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 July 14 in the sports publication The Athletic.
The report, which cites a person briefed on the process but not authorized to speak, said Zalupski doesn’t plan to move the team out of the area, but prefers for it to play in Tampa instead of St. Petersburg where it did before a hurricane damaged its home stadium.
A Rays spokesperson said July 14 that the team has no comment. A month ago it confirmed that it had “recently commenced exclusive discussions” with a group led by Zalupski , the founder and CEO of Dream Finders Homes Inc.
The group includes Bill Cosgrove, the CEO of Ohio-based Union Home Mortgage and Ken Babby, CEO of Fast Forward Sports and the owner of the 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.
Sternberg has been under pressure to sell the team after unsuccessful attempts to reach an agreement with local officials in the Tampa Bay area to build a new ballpark.
The Rays’ home stadium, Tropicana Field, was heavily damaged by Hurricane Milton in October 2024, forcing the team to play this season at the New York Yankees’ spring training stadium in Tampa while repairs are made.
In April, the St. Petersburg City Council approved nearly $23 million for a new roof for Tropicana Field as part $56 million need to repair the stadium, according to Fox 13 news in Tamba Bay.
Zalupski founded Jacksonville-based Dream Finders in 2008 and built it into a Fortune 1000 company with $4.4 billion in revenue last year.
He took the company public in 2021.
Forbes magazine estimates Zalupski’s net worth at $1.4 billion.
The $1.7 billion price would be in line with the most recent sale of a Major League Baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles, which were sold for $1.73 billion last year, according to Sports business news site Sportico.