Fisher paid $20M for the Earthquakes in 2007. A newspaper boss just bought them for $625M

John Fisher and Lew Wolff paid a $20 million expansion fee for the San Jose Earthquakes in 2007. Fisher is now selling the club and its stadium, PayPal Park, to Heath Freeman, the president of Alden Global Capital, in a deal that Sportico, ESPN and the San Francisco Chronicle put at $625 million, roughly 31 times what the slot cost.

MLS's Board of Governors unanimously approved the transfer of ownership on Thursday, and the Earthquakes announced it on Friday. The club didn't disclose financial terms and said the transaction should close in the coming weeks. Freeman will become principal owner and take the club's seat on the board.

The figure is an enterprise value that includes the stadium. It's also $40 million above where Sportico itself had the club, 23rd in its MLS valuations at $585 million. The sale ends a process that started in June 2025, when Fisher hired Moelis & Co. while moving his baseball team, the Athletics, from Oakland toward a new ballpark in Las Vegas due in 2028.

Freeman has been Alden's president since 2014. He is chairman of Tribune Enterprises, which owns the Chicago Tribune, and vice chairman of MNG Enterprises, which manages The Denver Post, the Boston Herald and the San Jose Mercury News, the hometown paper of the team he is buying. ESPN noted that Alden has made deep cost cuts across its publications, leading to multiple rounds of layoffs.

The Chronicle reported that Freeman bought the team as an individual, not as part of Alden. His other sports roles include managing partner of the Florida Freedom of the Professional Bull Riders and executive chairman of the AVP beach volleyball tour.

San Jose is not one of the league's marquee brands, so a $625 million sale says a lot about what MLS clubs now cost. The league just announced the strongest three-year attendance stretch in its history, and it heads into a one-off Sprint Season before switching to a fall-spring calendar.

Fisher's group turned $20 million into a nine-figure exit. Freeman inherits a club, a stadium and a question every Quakes fan will ask: how much of that money goes back onto the field.