After the Chargers of the N.F.L. left San Diego for Los Angeles in 2017, people hoped the Padres, as the only major sports franchise in town, would compensate for the loss by becoming contenders, Gwynn said, but the team was only two years into its rebuild under Prellers command. The minor league system was blooming, but the parent club needed more time. Things began to change in 2019, the first season for Machado in San Diego and the rookie year for Tatis, who blossomed into a superstar in 2020.
From 2018 to 2019, the Padres attendance jumped 10 percent to 2,396,399, their highest mark since 2015, when Preller joined the front office and made a fruitless effort to pushthe Padres into contention with a flurry of off-season trades and signings.
The Padres attendances in recent years has ranked in the middle of the M.L.B. pack, which is routinely led by the Dodgers.
The Padres are in a unique situation, said Jordan Kobritz, a sports management professor at SUNY Cortland who is a part owner of two minor league baseball teams. They have upside revenue potential in their market. If they have a competitive team and if they can win that World Series or at least get deep into those playoffs, not every team is in that situation where it would make a difference. What is the upside in attendance in Boston or New York or L.A., for example? Their attendance is pretty high compared to the Padres.
The Padres are one of six teams never to have won a World Series along with the Seattle Mariners, the Colorado Rockies, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Texas Rangers and the Rays. San Diego has reached the Series only two times, in 1984 and 1998.
To be the first Padres team to win the World Series, that is so meaningful that they are willing to take some risk because the potential upside is so great, Kobritz said.read more
Padres Jolt M.L.B. With Bold Moves to Set Up World Series Run
