If the Orlando Dreamers are still a threat to poach the Tampa Bay Rays, the investment group will have to do so without its top two investors, Dr. Rick Workman and John Morgan.
Workman, who was previously announced as the Orlando effort's "anchor" investor, is now part of the Patrick Zalupski group finalizing a deal to buy the Rays and keep them in the Tampa area, according to a report by The Athletic’s Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal.
According to “a person briefed on the sale,” Workman is now the third-largest investor in the Zalupski team, which is meeting this week with representatives of Major League Baseball to go over details of the transaction. The sale requires approval by 75% of MLB owners.
Morgan, founder of the Morgan & Morgan law firm, had made a $250 million commitment to the Dreamers, which was formed to lure the Rays or another team to Orlando. On Tuesday, he issued a statement to Orlando media outlets that said, "I am out. The fix is in."
With Zalupski in the final stages of completing the purchase of the team, Morgan said Orlando would become a "bargaining chip" to secure a stadium deal in Tampa.
In July, Zalupski agreed in principle to purchase the Rays from principal owner Stuart Sternberg for a reported $1.7 billion. The deal is expected to be finalized this month or by mid-October.
As part of the deal, Sternberg and his partners would temporarily stay as a 10% investor in Zalupski’s team, “two people briefed on the transaction who were not authorized to speak publicly” told The Athletic.
The involvement of Sternberg and his partners gives Zalupski’s bid more local ties. Dan Doyle, CEO of Tampa-based DEX Imaging, and Tampa lawyer Fred Ridley, who is chairman of Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters tournament, are also limited investors.
Zalupski, a Jacksonville home builder, is the principal financier, along with Bill Cosgrove, the president and CEO of Union Home Mortgage in Cleveland.
Ken Babby, whose sports management company owns two minor-league baseball teams, is also a partner. There are other minority investors as well.
Workman cashes into Tampa group
Workman, a former dentist, founded Heartland Dental, the largest dental management company in the country with more than 3,000 providers in 39 states. He is also chair of the executive adviser team with the private equity firm New Harbor Capital. He owns a home in the affluent Orlando suburb of Windermere.
In April, Dreamers co-founder and CEO Jim Schnorf confirmed Workman was the group’s anchor investor, part of a $2 billion effort that included Morgan.
In June, Morgan said he turned down an offer to join Zalupski's team because the Tampa Bay region “did not compare with Orange County” for Major League Baseball. In dropping out of the Dreamers, he predicted Orlando would become a pawn as the new Rays ownership pursues a stadium in Hillsborough County.
"I believe what will happen now is this group will seek a sweetheart deal in Tampa, while stringing the prospects of Orlando as a bargaining chip," Morgan said in his statement Tuesday. "They will get lots of free land and entitlements and make a real estate profit on the surrounding land at the taxpayers' expense. Certainly not for the people, but for the rich people."
Morgan's Orlando-based injury law firm is among the nation’s largest, promoted by high-profile advertising with the slogan "For the People," Morgan has also gotten more involved in politics in recent years, including financing and campaigning for passage of the state’s 2016 medical marijuana law.
Without him, the baseball pursuit loses not only Morgan's investment, but also his political clout and a well-known media voice.
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So where does this leave the Dreamers? After Zalupski entered "exclusive" negotiations with Sternberg, Schnorf said his organization was still pursuing an existing or expansion team to play in a 45,000-seat ballpark the group wants to build near SeaWorld in Orange County.
In August, Schnorf said the organization received more than $1 billion from an unnamed "major institutional partner" to fund stadium construction. It is unknown whether the stadium requires Workman's or Morgan's involvement.
Schnorf has told media outlets the Dreamers will announce updated plans over the next few days. In email to WESH-TV he wrote: "The initiative to bring MLB to Orlando continues forward."
Biographies and photographs of Workman and Morgan were removed from the leadership page of the Dreamers' website between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
A Tampa sports complex?
The plan for a new stadium in Tampa remains a work in progress, although Zalupski has reportedly settled on Ybor Harbor, a waterfront development near downtown, or land occupied by the Dale Mabry campus of Hillsborough College, Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan told the Tampa Bay Times.
Hillsborough College is across Dale Mabry Highway from Raymond James Stadium and just south of Steinbrenner Field, where the Rays are playing home games this season while hurricane damage is repaired at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. The lease at the Trop ends in 2028.
The proximity of stadiums would create a sports complex of sorts, where the city already has an effective traffic flow plan for events.
Hagan has said Zalupski’s first choice is Ybor Harbor, a 33-acre multiuse project planned for the north end of Ybor Channel led by local developer Darryl Shaw.
In June, the Tampa Bay Sun, a women's soccer team owned by Shaw, announced plans to build a 15,000-seat stadium there. However, Hagan has said he was told by Shaw the soccer site could be used for the Rays. Tampa pitched that location to the Rays in 2018, but Sternberg turned it down over financing concerns and other factors.
The Rays, who also own the Tampa Bay Rowdies, included the men’s soccer team in the sale agreement with Zalupski. The Rowdies currently play at Al Lang Stadium, a renovated baseball facility on the St. Petersburg waterfront.
