The San Diego Padres and pitcher Yu Darvish have handed the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego one of the largest gifts in franchise history, a contribution the nonprofit is calling transformational for its Clairemont branch. As part of the deal, the Clairemont location — which first opened its doors in 1961 — will be renamed the San Diego Padres Branch, with the money funding building updates and a brand-new youth ballfield on the property.
The gift, first reported by 10News, ranks among the biggest contributions the Padres organization has ever made, according to a press release from the club. Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego CEO Michelle Malin said the investment will enhance facilities, elevate programming and create an environment where children can discover their potential. The Clairemont branch alone served 3,438 youth in 2025, while the broader organization reached more than 22,000 children across 23 locations in San Diego County, according to MLB.com.
The renamed branch will get air conditioning, facility upgrades and new technology infrastructure, on top of the planned Padres field, with all of it expected to be modernized ahead of a ribbon-cutting next summer. The project also stands as the latest Peter Seidler Legacy Fund initiative, a designation tying it to the philanthropic program the Padres built in memory of the late owner, who died in November 2023.
New Owners, Same Playbook
New Owners, Same Playbook The gift also comes from the Padres' new ownership group. Majority owners Kwanza Jones and José E. Feliciano said that being all in for San Diego means being all in for its young people, adding that the investment will build on Peter Seidler's legacy by investing in young San Diegans. Jones and Feliciano took control of the franchise after Major League Baseball owners unanimously approved their record $3.9 billion purchase of the team in August 2026, a deal that made Jones the first Black woman in MLB history to hold a majority franchise stake, as Hoodline reported in its story on the Padres' new ownership takeover.
That sale closed out a long chapter for the Seidler family, which originally bought its stake in the Padres for $800 million in August 2012. Peter Seidler took full control of the franchise in 2020 and pushed opening-day payrolls beyond $200 million annually before his death, with his family trust holding majority ownership until this year's sale.
Darvish Calls San Diego His Home
In a video message accompanying the announcement, Darvish said San Diego has become his personal home over his six seasons with the franchise, and he called on community members to join the investment effort, per the same MLB.com account of the announcement. The pitcher has a track record with the Seidler fund: in 2025, Darvish and the Padres Foundation funded a second project, a ballpark-themed Padres Clubhouse at Ronald McDonald House Charities of San Diego, a space that serves families with hospitalized children, according to the team's own account posted on the San Diego Padres Facebook page.
The Legacy Fund supports regional charitable projects, with contributions from the Seidler family, Padres ownership, players and the Padres Foundation. That mechanism, outlined on the team's own community pages, is designed to multiply the impact of gifts like the Clairemont donation across San Diego and Northern Baja.
A Campaign Still Seeking Support
The Padres and Darvish's contribution serves as the lead gift for the Clairemont branch's capital campaign, not the finish line. Organizers are still seeking additional community donations to complete the building upgrades and finish the youth field before the planned ribbon-cutting next summer.
The need behind the campaign is significant: more than 12% of children in San Diego County live in poverty, according to data published by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego, a statistic the organization says drives regional demand for subsidized after-school programs and safe educational spaces across its roughly 2,000-square-mile service area. Malin is president and CEO of the organization.
The Clairemont project follows other recent Padres investments in San Diego's public spaces, including the team's $20 million renovation of Petco Park's Gallagher Square ahead of the 2024 season, which added public artificial turf, an expanded playground and the outdoor Sycuan Stage for community events, as Hoodline detailed in its coverage of the team's September fan appreciation efforts. Together, the projects point to a franchise leaning further into neighborhood-level giving even as it settles into a new ownership era.
