Troy Aikman confirms why he sold ownership stake before record-breaking $3.9 billion sale

Troy Aikman is known for his Pro Football Hall of Fame career, and his role now as as one of the lead commentators on ESPN’s Monday Night Football, alongside Joe Buck.

While he has engaged in other ventures post-retirement, including in a now-defunct NASCAR team, and several car dealerships in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the former Dallas Cowboys star also held a minority stake in Major League Baseball team San Diego Padres.

Getty

That was until recently.

Having purchased a stake in the Padres back in 2009, Aikman revealed on a recent podcast appearance that he has since sold that stake as a result of former Arizona Diamondbacks CEO Jeff Moorad not being approved as managing general partner.

Moorad’s group reportedly agreed to purchase the Padres from John Moores in 2009, in which they acquired a 35 percent stake, which increased to a 49 percent stage within a year.

The full purchase was valued at approximately $500 million.

Given five years to complete the purchase by the MLB, owners refused to approve him, and the sale subsequently collapse.

Moores then sold the team a few years later in 2012 to a group led by Ron Fowler.

Three-time Super Bowl champion Aikman revealed that he was involved with the Padres for three years, but that was as far as his involvement went.

“No, I’m done. I was involved with them for about three years,” Aikman said on the Your Dark Companion podcast.

“… What happened is, when our ownership group took over majority interest, we were slowly buying out Mr. Moores, who owned the team.

“But once we gained majority interest, we had to then be approved by baseball; more specifically, Jeff Moorad [leader of the ownership group] had to be approved by baseball as the managing general partner.

Getty

Getty

“And he did not get approved. So we then sold the team.”

Padres grew in value tenfold

Unbeknownst to them at the time, the Padres would exponentially increase in value, and have since become a serious World Series contender in the National League, if not for the fortuitous Los Angeles Dodgers.

Since 2020, the team has undergone a radical shift in strategy, handing out nine-figure contracts to keep up with their competitors, including to Fernando Tatis Jr., and Manny Machado.

This was largely as a result of Peter Seidler, who, up until his death in November 2023, authorized an increase in the team’s payroll, and made some blockbuster trades and free agency signings, including Yu Darvish, Xander Bogaerts, and Juan Soto.

Having invested in the players, the return to the team was seismic, with the Padres having made the playoffs in four of the last six seasons, which has seen the fans get back onside and into Petco Park.

In 2025, an estimated 3.4 million fans attended games across the course of the whole season, second only to their NL West rivals Dodgers.

Having turned the Padres into one of baseball’s most coveted assets, the team was then sold to private equity billionaire José E. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones for a whopping $3.9 billion.

This smashed the previous MLB record of $2.4 billion which came when Steve Cohen purchased the New York Mets in 2020.

As for Aikman, though, who was a talented baseball player in his youth, and even attracted the interest of the Mets before committing to football and playing in the NFL, he didn’t see a dime.

Oh what could have been.