MLB approves $1.7B Rays sale; Tampa stadium deal next?

MLB approves $1.7B Rays sale; Tampa stadium deal next?

morning live on Fox Local and on YouTube. Yesterday, Major League Baseball owners unanimously approved the sale of the Tampa Bay rays for $1.7 billion. That means the Stu Sternberg era, in effect, is over. He will remain as a minority holder in the new purchasing group that is led by a Jacksonville developer, Patrick Zalewski. That is a group that also includes Doctor Rick Workman, the former anchor investor for the Orlando Dreamers group, trying to bring a major League Baseball to Orlando. So what does this all mean for a stadium for the future of the rays? What does it mean for fans and some of the product of what you might see on the field, talked about about all of that earlier today with JP Pietersen. He is the host of the JP Peterson Show on Fan Stream Sports. And here’s what he said. Yeah, it’s obviously it’s something we reported months and months ago. But to to see it finally come to fruition is always a good feeling. If you’re of the opinion, as I am, that new ownership is desperately needed here in Tampa Bay for a lot of different reasons to and first and foremost, to secure a stadium on the Tampa side and finally do this the right way instead of the wrong way, as we’ve been doing for about almost 30 years here in Tampa Bay. And I mean, by the wrong way, a stadium being on the edge of the market, not in the middle of the market, a stadium that’s completely obsolete and outdated, and an ownership group that is very unpopular here because they couldn’t get a stadium deal done and a myriad of other reasons. So it’s a great day in Tampa Bay for baseball. And I would even say Orlando as well, because this stadium, I believe, is going to be closer to Orlando, much more accessible to Orlando, maybe even right off the bright line and a few years to come. So I think it’s it’s a very positive development for the folks here in Tampa Bay. JP what do we know about this this ownership group? Patrick Zalewski is the he is the he is the principal owner. So every ownership group is there’s given a principal owner and he is the management person that that one voice that speaks for everybody else. That’s the way baseball likes it. So even though Stu Sternberg’s still going to retain 10%, he will have no input in any decisions whatsoever. It’s the managing partner now, how their decision making goes with Ken Babby, who is the owner of the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, a minor league team and another minor league team in Akron. He’s going to be he’s already been here and working. He’s one of the principal owners. He’s going to be doing a lot of the marketing and promotions. And I think maybe even the point person for the new stadium. But Zalewski is the control person he is, as I mentioned, the Dreamfinder home CEO. He’s also been on the board of trustees of the University of Florida, good friends with Ron DeSantis. And it’s those political connections, along with the the investors in Tampa Bay that really put this group over the top. I’m told that why Major League Baseball wanted him. One of the other key members is Fred Ridley, who is the the chairman of Augusta National, runs the Masters from a political standpoint, someone that obviously all the baseball owners want to get to know because everybody wants to play Augusta. So that’s probably a bigger part of it than anybody wants to admit. And then there’s also Dan Doyle, who tried to purchase the team a couple years ago and actually almost had the team. He’s a big part of the investor. He’s owns Dex imaging, which is a big partner for the rays and has been for a long time, long time Tampa Bay businessman. And there’ll be others that are going to be announced now. As you know, the the former anchor investor in Orlando, Doctor Workman, is now one of the primary investors in this group in Tampa Bay and will bring a lot more seed money to the stadium effort and to payroll efforts. And and that’s one of the big things. Stu Sternberg never really had the money or had the desire to spend money on payroll, to spend money on a stadium. This group is going to do both, as most baseball ownership groups would do. Sternberg was. It was hard to work with all the politicians now here on the Tampa side, and the Saint Pete side have said, I’m not going to work with them. We don’t trust them. And that’s one of the main reasons that Major League Baseball moved in and kind of highly coerced the sale. If you want to use the word forced, I think that’s fine. But Major League Baseball came in and basically, in my opinion, based on a lot of my conversations I’ve had with the key people involved in this, basically took took control of the situation and made sure this is the group that’s going to buy the team because they feel they’re politically connected enough, have enough resources to get the job done to build a stadium on the Tampa side, you mentioned some of the the criticisms of the Sternberg ownership with this new ownership group taking over, do you think fans are going to to see some some differences with how things are, are run? 100%, 100%? I’ve been told by representatives of the group that they hope to get this payroll more towards the average payroll. It’s been hovered around 70, 80 million, which is in the bottom three four of the league every single year. Despite the fact that the that the rays make well over $300 million in revenues because of revenue sharing, because of central fund money that all baseball teams get and the previous ownership would put it into their pockets instead of putting it back into the team. This ownership group is going to put that money into the team, into payroll, into a stadium, the way it should be done, quite frankly. And Sternberg was never able to do that, never wanted to do that. So yeah, I think it’s going to be you’re going to be able to retain players like Junior Caminero, who’s a tremendous young player, what 44 home runs this year. Instead of trading these players when they get to free agency, this group wants to keep those players around and not churn the roster constantly, which has been something that the fans hated. They would, you know, they’d buy a jersey, get attached to Randy