RAYS NEW OWNERSHIP INTRODUCTORY NEWS CONFERENCE

RAYS NEW OWNERSHIP INTRODUCTORY NEWS CONFERENCE

Each of them will have brief remarks and then we will take questions. We’ll bring around the microphone to the media. We ask that you ask one question and no follow-ups, but we’ll try to get around the room twice. Uh after we are finished, please remain seated. We will have a photo op and then we will immediately be on our way to St. Petersburg to meet with staff. So, uh we will set up any future one-on- ons after that. Patrick. Great. Thank you, Rozie. Good morning. Uh on behalf of myself, Ken Babby, Bill Cosgrove, thank you all for being here. Today is an incredibly exciting day for us personally, for our families, for our partners, and I hope for the entire Tampa Bay community. We are honored and feel privileged to be the new owners of the Tampa Bay Rays. This moment is not just about ownership, it’s about stewardship. We recognize the deep responsibility we now carry to deliver a championship caliber team on the field and a worldclass experience for our fans. That’s a commitment we make with humility, with pride, and with great anticipation. I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to Commissioner Rob Manfred and to the other team owners for their support and encouragement throughout this journey. And I especially want to thank Stu Sternberg for building a franchise that is known for its innovation and success and for trusting our group to carry that legacy forward. Stu, your leadership has laid a foundation that we are proud to build upon. I’m also deep deeply grateful that so many of our partners are here with us today to celebrate. This is a shared moment with so many great people who participate in this process to get us here today. I’m especially excited to announce that Ken Babby will be leading the day-to-day business operations as as the CEO of the team. Ken brings a passion for excellence and a deep respect for the culture that already exists within this organization. I’m also looking forward to working with baseball president of baseball operations Eric Neander and manager Kevin Cash who will continue to build a championship culture. Be assured that we plan to do a lot of listening and a lot of brainstorming. We want to be methodical and we will have purpose and vision in all we do, but it’s also essential we move with a sense of urgency. It’s no secret that we need a new forever home to secure the Ray’s long-term future in Tampa Bay, and delivering upon that objective will be our first priority. Our goal is to have a worldclass ballpark ready for opening day 2029. We acknowledge this is aggressive and perhaps audacious, but time is of the essence. The ballpark will anchor a best-in-class mixeduse development of likely at least 100 acres containing hotels, office, retail, restaurants, bars, music venue. This list I am sorry. I’m I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. First time. First time here. I’m so sorry. Excuse me, Paula. Would you take this and shut it off for me, please? I’m so sorry. Well, I I think we broke the ice, Patrick. So, I’m so sorry. It said, “Don’t mess with Bill.” Did you Did you catch that? Yeah. Okay. I’m sorry. No worries. It’s a song. It’s an old song, Patrick. The ballpark will anchor a best-in-class mixed-use development of likely at least 100 acres containing hotels, office, retail, restaurants, bars, music venue. Uh this list of criteria is effectively everything we believe to be essential to delivering a worldclass live, work, play experience. We are also determined and pledged to you to build a championship caliber team and believe we believe this development will generate the revenue needed for long-term sustainable success. This in turn will create jobs for our community, supporting economic growth and opportunity in this region for generations to come. To be clear, it is our first and highest priority to find that home here in Tampa Bay. We understand the history and how important it is to get it right for the fans, our employees, the entire Tampa Bay region, and Major League Baseball. We’re confident that working together, we’ll find the right path forward. Thank you. So, be thanks Rozie. Before I start my comments, Ken, would you please make sure your phone is shut off? I I apologize for that. Uh good morning everybody. Uh my name is Bill Cosgrove. We are on behalf of my family. We are really excited and honored to be part of the Tampa Bay Rays. You know, I I’ve had my entire life uh a love of the game of baseball. And um you know, sitting here, you never really expect to get here. So, you have to mention your hometown. And mine is Bedford, Ohio. and um you know the Sandlots of Bedford and all my friends have been calling me and it’s really really exciting. Um my career you know Cassie this you know my career peaked at the age of 14 when a kid named Frankie threw me a curveball of which I’d never seen before. Uh and and after that it it was kind of all over. Uh but my passion for the game uh has remained uh ever since. Also, as a family, our passion for Tampa Bay, uh our love affair has grown. 