José E. Feliciano, co-founder of Clearlake Capital and Major League Baseball’s newest owner, will join Sportico Invest New York for a keynote conversation on Nov. 10 in New York City, offering a rare insider’s perspective on the forces reshaping the global sports industry.
Feliciano and his wife Kwanza Jones, who will also join the conversation, made headlines over the summer when they emerged as the winning bidder for the San Diego Padres. Major League Baseball owners approved the sale in August in a deal that values the Padres at a record $3.9 billion.
The co-founder of private equity firm Clearlake Capital with Behdad Eghbali in 2006, Feliciano has emerged as a prominent sports investor in the last few years. Clearlake provided a large portion of the funding for the $3.16 billion purchase of English soccer giant Chelsea in 2022 and now has more than $90 billion under management. Feliciano was close to buying a minority stake in the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers two years ago and was among those who bid unsuccessfully for the Denver Broncos in 2022.
On sports investing, he has said: “Sports is much more than a business. At the end of the day, when you buy a team, you are contributing to society unlike almost any other organization. We were really intrigued about how much positive impact you can create, how a team can bring together a community, a town, a city.”
Investment in sports goes far beyond teams and players. Sports franchises have become the big-brand centerpieces to global platform companies with tentacles that encompass adjacent industries like finance, big tech, real estate and media.
Now in its fifth year, Sportico’s Invest New York has established itself as the definitive gathering for the money behind the games—examining the who, what and why behind an industry experiencing a global explosion. Invest New York cuts through the clutter and jargon for a clear and concise examination of what’s happening across the sports investing landscape. This year’s event is presented by Inner Circle Sports, a William Blair Business. Other sponsors include Nasdaq, Omega Sports and Davis Polk. Register here.