Report: Rays reach $1.7B deal to sell to Jacksonville billionaire

Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg has reached a deal to sell the team to Jacksonville homebuilder Patrick Zalupski for $1.7 billion, according to a report Monday from sports publication The Athletic.

The report, which cites a person briefed on the process but not authorized to speak, say Zalupski plans to keep the team in the area but prefers for it to play in Tampa instead of St. Petersburg.

A Rays spokesperson said Monday that the team has no comment. The team confirmed a month ago it had “recently commenced exclusive discussions” with a group led by the businessman.

The group includes Bill Cosgrove, CEO of Ohio-based Union Home Mortgage and Ken Babby, CEO of Fast Forward Sports and the owner of minor league baseball teams the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp and Akron RubberDucks.

The deal, according to the report, is expected to close as soon as September.

Regardless of when the deal closes, new ownership will face two major issues Sternberg in his 20 years as owner was never able to overcome: getting a new stadium and fixing attendance.

For some time there was talk about it building a ballpark in Tampa’s Ybor City but land in the area is already being developed.

Just last month one of the developers behind the 50-acre Gasworx project announced intentions to build a stadium on land in a second development in the area for the Tampa Bay Sun FC, the women’s soccer team.

While there may be, and likely are, other possibilities of where to build a stadium in the city, a deal for a new ballpark will include taxpayer funds and need government approval. That could take some time. And the new owners would need corporate support, which the Rays have had difficulty getting in Tampa.

And that’s before the first piece of dirt is turned.

Then there is the matter of St. Petersburg, which may not be keen to let go of the team.

The city previously reached a deal with the Rays to build a $1.3 billion ballpark that included $280 million from the city and $312.5 million from Pinellas County. The team, which is playing at George Steinbrenner Field in Tampa this season after the roof at Tropicana Field was damaged during Hurricane Milton, backed out of the agreement earlier this year.

The city, which is on the hook to fix the roof, plans on the team returning as soon as next year and living out the terms of its lease, which expires in 2028.

The question that will be asked in the months to come is whether local officials will try to sway the new ownership to stay in St. Petersburg.

Last month, shortly after the negotiations were disclosed, Mayor Kenneth Welch said in a statement that he is “excited about the possibility of new ownership and discussions on the Rays’ future in St. Pete and Tampa Bay for the long term.”

Perhaps the person best qualified to discuss how incredibly difficult it is to get a stadium built in the region is Sternberg who tried and failed to get it done for nearly two decades.

Sternberg, who paid $200 million for the Rays in 2004, has tried in Ybor and St. Petersburg, announcing deals in both. He even floated a proposal that would have seen the team split games between Tampa Bay and Montreal.

All to no avail.

And even if Zalupski is able to do what Sternberg failed to do, there is one other fundamental issue that has dogged the team since its inception: an embarrassing lack of fan support.

While the argument has long been that poor attendance is the fault of Tropicana Field’s location, the team, which has a winning record this season and has made the playoff all but one year since 2018, still cannot sellout games. This despite playing in a ballpark this year that has nearly 75% fewer seats than Tropicana Field’s 42,735 seats.

 Just how bad is it?

Only one other team — the A’s, which don’t have a home city at this moment and are playing in a minor league ballpark in Sacramento — have worse attendance this season.

And it’s a close race for last place. The Rays, according to ESPN, are averaging 9,852 spectators per game. The A’s, 9,781.

Major League Baseball announced last week that the team will play its postseason games at Steinbrenner Field.