TAMPA, Fla. – The Tampa Bay Rays are in talks to sell the Major League Baseball franchise to a group of investors, team officials confirmed Wednesday.
What they’re saying:
The Rays released a statement to FOX 13 on talks to sell the team:
“The Tampa Bay Rays announced that the team has recently commenced exclusive discussions with a group led by Patrick Zalupski, Bill Cosgrove, Ken Babby and prominent Tampa Bay investors concerning a possible sale of the team. Neither the Rays nor the group will have further comment during the discussions.”
Who is Patrick Zalupski?
The backstory:
Patrick Zalupski is the founder, president and CEO of Dream Finders Homes, a home builder that has built and sold more than 38,000 homes across 10 states, according to the company’s website.
Stuart Sternberg’s tenure as owner
The current ownership group is led by Stuart Sternberg, who became managing general partner of the organization, then known as the Devil Rays, in 2005.
Tampa Bay Rays owner Stu Sternberg speaks after St. Pete City Council approved a project including a new ballpark for the team on July 18, 2024. The deal later fell through.
While the Rays found greater success on the field in the years that followed, the issue of their long-term future has been much more complicated.
The push to move the team out of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg and into a new stadium has led to numerous proposals on both sides of the bay dating back to the 2000s.
In 2024, it appeared the franchise had finally secured a new home when leaders in Pinellas County and the City of St. Petersburg approved hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for a new ballpark.
The 30,000-seat domed stadium was set to open in time for the 2028 season as part of a multi-billion-dollar redevelopment of St. Pete’s Historic Gas Plant District.
In March 2025, however, the team nixed the deal, saying the project had been pushed back and would cost more as a result. County commissioners said the 2024 hurricanes forced them to postpone final approval of bonds for the ballpark.
Further complicating the issue, the Rays are playing their 2025 home games at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa after Tropicana Field suffered significant damage during Hurricane Milton.
The roof of Tropicana Field was badly damaged during Hurricane Milton.
What’s next:
St. Pete is working to finish repairs in hopes of the Rays returning to the Trop for the 2026 season. The team’s lease with the city runs through 2028, with nothing set in stone from there.
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The Source: This story was written with information from the Tampa Bay Rays, Dream Finders Homes and previous FOX 13 News reports.
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