Padres for Sale but Will Stay in S.D., Kroc Says

Saying they want to pursue other interests, San Diego Padres owner Joan Kroc and President Ballard Smith announced Thursday that the National League baseball club is for sale.

But they said they have not opened negotiations with potential buyers, set a price or established a deadline for the sale.

“We’re going to do this in an orderly fashion,” Kroc said. “We’re not in any hurry. This isn’t a fire sale. We’re looking for a nice guy or a nice woman or a nice group.”

Kroc took out full-page advertisements today in The Times, the San Diego Union and the Tribune announcing the sale. She insisted Thursday, however, that she will honor the promise in the ad that “the Padres will stay in San Diego. We will take every step legally available to us to assure that the team will not be moved.”

“I guarantee we won’t sell to anyone with the inclination to move the team,” Kroc said during a meeting with sports editors from The Times, the Union and the Tribune.

With that purpose in mind, both Kroc and Smith, who is her son-in-law, expressed hope that local interests will submit offers.

“We’ll give them every opportunity to do so,” Smith said.

In keeping with their insistence that the club stay in San Diego, Smith said the Padres will hold their first meeting today with representatives of the city to discuss a new lease at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. The ballclub’s current lease expires after the 1988 season.

“We’re going to negotiate the lease as quickly as we can with the city,” Smith said, “and the lease will have a provision that says the team stays in San Diego.”

A franchise sale must be approved by three-fourths of the National League’s owners and a majority of all major league baseball owners.

“We would certainly prefer not to have any franchises moved,” National League President Chub Feeney said earlier in the week. “The San Diego franchise is very viable where it is. . . . Ballard has promised to keep us informed of further developments.”

It was the late Ray Kroc who kept the Padres in San Diego when he purchased them on Jan. 25, 1974. At the time, the team’s bags were literally packed and they were headed for Washington. The purchase price was $12.5 million. Joan Kroc inherited the franchise when her husband died on Jan. 14, 1984, just months before the Padres won the National League pennant and made their only appearance in the World Series.

“Ray’s dream came to fulfillment (in that World Series appearance),” Kroc said. “That was our best and most exciting moment. We talked of selling at that time. It’s like stock, you buy low and sell high.”

Published reports have recently set the price for the Padres at $50 million. Neither Kroc nor Smith would seriously discuss the possible price. Kroc, in fact, noted that a columnist had jokingly offered to pay $34.50 a month.

“I’ve heard $50 million and I’ve heard $75 million,” she said. “It’s somewhere between ($34.50) and the others.”

“Take a look at the (New York) Mets,” Smith said. “They sold for a reported $81 million . . . and I heard it was more than that.”

“You did?” Kroc said.

In terms of price, Kroc said the timing of the decision to sell was in no way connected to the new tax laws, which become effective Jan. 1.

“I’ve never made a business decision or given a gift to charity with any thought to taxes involved,” she said.

It seems unlikely that a sale of this magnitude could be consummated by Jan. 1 anyway, unless a buyer comes in with cash. Kroc said she is opposed to personally financing any part of the transaction, leaving it for potential buyers to negotiate loans for any outstanding balance.

One potential buyer who seems financially capable is Marvin Davis, the multimillionaire Denver oil tycoon who formerly owned 20th Century-Fox. His name has surfaced lately in connection with the Padres.

“I have never spoken to Marvin Davis regarding the sale of the Padres,” Kroc said, “nor has anyone on my staff, nor has Ballard.”

“I was shocked,” Smith said, “at the suggestion something was going on with Marvin Davis.”

Kroc and Smith insisted that no negotiations are going on, though they said they have had “numerous inquiries” through the years about the team’s availability. They said inquiries have always been forwarded to Beth Benes, the Padres’ general counsel.

“I think Beth has a list of maybe seven or eight people,” Kroc said. “We have several viable buyers, but we have done no negotiating with any of them.”

She said the list involves people from “the California area,” although not necessarily San Diego.

Local ownership has been the exception with San Diego sports teams. Eugene Klein lived in Los Angeles when he bought the Chargers, then sold them to Alex Spanos of Stockton. Ray Kroc lived in Chicago when he bought the Padres. Sockers owner Bob Bell lived in Los Angeles when he moved his team to San Diego.

Under both Ray Kroc and then his widow the Padres have had local ownership since the Krocs moved to La Jolla from Chicago.

The Padres have never drawn fewer than a million fans under Kroc ownership, except for the strike-interrupted 1981 season. They hit their peak in 1984, but the past two seasons have been disappointing and disturbing.

The team fell out of contention, but off-the-field problems caused most of the controversies. Two star players--Alan Wiggins and LaMarr Hoyt--encountered problems with drugs, and a third--Rich Gossage--publicly criticized the front office and ownership, prompting Smith to suspend him. Also, there was a rift between Kroc and Smith last winter over whether to retain Dick Williams as manager.

Kroc expressed sadness about her team’s problems, particularly with drugs, but insisted that her decision to sell was based on a desire to concentrate on other activities. She is involved in numerous philanthropic projects, including Ronald McDonald children’s charities, AIDS research, providing food and housing for the needy, abused children and the International Peace Institute at the University of Notre Dame.

“These sound depressing,” she said, “but they truly aren’t. They give me a lot of satisfaction. I want to be able to spend more time with social causes, and I want to get behind a Democratic candidate for president.”

Smith had been rumored to be interested in heading a local group to purchase the club, but he too wants to concentrate on other interests.

“I guess I’ve gotten Ray’s entrepreneurial spirit,” he said. “I’ve had some opportunities develop in the last few months that really excite me.”

Smith said he is involved in two radio stations in Salt Lake City, concessions at the San Diego Sports Arena and a catering company. He said he also is interested in someday buying a ski resort.

“This isn’t particularly a happy time,” Kroc said, “and it’s not particularly a sad time. We both feel it’s the right time.”

In the meantime, Smith said it will be business as usual in terms of operating the club.

“There will be no cutting back,” he said, “either on policy or pocketbook. We are operating in a responsible business manner. We’re going to move forward and do things to insure that the club is back in contention.”