A new ownership group has acquired the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp baseball team in a transaction that also included the sale of another minor-league club in Ohio.
The Jumbo Shrimp announced in a Dec. 9 release that Prospector Baseball Group purchased the Triple-A Jacksonville team in a deal approved by Major League Baseball earlier in the day. The release said PBG also acquired the Double-A Akron (Ohio) RubberDucks as part of the transaction.
The Jumbo Shrimp and RubberDucks are affiliated with the Miami Marlins and Cleveland Guardians, respectively.
The sale of the Jumbo Shrimp comes in the aftermath of Jumbo Shrimp owner Ken Babby joining the ownership group that purchased the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball. Jacksonville-based homebuilder Patrick Zalupski led the group that made the purchase.
“We are proud to welcome the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp to the Prospector Baseball Group family,” said John Abbamondi and Ben Boyer, co-founders of PBG, in a joint statement.
“The Jumbo Shrimp are one of the most vibrant franchises in Minor League Baseball, built on a commitment to ‘Affordable Family Fun’ that we are honored to continue.”
The group did not divulge the purchase price for the Jumbo Shrimp and RubberDucks.
The new owners
Abbamondi is a longtime sports executive whose previous positions included CEO of the Brooklyn Nets’ parent company, senior vice president of team marketing and business operations for the NBA and assistant general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals. Boyer is a tech investor and co-founder of Tenaya Capital, a venture capital firm.
According to Sports Business Journal, the two are longtime friends and were classmates at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
“We are grateful to Ken Babby and his partners for their leadership and honored to have the opportunity to build upon their success,” Abbamondi and Boyer said in the statement.
“We believe in providing an exceptional, accessible game day experience at VyStar Ballpark, and we are equally excited for the Jumbo Shrimp to be a catalyst for the future growth of Downtown Jacksonville.”
During a video media conference Dec. 9, Abbamondi said MLB officials told him that the partners set a record for the fastest closing of a minor league franchise.
He said PBG would "continue to invest in the ballpark, invest in our fans, and really continue to elevate the fan experience."
"The ballpark is in amazing shape, and some of the renovations that have been done over the last couple of years really have created a jewel box of a ballpark, in my opinion," he said. "We’re not done. We're doing some more work on the ballpark as we speak.”
The group also owns the Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Stormers minor-league team.
"What might work well in Lancaster or Akron might not work well in Jacksonville, but we are going to share some of those ideas to come up with some hopefully fun and creative things that we can give back to the community," Boyer said.
Abbamondi said ownership of the Jumbo Shrimp would help the group as it looks to purchase more teams.
"Jacksonville is in particular what we can point to as we acquire other clubs and say this is a role model for what an outstanding franchise looks like," he said.
"This is what an engaged fan base looks like. We want to try to replicate the success that we've seen in Jacksonville and other markets as well.”
Council vote
The sale came hours before the Jacksonville City Council is expected to vote on a bill consenting to the sale.
According to the legislation, Resolution 2025-0895, a Council vote was required due to the city’s lease with the team for VyStar Ballpark, its home stadium.
Council voted 18-0 in favor of the resolution, with member Terrance Freeman not present.
The move comes after several shifts in the Jumbo Shrimps executive team. The team’s executive vice president of community engagement and social responsibility, Harold Craw, is leaving the team for a role with the Rays.
The team promoted Assistant General Manager Matt Goudreau to president and general manager. Vice President of Marketing and Media Noel Blaha was promoted to senior vice president.
In the Dec. 9 release, Babby called the sale a “bittersweet moment” for him and his family but called the PNG partners “worthy stewards of this beloved franchise.”
Sports Business Journal reported that Abbamondi and Boyer were introduced to Babby over the summer and joined him in Jacksonville for a game in August. Babby’s involvement in the Tampa Bay Rays new ownership group was in the works at that time, prompting PBG’s interest in acquiring the Jumbo Shrimp.
Jacksonville went on to win the Triple-A National Championship.
No offices
Abbamondi and Boyer told Sports Business Journal that they did not plan to have a headquarters for PBG.
“We don’t have an office and we won’t,” Abbamondi said.
“We view our various stadiums as our office,” Boyer added. “We do believe that there is a shared services model that makes a lot of sense when you own multiple clubs. There are certain things like accounting, HR, buying insurance and procurement of various items that can be done more efficiently when it’s centralized.”
This story has been updated with the team's sale, comments from the Dec. 9 media conference and the City Council vote.