{"id":248787,"date":"2025-09-23T11:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T11:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/248787\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T11:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T11:22:12","slug":"mlb-owners-approve-sale-of-tampa-bay-rays-to-group-led-by-jacksonville-based-developer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/248787\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB owners approve sale of Tampa Bay Rays to group led by Jacksonville-based developer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TAMPA, Fla.<\/strong> – The sale of the Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> to a group led by a Jacksonville-based developer took a big step forward on Monday, with Major League Baseball owners unanimously approving the transfer of the franchise.<\/p>\n

Monday’s vote came days after the Rays said they expected the sale to Dream Finders Homes President and CEO Patrick Zalupski’s group to be finalized in the next two weeks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

The $1.7 billion sale of the Rays has been in the works since June, when the current ownership group led by Stuart Sternberg entered exclusive talks with Zalupski’s group.<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS: <\/strong>Tampa Bay Rays in talks to sell team, officials confirm<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The future of the Rays in the Tampa Bay area has been in question for years. A deal to build a new stadium in St. Pete appeared to be in place at one point, only for the team to pull out earlier this year<\/a> citing increased costs.<\/p>\n

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has previously stated his desire for the Rays to remain in the Tampa Bay area. On Monday, he said he remains optimistic that there won’t be any more snags in the close of the sale.<\/p>\n

Manfred also said last week that he expects the new ownership group to search for a new ballpark site in the Tampa<\/a> and St. Petersburg<\/a> area.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/strong>Potential Rays owner considering HCC as stadium site<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

Sternberg took control of the team from founding owner Vince Naimoli in November 2005 and has remained managing general partner for the past 20 years.<\/p>\n

\"Pictured: <\/p>\n

His Rays teams became known for their ability to field a competitive roster on a small budget. The team began the 2025 season with an $81.9 million payroll, and has been eliminated from playoff contention for the second straight year.<\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

The sale is expected to be finalized by the end of the week.<\/p>\n

As for where the Rays will play their home games, they expect to return to Tropicana Field in St. Pete for 2026. The team’s lease at the ballpark expires after the 2028 season.<\/p>\n

The Source:<\/b> This story was written with information from the Associated Press and previous FOX 13 News reports.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Rays<\/a>Sports<\/a>Tampa<\/a>St. Petersburg<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. – The sale of the Tampa Bay Rays to a group led by a Jacksonville-based developer…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":248788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,3188,723,41154,7310,1266,50,132029,132028,62,35379,9073,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-248787","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fl","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-hillsborough","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-pinellas","16":"tag-rays-baseball","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-st-petersburg","19":"tag-tampa","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115253356496279538","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}