Major League Baseball owners have officially approved a group led by Patrick Zalupski as the new owners of the Rays, reports Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times. Topkin notes that the official transfer is still pending the formal closing of the sale, which is expected later this week. Previous reporting has indicated that the team is being sold for somewhere around $1.7 billion. “It’s good to go,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred says.
It was originally reported back in June that Sternberg was in “advanced” talks about a sale to the Zalupski-led group which will soon take over the majority stake of the team now. Those negotiations came on the heels of Sternberg receiving pressure to sell from both the commissioner’s office and other owners throughout the league. Sternberg will retain a minority stake in the Rays but will take a backseat after owning the club since purchasing it for $200MM back in 2004.
Zalupski is the CEO of Dream Finders Homes, a publicly traded, Jacksonville-based developer that has built more than 31,000 homes across ten states. Back in June, Forbes estimated his net worth at $1.4 billion, while his company’s valuation rested at $3.4 billion. It’s not entirely clear how many other investors are a part of the group. Sportico reported over the summer that Ken Babby, who owns multiple minor league teams and is the son of a prominent NBA agent, and Bill Cosgrove, CEO of the Union Home Mortgage Group, are among the others involved in the incoming ownership group.
The new ownership group is expected to keep the Rays in the Tampa Bay area, though Zalupski’s vision is for an eventual stadium in Tampa proper, rather than the Rays’ longtime home in St. Petersburg. That’d mean a move from Pinellas County to adjacent Hillsborough County and would also mean negotiating with a different collection of local government officials than the Pinellas County officials who regularly clashed with Sternberg throughout his quest for a new stadium.
For the time being, of course, the Rays are playing in Tampa. They’ve temporarily relocated to George M. Steinbrenner Field — the spring facility and Class-A home for the Yankees — in the wake of massive damage to Tropicana Field at the hands of Hurricane Milton last offseason. The Rays are hoping that they’ll be able to return to Tropicana Field for the 2026 season. They still have another three seasons remaining on their prior lease there, and now that new ownership is all but in place, that period could serve as a bridge to the construction of a new stadium — though there will obviously be numerous hurdles to clear as the new management commences talks with the requisite governmental bodies in Tampa and looks to secure funding.
Broader questions about what the change in ownership means for the Rays will persist for the foreseeable future. Longtime fans will dream of larger payrolls helping to fuel a club that’s managed to be near-perennially competitive despite spending less than the vast majority of the league. However, new ownership is not always a path to exponentially larger payrolls. That may be the case for Steve Cohen’s Mets, but one need only look at the Marlins, Royals and Orioles to find recently sold teams that have yet to significantly invest in bolstering player payroll. An eventual new stadium could be a major step in that direction, but that’s years down the road.
Presumably, there will be some other turnover within the organization. Rays presidents Matt Silverman and Brian Auld are departing once the sale is finalized, but it’s not at all clear what, if anything, a sale might mean for the baseball operations or dugout staff. (Silverman was once Tampa Bay’s head of baseball operations but has been on the business side of operations since 2017.) President of baseball operations Erik Neander is signed through at least the 2028 season, while manager Kevin Cash’s most recent extension carries him all the way through 2030. That pair is among the most respected in the industry at their positions, and one would presume that their presence is a selling point for incoming ownership. Other changes could still ensue, but until the deal is official and Zalupski first meets with the media, there will be at least some level of uncertainty regarding matters of this nature.
The end of an era when the Rays were competitive with low payrolls.
That era probably already ended a couple years ago.
Is it status quo with new management or are they planning to invest more capital in the team and stadium to shift from being perennial overachievers to a sustainable powerhouse?
I doubt anyone knows that yet, except possibly Zalupski and his partners themselves.
I would expect the initial outlay for the team, along with the need for a new stadium makes it unlikely that money to raise payroll will be available for a while.
Brooklin Rays!
Does he know anybody in Tampa Government who can get Tropicana ready for the 2026 season? Otherwise who cares?
The city of Tampa has absolutely nothing to do with Tropicana Field which is located in the city of St. Petersburg, one county and 25 miles away.
They have 6 of the 24 roof panels back on currently, drove past it the other day. Should be good to go for April
Then why aren’t they the St. Petersburg Rays?
You know there are at least a dozen teams in sports that don’t play in the city they’re named after, right? Some don’t even play in the same state.
@unclemike because Tampa Bay terminology is used as a region making up most of Pinellas,Hillsborough and Manatee counties and Sarasota county to some degree
Tampa BAY Rays.
Apples and Oranges. Tampa has a different County, area code and city thsn St. Petersburg.
It’s the very same reason the New York Giants and New York Jets are not called New Jersey!!!! Get the point????