15 years ago, we uh built a house about an hour south of here on the Gulf Coast. And um we we just love the region. Union Home Mortgage, our company, uh has a relationship with the Tampa Tampa Bay Sports Authority and um the Union Home Mortgage Gas Barilla Bowl uh that we’ve been part of for the last five or six years. uh feeding Tampa Bay as well, that group. So, so we’ve really um uh just, you know, given our heart to the area and especially now with the Tampa Bay Rays, we’re looking forward to to doing more of that. I I’ve got to say for a second be before I I turn it over to Ken. Um over the past months, uh I’ve gotten an opportunity to know many many people of the Tampa Bay Rays organization. you know, from Stu and Matt and Brian and Eric and and just meeting Kevin on down, Rossi, everybody, uh, Mel, the organization is wonderful, the culture is wonderful, the people are just world class, and, uh, we’re excited really to be a part of it. We understand that, you know, it’s all about winning, uh, you know, on the field, winning in the community. Uh, and that’s that’s what we intend to do. Thank you, Bill. Thank you, Patrick. Good morning. Today is the realization of a lifelong dream. Baseball has always been an integral part of my life since as far back as I can remember. My father served as general counsel, the Baltimore Orioles, and as a kid, I spent countless hours watching them build Camden Yards, watching, learning, and falling in love with the game. I was fortunate to have a front row seat to watch the way a ballpark in a development can change a community. In March every year, we’d come down to St. Petersburg and I even had the opportunity to serve as a bat boy for the Orioles at Alang Stadium where I had the chance to go back this past Saturday night and watch the Rowdies win 4 nothing, our first game in owning the team. It was fun to be back there. Baseball and sports and in general have a wonderful way of bringing community together. truly like nothing else. My journey as a team owner started in Akran where I had a chance to meet Bill and our ownership of the Akran Rubber Ducks and then on to AAA in Jacksonville where I met Patrick and our work began together. It’s really unbelievable being in this room today. It’s humbling and it’s deeply personal to me and my family and all of our families. So many people have helped us along this journey from the beginning. Our focus has always been to make baseball a fun and unforgettable experience. Accessible, affordable, creating lifelong memories for families, for friends, to take moments away from life’s busy paces. Baseball provides the perfect platform in life to do that. It’s exactly why we’re here. We will create a worldclass fan experience here in Tampa Bay for our fans. and we will do it one at a time in incredibly unique ways. On the field, as Patrick and Bill have both mentioned, we’re committed to continuing the great work that Eric and Kevin and the team are doing to be a championship culture on the field and we’re going to continue to support them and we can’t wait to work together to realize all of our dreams together and bring that championship back here to Tampa Bay. I look forward to supporting them and the organization. And the reality is the foundation of what Matt and Stu and Brian and the work that’s been done here for decades. The foundation is strong. We’re here to help add value where we can. The same is said on the business side of the organization. We plan to continue that same championship culture while we recognize we have incredible work ahead of us. We’ve brought together an incredible special local group of partners that we believe will help us continue to cement the right relationships to be successful. We will also seek input from public officials. Mayor Caster, Mayor Welsh, it’s an honor to have you with us today. We look forward to working with you to be successful here. We have other county officials in the room. I want to thank you for your continued commitment to our work. community leaders, corporate partners, a number of folks in the room that make this machine go. And you have our commitment that we’re going to do our best to do our part as well. Because at a core, baseball is more than just a baseball team that sells beer, hot dogs, and tickets. We’ll do those things, too. We will use the game of baseball to do good in the community, to make Tampa Bay a better place to work, live, and play. Tropicana Field is our current home and we can’t wait to get back there on April 6th next year. I want to thank the mayor and his team in St. Petersburg for the incredible work that’s going on behind the scenes to get Tropicana Field, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays, ready for baseball in 2026. At the end of this week, we’ll have 12 of our 24 panels on the roof. That’s worth a round. Everybody in the community has answered the call, and that’s not a reference to Bill’s phone. One at a time, each in unique ways to be able to deliver, and we’re deeply appreciative of your help. We look forward to building this reality together with our team and with our staff and with the community. We plan to do our part two at Tropicana Field. And as we get close to spring, we’ll be announcing a number of fan experience changes that you can look forward to, that the ownership group will be putting back into Tropicana Field. New video boards, new sound system, of course, the new roof that everybody’s looking forward to. We’re going to do our part to be able to stand up and celebrate coming home next spring. Finally, I’d just like to speak directly to the members of the Rays staff and family. from a business operations team to the baseball ops department, from the analytics to the ushers to everybody that goes to make this work. We’re making