Tampa Bay Rays Reportedly to Be Sold to Florida Developer for About $1.7 Billion

With the future of the Rays in question – heightened by the need to build a stadium – commissioner Rob Manfred had encouraged current Rays owner Stu Sternberg to sell the franchise.

Sternberg, who bought the Rays in 2004 at a cost of $200 million, now has an agreement in principle with the Zalupski group, per The Athletic.

The Athletic identified Bill Cosgrove, owner of Union Home Mortgage in Ohio, as a member of the ownership group. He owns two minor league teams: the Akron RubberDucks and the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.

Should the deal go own to be finalized, the new owners would need to address the stadium issue immediately. With Tropicana Field out of commission this season, the Rays are playing at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, the spring home of the New York Yankees.

Zalupski prefers the team make its permanent home in Tampa and not St. Petersburg, according to the report.

Almost since the time he bought the team, Sternberg had been trying to secure a new home for the Rays. Several options fell through, but in September 2023, the club and public officials announced a public-private partnership to build a $1.3 billion stadium as part of the revitalization of St. Petersburg’s historic Gas Plant district.

However, the club’s future has been in flux since October, when Hurricane Milton tore the roof off Tropicana Field, which the Rays had called home since 1998. Sternberg contended delays caused by the hurricane altered his stadium timeline and increased his costs, and he backed out of the plans earlier this year.

The City of St. Petersburg is scheduled to vote July 24 to approve the formal dissolution of the stadium portion of the redevelopment project.

The Rays are scheduled to return to a revamped Tropicana Field in 2026 with a three-year lease, leaving the new owners a short timeline to construct a stadium.

Zalupski made his money in construction. He is the founder, chairman and CEO of Dream Finders Homes, a Jacksonville-based homebuilder. Forbes listed his net worth at $1.7 billion on Monday.