loan to cover 2023 costs

Ken Rosenthal, Dennis Lin and Evan Drellich reported in The Athletic today the San Diego Padres “took out a loan for about $50 million in September to address short-term cash flow issues and meet their obligations”.

For those who have followed the Padres financial situation closely, this probably isn’t shocking. Surprising? Sure. But not shocking.

The Padres lost their TV partner—Bally Sports San Diego—in the middle of their 20-year, $1.2 billion deal, which left MLB to pay 80% of what San Diego was supposed to receive from Diamond Sports (Bally’s parent company) in 2023. The Padres currently don’t have any TV deal.

San Diego was planning on making a deep run into the postseason this season, which would’ve resulted in millions of dollars going their way. That obviously didn’t happen.

According to the Padres, they’ll tell you everything is fine. “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,” Padres CEO Erik Greupner said in his statement to The Athletic. “We established a capital plan for 2023 with our ownership group and lender partners and are operating our business in accordance with that plan.”

It was noted in this piece that teams “commonly tap into lines of credit to pay their bills, prompting some officials in the sport to suggest any concern should be tempered because the Padres were ultimately creditworthy enough to draw the loan.”

With this said, how are Padres fans supposed to think everything is fine when they see the Padres needing to take out a $50 MILLION loan in a season where the ballpark was sold out essentially every night and the organization has probably maxed out on their sponsorships?

Hopefully this really is just a temporary thing. What won’t be temporary is the fact that the Padres will not be having a $250 million payroll year-in and year-out.