an enormous investment in buying the Tampa Bay Rays because we believe in you. It’s always about the people. We believe in the entrepreneurial resilient way this group has come together through so much over these last few years. We believe in your culture. We believe what the previous regime has created and we want to build to sustain it. Your resilience and strength is inspiring and together we’re going to work to build something even more incredible for Tampa Bay, capping it off with a World Series trophy. We can’t wait to be here and we can’t wait to get to work. I want to thank Patrick and Bill for the trust and the investment of what we’re building together and we’re ready to get going. Thank you. We’ll now open it up for questions. Please state your name and affiliation. Mark Topkin, Tampa Bay Times. Um, Patrick, given the the grand vision you just expressed for a stadium and a a full uh complement of other activities around it. Can you share where in the process are you and it would seem there’d be only a limited number of sites that could accommodate that? Have you identified them? And do they include both sides of the bay? We’re encompassing all of Tampa Bay. Um, we’re evaluating sites currently. Part of our, you know, part of our arrangement with Stu through the process was that we would not have any discussions with any public officials until we had officially closed on the team, which happened last Tuesday. So, we’re now full steam ahead on site evaluation, feasibility analysis. Uh there’s probably more sites that meet the criteria than you would realize. Uh we kind of early in the process did at least a high level analysis of what we thought would meet the criteria. And let me maybe talk a little bit about criteria as well because that’s I think a really important thing for us. And um it’s you know land is very critical. Uh we spent a lot of time studying, evaluating, uh meeting with the Atlanta Braves have been incredibly generous with their time and resources to let us look at the battery. We think the battery is the gold standard of what we want to we want to build and develop here in Tampa Bay. And you know that venue that that development really not only is an incredible experience for the fans, the community, the players. Uh but it’s it is what you have to have in today’s Major League Baseball to be successful. We think without that revenue generation, you it’s going to be really really challenging or nearly impossible to compete with the major markets. So for us, this is critical to building a championship team. you have to meet this criteria. Uh, you know, we think it’s likely, as I said, 100 plus acres. If you ask the Braves, they’ll tell you, you know, not what was the what was the one thing you do differently if you could, they say land, land, land, right? More land. Um, and they’re now over 100 acres. Um, so we think, you know, we’d love to be more is better, but it’s also balance of location, quality of location with amount of land. And there’s a point that that’ll intersect. So, it’s not just, well, oh, this is 500 acres, you know, 30 miles outside of Tampa. That’s not what we’re looking for. We want a great location and as much land as we can get. So, hopefully that answers your question. Ashley Kryer, Tampa Bay Business Journal. Patrick, if you were a betting man or if you had a goal, how quickly will we see a proposal for a stadium and this development you just referenced? We’re we’re we are just getting started. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us. Um we’re going to have meetings this week with uh you know with St. Pete with Tampa and really just getting our bearings right. So there’s no other than I think we know that we need a again we’ve got to achieve this criteria. We’ve got to deliver this worldass development to generate the revenue to produce a consistent championship caliber team. We don’t want to be one year great and five years bad and have to go all in and it’s not we want to build a sustainable championship team and I think the revenue generation that can come out of this development will will provide that. So timing we’re we’re we’re getting to work. I mean we’ve got a lot to do uh a lot to do. It’s going to be challenging but we’re confident that we can be successful uh here in Tampa Bay. Adam Barry Mo.com. You’ve talked about the sustainable championship culture as far as the team on the field. Do you guys expect to continue what’s been done as far as investing in player payroll or could you see potentially more than that going forward? Yeah, great question. Uh I mean the the economics of the club have not changed since we acquired them. And so uh again you’ll hear a common theme obviously we’ve got to we’ve got to create this development. We have to have the revenue. Um, it’s critical to our success. Um, you know, continue what we’ve done. These guys done an incredible job. I mean, blown away. The more I learn from Eric and Kevin, it’s just we have an incredible organization. Uh, we have a a self-imposed rule that none of us and none of the partners are allowed to talk to or have any influence on the baseball operations. Zero. Um, these guys are are exceptional. I think we have a I think we can provide a lot of help on the business side, sponsorship, you know, growing our community outreach, fan experience, and we’re excited to get to work on that. Ryan Bass, FanDuel Sports Network. Patrick, Bill, nice to meet you guys again. Good