Arozarena sitting randyland, and then the next minute he’s traded. You know, Evan Longoria signs a long term contract and next year he’s traded David Price, all of these stars, once they got the free agency, would be traded because the Sternberg group didn’t want to pay them. So now the hope is that this group will spend more money on payroll, get more towards the average, which is about $150 million per team. The rays have been at half of that. So get closer to the average and be able to keep these teams, and maybe even bring some big name stars that grew up in Tampa, like Kyle Tucker and Pete Alonso back home at some point when they get a new stadium. Let’s talk about the stadium for a minute. Now that that this sale is done, do you think things will will kind of pick up when it comes to to movement on that? Yes, yes. And Ken Hagen is the county commissioner and the chair. He’s been working for probably a decade now to get the rays over here. As long time friend of mine, he’s come a friend of our show. I’ve spoken with him many times, had him on my show, and he’s a supremely confident. And those are the words he used on my show that they can get a deal done in Tampa because this group is is well funded and they’re they want to partner with the community, which is something Sternberg never wanted to do. He didn’t want to put any in a lot of his own money, and that’s why they could never get a deal done. This group is more amenable to that. They’ve set up to 60% that they’re looking to to possibly pay for the stadium themselves. They’re not looking for all this free handout money from from the public, like the Saint Pete deal was. They’re they’re they’re looking for a public private partnership where they can develop around the stadium, put in a entertainment district and develop it, make money on the development side while they use the baseball team as an anchor to bring people in. That’s kind of the template that the Braves used. And all these other teams in all other sports are using to fund stadiums. It’s a great model. It’s kind of a user fee model. Instead of having property taxes, go to these, you know, as welfare to these billionaires. It’s more of a pay as you go. People come into the special taxing district that they create every burger, every beer, everything that they buy, their portion of that. There’s a little line at the bottom if you go to Atlanta’s battery, and that’s the portion that pays for the public part of the stadium. It’s been a great model. I think it’s a very fair model in terms of what the taxpayers pay, and I think it benefits everybody. I think it’s a win win. And that’s what the that’s what Ken Hagen is looking to do. This is what the county commission is looking to do. So I think it’s going to be I think it’s going to be a lot easier than people think. Quite frankly. There’s always been these false narratives that Hillsborough County doesn’t have any money. That’s false. They’ve doubled their bed tax in the last 5 to 6 years. The Sits tax was just passed recently, which they can use for infrastructure for stadiums. There’s certain developers here that have been looking for baseball to put on their particular plot in Ybor City. So there’s a lot of things that are going to come together, I believe quickly because this group has already been working on it. They haven’t been just sitting on the sidelines waiting. They’ve been meeting with the mayor, meeting with people, meeting with developers. So when they finally take over at the end of next week, they’re going to hit the ground running. A lot of this for the framework for this stadium work has already been done. Now there’s going to be a political process. There’s no question about that. They have to come up with a with a very agreeable plan for the taxpayers. And I think they’re going to get the job done. You never know with politics. But I think with I think everything is in place to finally get this done on the Tampa side, where always should have been, frankly. Well, and the local leaders may be excited just to not have to to negotiate with Stu Sternberg. I mean, in all in all fairness, I mean, no, no, it’s true. Listen, I’ve spoken and interviewed privately and publicly with a lot of these people that have dealt with Stu Sternberg and, you know, and they all come back with the same things privately that many of them have said publicly right now, you can’t trust them. They’re constantly moving the goalposts. He doesn’t want to partner. He doesn’t want to put in his own money, constantly trying to get more money from the public. And, you know, at some point you just say, we can’t do that. We’re not going to do that. And I think that’s been responsible, at least on the Hillsborough side, that they have not just given them an open check, which he’s basically asked for multiple times now. Saint Pete almost did that. Well, actually did do that. And he still couldn’t get the job done. So this is why Major League Baseball stepped in to get an ownership group in here that can get it done, and I think they will. That seems like exciting times ahead, JP yeah, listen, you know, if you’ve grown up in Tampa, you’ve played baseball all your life. It’s part of the fabric of this community. When I hear people say, oh, it’s not a baseball market. It’s just it’s ridiculous. Honestly, so many people love the game. So many great players come out of here. I mean, they Major League Baseball is just littered with Tampa Bay talent and we love baseball here. We just don’t love greedy owners and we don’t love, you know, constantly driving an hour and a half over a bridge to the edge of the market to go to a an outdated stadium. So get a state of the art stadium centrally located with owners

Yesterday, Major League Baseball owners unanimously approved the new Rays ownership group led by Jacksonville-based developer Patrick Zalupski, which includes several notable Florida businessmen and former Orlando Dreamers anchor investor Dr. Rick Workman of Heartland Dental. JP Peterson, Host of The JP Peterson show joins FOX 35’s Garrett Wymer to break down his reporting of the new ownership group, current Rays owner Stu Sternberg’s legacy in Tampa Bay and what fans should be excited for with the new owners and a potential new stadium deal.