Ron Fowler: How Lincoln City’s underdog appeal attracted ex-Padres MLB owner

It was less than 10 years ago that Lincoln were playing National League football – having spent six seasons in England’s fifth tier – before two promotions in three years returned them to League One in 2019.

Fowler first bought a minority stake in the club in April 2024, and now they are pushing for promotion to a division that will demand levels of investment and player recruitment unlike anything previous successes have needed.

What Fowler brings is elite sporting knowhow, having been heavily involved in the Padres for a decade after he headed a group that took control of the MLB side in 2012.

He worked as executive chairman there until 2020, then took up the role of vice-chairman before his involvement in the club came to an end in 2022.

His extensive experience in an organisation that was last year valued at $1.95bn (around £1.43bn) has helped him quickly get to grips with the lower tiers of English football where there are no such substantial sums of money.

Deloitte, in its annual analysis of football finances,, external last year found that League One clubs reported an average pre-tax loss of £5.2m.

Lincoln’s most recently available accounts relating to the 2024-25 season showed they lost just under £2.9m in a year they generated a club record £8.5m.

When asked what he could take from his time at the Padres and the MLB to use at Lincoln and in the English Football League, Fowler said: “The biggest thing is there are all kinds of crazy owners.

“There were a lot of crazy owners in baseball, some that did things that were counterintuitive, and it would appear, based on what I’ve seen, heard and read, there is a lot of that in the EFL, especially in League One.

“I think we have sanity here and we will continue to have sanity.”