It’s hard to say for sure how long it will take for Tropicana to be game ready.
Each roof panel takes 6 days to be installed so at current pace, they should be done with the roof around new years.
The interior is the bigger issue. It’s still flooded, and will continue to be until after the roof is complete because there is no internal drainage and the rain keeps coming in. They’ll have about 3 months after the roof is on to get all the water out and repair all the water damage throughout the stadium. That’s no small feat. They say they can, but there’s always a lot of unknowns with water damage on this scale.
For their sake, I hope there are no unexpected problems, because it’s a pretty big undertaking.
@Canuckleball yeah it won’t be perfect by any means but they’ll do the minimal to get it back open for the next few years
It will re-open early to mid- April 2026.
Unclemike: Tropicana is in Saint Petersburg, not Tampa. Do you understand the difference? They’re two different cities.
St. Petersburg’s largest border is Tampa Bay.
St. Petersburg has no land bordercwith Tampa.
Not likely!!!!
Does anybody know if any income/status/class differences exist between Tampa and St. Petersburg? One have more retirees than the other, or one more blue collar than the other, etc? Thanks
The Corporate structure is deeper in Tampa as well as the drawing area. St Pete is surrounded by water on 3 sides making access difficult. Interstate access is also better in Hillsborough County. The average age in Pinellas County is about 48, but much higher in St Pete. Hillsboroughs average age is 10 years younger.
Not one single person in “Tampa Goverment” has a thing to do with Tropcana Field. They have never had anythimg to do with Tropicana Field and never will.
No the city of St Petersburg owns the Trop and leases it to the Rays
Kyle Tucker, come on down!
I’ll help him pack and I’ll bring friends if he takes Hoyer and Hawkins with him.
You’d have no one to complain about anymore
You don’t know who would take his place either.
Just lock up Caminero. That’d be a good start.
Good day for Rays fans and baseball.
Hope it works out for the team.
Halos: For Rays fans anyway. Not sure what “for baseball” even means in this context. Careful with the casual hyperbole.
Tampa is currently 30th in the league in road attendance despite playing in front of sellouts in NY and Boston.
Fans prefer to watch big name players. A new owner usually spends.
Tampa Bay’s home stadium situation is horrible. A new one will be enjoyed by visiting teams and fans.
Now move them to Montreal
Neber!!!!
Not a bad investment.
9.4% annual average compounded return
I beleive he would have made more money in an index based mutual fund. Or it would have been close. However, better dividends with the Rays as the other owners paid his bills.
You’re not counting the money he made each year off the club.
Apparently, my wording was not well written. In my comments, I tried to say he received better dividends from the other owners than he would have received from his stocks.
Plus large dividend payments every year.
An investment of $200 million in the S&P 500 in November 2005 (when Sternberg gained the full ownership), with all dividends reinvested, would be worth approximately $1.69 billion today.
Don’t ignore all the write off losses that Stu was able to do to offset his other investments. He did just fine.
You misunderstand me. I’m talking about dividends paid by the Rays to its owners, and for the past few years that number could be around $50 million (though no one but them knows for sure).
I understood.
That is a good point that is often missed.
My experience is that much-maligned stadiums usually have gotten a bad rap. Bullies try to build themselves up by putting them down, and then other people repeat what they hear, and a false conventional wisdom takes hold.
For example, the so-called Mistake By The Lake in Cleveland was actually a wonderful place, with a funky ’40s kind of atmosphere. Municipal Stadium’s big bank of centerfield bleachers ought to have been revered like the Green Monster or the Tiger Stadium overhang or the ivy at Wrigley Field.
Similarly, when we lived in Bradenton I went to the Trop often, and it’s fine–a homey, pleasant place with good sight lines. I liked it better than some of the “retro” stadiums, with their contrived, self-consciously cute features. I edited magazines for years, and I recognized it when an art director went overboard and made it too much about them. Some of those places look like that.
The new owner is good news for the Rays and the Trop, and it will be a good day when it reopens in April. It’s cool that my Cubs will be the first opponent next April.
1.7b without already having a new stadium paid by tax payer is really a nice payday. The owner must be either sure he gets something done with local politicians or willing to pay half a billion mostly from his own pocket.
Prior sellers like loria often waited until they got their stadium to sell to increase the value. So that 1.7b price is like 2b for the new owner.
Rumor has it Stu was strong-armed into selling by MLB. Essentially, MLB wouldn’t approve a move from the Tampa Bay area and local politicians were sick of Stu and would no longer negotiate with the team if he continued owning it.
Tampa Bay Rowdies soccer team, who have been owned by the Ray’s for the last several years, is also part of the deal.
Move the team to Tampa proper and spend some money. You can even still keep the name ‘Tampa Bay Rays’.