Tampa Bay Rays In Exclusive Talks To Sell Club To Group Led By Florida Home Builder
The Tampa Bay Ray are in exclusive talks to sell the team. (Photo by Carlee Calfee/MLB Photos via ... More Getty Images)
The Tampa Bay Rays have announced that they are in advanced talks to sell to a group led by Patrick Zalupski, the founder, chairman, and CEO of Dream Finders Homes, a Florida-based homebuilder.
The Rays released a statement saying, 'The team has recently commenced exclusive discussions with a group led by Zalupski, Bill Cosgrove, Ken Babby, and prominent Tampa Bay investors concerning a possible sale of the team.'
Sportico reported that the deal has a team value of $1.7 billion. The most recent Forbes valuation ranks the Rays 29th out of 30 with a value of $1.25 billion.
Forbes shows Zalupski's real-time net worth as $1.4 billion.
Stu Sternberg purchased the Rays for $200 million ($340,354,685 inflation-adjusted) in 2004.
A potential sale has been somewhat expected. The Rays have struggled to build a new ballpark to replace Tropicana Field, and that issue was compounded when Hurricane Milton shredded the roof off The Trop. The Rays have been playing at Steinbrenner Field, the Yankees' Spring Training home, while awaiting repairs to be made. While the St. Petersburg City Council voted 7-1 to approve $22.5 million for repairs, the Rays announced in March that they were backing out of a deal with the city and Pinellas County for a new $1.3 billion ballpark, citing increased costs. That raised the ire of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and several owners, given that a new ballpark for the Rays is the last impediment to league expansion. The Athletic reported in March that Sternberg was being pressured to sell the club.
Should the sale transpire, new ownership would face the new ballpark issue front and center. While the price tag was $1.3 billion, it's unclear whether changes to the economy, with the additions to tariffs and inflation, would increase the price tag, and whether Zalupski and his partners would be able to engage with the City of St. Petersburg to get a ballpark built near where Tropicana Field sits. Under Sternberg, the Rays had committed to contributing $700 million to the new ballpark.
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