The story that I have to talk about today has to be the sale of the San Diego Padres.  Its really the saddest story out there, and should be a lesson to a few folks with a lot of money who step out on their wives, but besides that its an interesting look in how a stabile teams fortunes can change quickly. The Padres were ready to compete, once again, for the NL West title heading into 2008, but now, with their payroll dwindling as owner John Moores legal bills mount, well, they will be fighting to not be the worst team in the National League. The team’s value has risen at least $300 million since he bought the team in 1994, which is not a bad return on investment.  Its just too bad that half of that belongs to his wife, too bad for the team.  The interesting thing is that most teams try to put themselves in place to contend when the team goes up for sale, to raise the value just a little bit more.  In this case though, with the payroll slashing seriously underway, and the economy in terrible shape well the sale price for the Padres may be at a low mark.  The team has a fair amount of debt service on the new stadium, most at a now high 8% interest rate which also makes the team unattractive.  The good news for a new owner could be that the price will be as low as possible, so they should be able to make some profit even if they hold the team for a short time.  The other possible outcome, if a satisfactory valuation on Mrs. Moores share of the stock, is that the team only sells her shares.  Though that would be idea, few people would be seriously interested in buying such a small part of team and leaving Moores in charge.  Basically, that would simply be just some expensive season tickets– and perhaps some headaches.  Moores also owns property around the ballpark.  Part of the deal to get funds to build the ballpark required that the team work to develop the area around it.  Moores’ building company did just that, and now owns some buildings near the park, but with the economy slumping selling those off at this time wouldn’t make enough money to prevent having to sell the team.  The entire situation is a mess.