Sports
John Fisher Sells San Jose Earthquakes for $625M to Hedge Fund President Heath Freeman
John Fisher, who moved the Oakland A's out of the Bay Area, has agreed to sell the San Jose Earthquakes to Heath Freeman, president of the hedge fund Alden Global Capital, for approximately $625 million. The sale severs Fisher's last ownership tie to Bay Area sports.
John Fisher, the Gap heir who relocated the Oakland A's out of the Bay Area, has agreed to sell the San Jose Earthquakes to Heath Freeman in a deal valued at approximately $625 million, the club announced Friday. The sale, unanimously approved by Major League Soccer's board of governors, ends Fisher's nearly two-decade run as the Earthquakes' owner and removes his final ownership stake in Bay Area professional sports.
Fisher, who has controlled the MLS franchise since 2007, purchased the club alongside real estate developer Lew Wolff. The pair paid a $20 million expansion fee to revive the Earthquakes after a two-year hiatus and privately financed the construction of PayPal Park, the team's home stadium in San Jose, which the club also leases to Bay FC of the National Women's Soccer League.
Freeman is president of Alden Global Capital, the New York-based hedge fund that has drawn widespread criticism for its ownership of newspapers across the United States. Under Alden's stewardship, newsrooms have been sharply reduced through layoffs and buyouts, a pattern that has made the fund a symbol of financial extraction in local journalism. In a 2020 Vanity Fair profile of Alden, newspaper analyst Ken Doctor described Freeman as "the cartoon villain basically tying the reporters and their communities to the railroad tracks and pulling the switch."
The Earthquakes said Freeman will own the club personally, not through Alden. Freeman and Fisher are also both owners of teams in the Professional Bull Riders league.
The transaction is expected to close in the coming weeks. The timing lands as the Earthquakes prepare to host their first home playoff matches since 2012, giving the club a rare moment of on-field momentum even as its ownership changes hands.
For San Jose, the sale raises questions about the club's direction under an owner whose professional background lies in finance and media consolidation rather than sports. PayPal Park, which Fisher and Wolff built without public money, remains a key civic asset and a anchor for the city's professional soccer scene, hosting both the Earthquakes and Bay FC. Freeman's stewardship will be watched closely by fans and local officials eager to see whether the new owner invests in the team and the stadium or treats the club as another portfolio holding.
Fisher's departure from Bay Area sports ownership closes a chapter that began with his family's Gap fortune and continued through his tenure with the A's, whose move from Oakland drew sustained criticism from fans and local leaders. With the Earthquakes sale, Fisher will no longer hold any stake in a Bay Area team.