Report: Rays in advanced talks to sell to Jacksonville homebuilder for $1.7 billion

The Tampa Bay Rays are in talks to sell the team to a group of investors led by Jacksonville homebuilder Patrick Zalupski.

The team confirmed the talks Wednesday in a statement shortly after Sportico, a prominent online publication focused on the business of sports, published a story reporting Zalupski had signed a letter of intent to buy the team valuing it at $1.7 billion. (The Baltimore Orioles sold last year for $1.72 billion.)

The report cited multiple sources who asked not to be named because the details are private.

The Rays’ statement made no mention of the amount and offered few details, saying only that the organization has “recently commenced exclusive discussions” with a group that includes Zalupski.

Also in the group, the team says, are Bill Cosgrove, the CEO of Ohio-based Union Home Mortgage; Ken Babby, CEO of Fast Forward Sports and the owner of the minor league baseball teams the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp and Akron RubberDucks; and unnamed “prominent Tampa Bay investors.”

Zalupski, who is leading the group, founded Jacksonville-based Dream Finders Homes in 2008 and built it into a Fortune 1000 company with $4.4 billion in revenue last year, up 18% from 2023.

According to his biography on the University of Florida’s website, where he is a trustee, before founding Dream Finders, Zalupski was a financial auditor for FedEx in Memphis. He also worked in real estate sales as a managing partner for a company named Bay Street Condominiums from 2006 to 2008.

Today, Dream Finders says it operates in 220 communities in 10 states and has closed on more than 38,000 homes since its founding. In 2024, the company says it closed on 8,583 homes and had a pre-tax income of $438 million. As of the end of 2024, it controlled nearly 55,000 lots.

Forbes magazine estimates Zalupski's net worth at $1.4 billion.

News that the team is in discussions to be sold is not surprising.

Current owner Stuart Sternberg has been under pressure to rid himself of the team since killing a deal for a new $1.3 billion ballpark that the organization negotiated and celebrated before reneging on the agreement earlier this year. Sternberg paid $200 million for the Rays in 2004, 

The deal had called for a new ballpark to be built and for the team to lead the redevelopment of the 86-acre Historic Gas Plant District in the city. It looked to be transformational for both the city and for the team, which publicly touted for months that it was “Here to Stay.”

But shortly after Hurricane Milton destroyed the roof of the team’s current home, Tropicana Field, the Rays, led by Sternberg, began to threaten that it would leave and back out of the deal if Pinellas County and St. Petersburg failed to live up to their financial commitments.

Neither of the storm-ravaged localities had made any sort of threat to not come through financially; officials instead sought delays on votes to issue bonds as they worked to recover from a pair of hurricanes that hit in a matter of weeks.

When both did vote to approve funding for their share of the stadium, the Rays ownership decided to back out of the deal for the stadium anyway saying, in part, that the cost overruns the team had agreed to pay were too high.

Today, the team is playing its games in Tampa at Steinbrenner Field, the much smaller (nearly 75% fewer seats) Spring Training home of the rival New York Yankees, as Tropicana Field undergoes repairs.

But just because there are new owners, that doesn’t mean the stadium issue will be resolved — nor will the persistent attendance issues the team has faced for years.

The Rays have been trying — and failing — to build a new ballpark for nearly 20 years and have openly discussed moving elsewhere if a deal couldn’t be reached.

While Nashville, Orlando and even Montreal have been discussed as options, Jacksonville has to this point not been talked about it as a potential landing spot.

That could change if an owner from that city takes over.

On Wednesday, after news broke that the Rays were in discussions with a potential buyer, officials with the city of St. Petersburg declined to answer a question likely to be asked multiple times in the weeks and months to come: Would it be open to offering new owners the same deal it offered the Rays?

“The Rays team has not spoken to city administration regarding the reported sale of the team,” a city spokesperson says in an email.

As for the Rays, it says neither the team nor the group of buyers would have any more comments during the negotiations.