After sending a farewell letter to fans, Stuart Sternberg addressed the imminent sale of the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday before his final game as the team’s principal owner.
A season of chaos — sparked when Hurricane Milton ripped the roof of Tropicana Field last year — ended with a 13-4 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, leaving Tampa Bay with an 77-85 record. It was a second straight season with a losing record and missing the playoffs.
The stadium damage forced the Rays to play this season at Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field and instigated the demise of a long-sought plan to build a $1.3 billion ballpark in St. Petersburg. Sternberg said the fallout from him pulling out of that deal led to his decision to sell.
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“There's some days I'm 70/30 I wish I weren't doing it, and other days I’m 70/30 I'm glad I am,” Sternberg said in his first public comments over selling the Rays to a group led by Florida homebuilder Patrick Zalupski.
“I have said since the very beginning, and I meant it: I was never going to threaten to move this team. I never did. And in soul-searching over the last 10 months, I wanted to make sure I stood by that. And this, to me, gave it the best opportunity to keep this team in Tampa Bay.”
Sternberg said he realized different ownership might have a better path to securing a local home for the Rays and admitted, “My time had come.”
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“It was clear as days and months went along, that to live up to what I’ve tried to preach all this time and to keep the team here in the area, somebody who had a better opportunity and a clearer path to that would be better suited for that,” he said.
Sternberg said Zalupski, CEO of Dream Finders Homes, was the right fit. The sale, valued at about $1.7 billion, is expected to close this week. Sternberg will retain a small minority stake.
“Could we have gotten more money? Less money? I don’t know, and I’ll never find out, and I’m perfectly comfortable with that,” Sternberg said. “I’m mostly perfectly comfortable with the idea that this is the guy who absolutely has the best chance to get it done in Tampa Bay.”
Sternberg, who became principal owner in 2005, leaves an on-field legacy of turning around a losing expansion franchise known as the Devil Rays. Dropping the “Devil” was symbolic of building an organization built on sabermetrics and a strong farm system.
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Within three years, the Rays reached their first postseason and World Series. Sternberg’s Rays made the playoffs nine times, won four division titles and clinched two American League pennants. In 2021, they won a franchise-best 100 games.
He said he steps away proud of the team’s achievements.
“As far as baseball is concerned, I can sort of drop the mic on that one,” he said.
For all of the fans, players and community ahead of this season’s final game 🩵 pic.twitter.com/MZWw9UUENf
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) September 28, 2025
Earlier in the day, Rays' social media posted a letter to fans from Sternberg that reflected on his tenure and expressed gratitude for the community’s support.
“It has been my joy and a privilege to be the principal owner of the Tampa Bay Rays for the past two decades. Together we’ve shared countless magical moments both on and off the field,” Sternberg wrote.
He also lamented that he could not get a stadium built over that time.
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“Despite our years of effort, we were not able to bring a new ballpark to life,” he wrote. “We tried hard, and I truly believed we had found a solution last year. But sometimes circumstances beyond your control intervene, and now it will be up to others to carry that work forward.”
Sternberg closed with a thank-you to fans and community partners.
“I can now wish the new ownership group every success as they embark on their own journey,” he wrote.
