The Tampa Bay Rays are in “exclusive discussions” concerning a possible sale of the franchise to a group including Jacksonville-based real estate developer Patrick Zalupski, the team announced in a statement on Wednesday.
News of the potential deal was initially reported by Sportico, which states the team’s value at roughly $1.7 billion. In their statement, the Rays announced Bill Cosgrove and Ken Babby and unnamed prominent Tampa Bay investors as part of the group with Zalupski.
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The possible move comes on the heels of a tumultuous eight months for the Rays and owner Stuart Sternberg, which have included numerous calls by local politicians for Sternberg to sell the team.
Funding for the new $1.3 billion stadium at the Historic Gas Plant District in St. Petersburg was agreed to by all parties last July. However, the roof was ripped off of Tropicana Field amid strong winds from Hurricane Milton in October. Approval for the funding was subsequently delayed by both the city council and the Pinellas County Board of Commissioners, before eventually being agreed to in December and January.
The Rays, however, pulled out of the agreement in March, citing elevated costs caused by the delayed funding. The relationship between the local government and Rays officials soured throughout the process.
The Athletic’s Evan Drellich reported in March that several other owners and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred were pressuring Sternberg to sell the team. Manfred has stated publicly that he’d like to keep the Rays in the Tampa Bay market, while Rays ownership never firmly committed to that.
The Rays are playing the 2025 season at George Steinbrenner Field, the spring training home of the New York Yankees. The club has asked the City of St. Petersburg, which owns Tropicana Field, to have the stadium renovations completed in time for the 2026 season. However, completion of the project in time is far from certain, and the lease only runs through 2028.
Manfred was asked about the Rays’ stadium situation at MLB’s owners meetings earlier this month.
“The repair of the stadium’s moving along,” Manfred said. “We remain optimistic that we will be ready either for Opening Day or very shortly thereafter. Obviously, the big contingency is what happens with hurricane season, right? There’s not much you can do about that, other than keep your fingers crossed. But we are hopeful that we’ll get it ready for Opening Day ’26.”
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When asked about the team’s long-term future, he noted “(It’s) clear they’re gonna honor their lease through ’28 and I don’t really have anything to add beyond that right now.”
Zalupski, 44, is the founder, president and CEO of Dream Finders Homes, which was formed in December 2008. Cosgrove is the CEO of Cleveland-based Union Home Mortgage. Babby currently owns two minor-league baseball teams, the Triple-A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Marlins) and Double-A Akron RubberDucks (Guardians), and is the son of former Phoenix Suns president of basketball operations Lon Babby.
The Rays said in their statement that neither they nor the investment group would have any further comment during the discussions.
(Top photo of Stuart Sternberg and Rays manager Kevin Cash: Thomas O’Neill / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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