The Tampa Bay Rays are one step closer to having new ownership after Major League Baseball gave its stamp of approval.
The sale to an investment group led by Jacksonville developer Patrick Zalupski was unanimously approved by MLB owners Monday.
The group will purchase the team from principal owner Stuart Sternberg for a reported $1.7 billion. The Rays are valued at $1.25 billion, according to Forbes magazine. Sternberg bought the club for $200 million in 2004.
The formal closing of the deal is anticipated later this week but still needs approval from the Federal Trade Commission and the money still needs to be transferred.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said last week he expects Zalupski's group to begin formally looking for stadium sites after the sale.
The Associated Press reported Manfred also said, while speaking at a Front Office Sports "Tuned In" event in New York, reaffirmed that he wants the team to stay in the Tampa Bay area.
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“I think Florida is the right place for that team. I think that there are opportunities in the Tampa Bay region that can be exploited in order to get a new stadium and keep the team there," Manfred said. “They’re going to have the same options that the prior owner had in terms of one side or the other.”
Last week, co-presidents Matt Silverman and Brian Auld announced they will step down from their leadership positions once the team is sold.
In June, the Rays confirmed the team was in “exclusive” sale negotiations with the Zalupski group.
Zalupski, 44, is the founder, president and CEO of Jacksonville-based Dream Finders Homes, which builds single-family houses in Florida, including the Tampa Bay area, and other states. Forbes lists his net worth at $1.4 billion.
Also in the group is Ken Babby, the founder and CEO of Ohio-based Fast Forward Sports Group, a sports ownership and management company that owns the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, the Triple-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins, and Akron RubberDucks, the Double-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians.
Other minority investors include Bill Cosgrove, the president and CEO of Union Home Mortgage, which has headquarters in the Cleveland area, and Rick Workman, founder of Heartland Dental.
Workman had been a member of a group working to bring an MLB team to Orlando, but joined the Zalupski group earlier this month.
The Rays have been looking for a new home for when their contract at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg ends in 2028. They played their home games this season in Tampa at Steinbrenner Field after Hurricane Milton ripped off the stadium's fabric roof last year.
St. Petersburg is spending about $59 million to repair Tropicana Field with a plan for the Rays to return there in 2026, until the contract is complete in 2028.
Before the hurricane, the Rays, St. Petersburg and Pinellas County had agreed on a plan for a $1.3 billion stadium development project next to Tropicana Field. In March, Sternberg said the club was withdrawing from that agreement, citing the hurricane and delays that likely drove up the proposal’s cost.
At the time, Manfred reaffirmed a commitment to the Tampa Bay area, the nation’s 11th largest television market. According to another report by The Athletic, MLB owners have been pressuring Sternberg to sell.
The Rays said last week they will share information about the sale and new ownership group after the transaction is completed.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
