On Wednesday afternoon, the Tampa Bay Rays said that the team is in discussions “concerning a possible sale of the team.”
In a brief statement, officials for the club added that the exclusive discussions are happening “with a group led by Patrick Zalupski, Bill Cosgrove, Ken Babby and prominent Tampa Bay investors.”
The team or members of the group would not comment further.
Babby, is no stranger to baseball and owns Jacksonville minor league team the Jumbo Shrimp, which is a Triple-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins.
Zalupski, who has a net worth of $1.3 billion according to Forbes, is the CEO of Dream Finders home builders. Sportico says the sale of the Tampa Bay Rays could happen for $1.7 billion.
The Jacksonville billionaire—who donated to Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign ans was appointed to the University of Florida board of trustees by the governor—is also a familiar name for Florida environmentalists invested in a foiled land swap that would’ve sent 600 acres of preserved land in the Guana River Wildlife Management Area. The swap involved a newly-created company called The Upland LLC; many in
the fight to save the Guana connected Upland to Zalupski. A lawyer for Dream Finders Homes denied the company’s involvement in the swap, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
In case you missed it, it’s a weird time to be Sternberg, who bought the Tampa Bay Rays for $200 million in 2004, six years after the team’s first pitch.
The team was also forced to move its home temporarily to Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field after back-to-back hurricanes made Tropicana Field unusable.
Sternberg’s front office spent the better part of last year and the beginning of this one dragging the City of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County through the tail end of a protracted negotiation over spending taxpayer money for a new stadium.
After successfully getting a deal was worth about $1.3 billion, the team pulled out months later, citing growing costs related to construction—the take back led St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch to say that he had no more interest in negotiating with the team.
This is a developing post.
UPDATED 06/19/25 3:40 p.m. Updated with information on speculation that Patrick Zalupski was connected to a proposed land swap involving north Florida’s Guana River Wildlife Management Area.
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This article appears in Jun 12-18, 2025.