to see you. Can I have a quick question for you? Just you mentioned fan experience. Uh, I don’t know how big a part that is of kind of your aura and joining this organization um from this ownership group. What have you noticed since you’ve been here? I know you’ve been here a couple weeks taking some notes, you know, observing and then what do you hope to put your stamp on in terms of the fan experience back at Tropicana Field Field and for Rays baseball? Yeah, thanks Ryan. I I think right now, you know, we’re just taking it all in and digesting and I think having uh the roadmap to getting back to Tropicana Field in April is our our goal. We’re spending a lot of time as a staff thinking about how we can get in there and make that expression. I I think Tropicana Field is going to look better than it has ever looked in April. The city behind the scenes is doing wonderful work. The team is doing work. We’re spending a lot of time together thinking about how we can enhance that experience because we are going to be there despite our our objective of being in a new ballpark in 29. We want to be competitive and we want to be successful on the field of course, but in continuing to invest in our fans and the experience from food options, accessibility, pricing, talked about some of the amenities and we’ll talk closer to the start of the season about some of those new initiatives, but um yeah, I think right now there I think at this point we’re taking it all in. There’s certainly um conversations to be had, but my favorite part of this has just been being able to talk with with fans over the course of the last few weeks and we’ll do more of that through the winter and into the spring. You know, we work in a business where you get a chance to ask your customer every day what we could be doing better and that’s exactly what we intend to do and that’ll be important in developing our fan plan of getting back to the tr and and also thinking about next year as well. Yeah, thanks Ryan. Hi Evan Axelbank from Fox 13. Good to meet you. After weeks of talking about you and writing about you, um uh first thing I just want to ask is um do you um you just mentioned that the economics of the club have not changed. Do you envision being able to pay for the ballpark yourselves or will you be asking for a public subsidy and how much will that subsidy be in relation to the previous subsidies that were asked for? Uh great great question and uh look these are high-profile small community businesses and so you know I think it’s critical to have a public private partnership. Uh we don’t know again we just closing the team Tuesday. We’re excited about that. We’re excited to be here today and answer these questions but we’ve got a lot of work to do. So how that looks the structure is it upfront? Is it over? There’s so many nuances to how a deal could come together, but we’re confident that Tampa Bay wants to see us be successful. We want to be successful. I think everybody wants to deliver a championship team and so this is going to be critical to doing that and we look forward to working with Tampa Bay to get that done. I know you said that uh the stadium location you would encompass all of Tampa Bay. Your search for it previous ownership group has tried numerous times to get into Hillsboro County, Tampa because it’s the population center as they saw it. Would that be where you start your search? I mean, would that be the most preferable location on this side of the bridge? We’re we’re looking at everywhere. I mean, honestly, it’s it’s a great region. We want to we just don’t want to pigeon hole ourselves into one location or one site. Uh we really want to evaluate everything, be methodical, be disciplined, uh complete our feasibility. We’ll generate proformas and and really try to determine which site is going to meet the criteria we’ve laid out the best and deliver the revenue and the experience we’re looking for to create that championship team. So much of the the public private partnership has to be a win for the community and for the team and we’ll come forward doing our part but we need the partnership of the community to be able to make this work and that ultimately will be a a public private partnership that’s going to add jobs deliver value we think find really unique ways of being able to make Tampa Bay a better place to work live and play and create something frankly that isn’t here today. Hi, Lewis Slovia with the Business Observer. Uh, kind of piggy backing piggybacking on those last couple of questions. The previous ownership group has tried this and unfortunately it never worked out. What is what are you doing differently that will make it work this time and what is your plan B if it doesn’t work out? Focus on plan A right now. Yeah. Yeah. Plan A is to figure it out here in Tampa Bay. And again, we’re confident. We’re confident that that we’re going to get that done. We know it’s going to be challenging, but to Ken’s point, uh, you know, it’s it’s our job as well to to lay out the vision and have the community buy into that. We can’t just come in and say, “Well, hey, that’s right. You have to give us this.” It’s it’s a partnership. That’s right. And so, we’ve got to work together. We’ve got to provide economic reports and studies and work together with with the counties, with the municipalities, the cities to come up with the best cohesive development we can we can generate together. So, we’re looking forward to to tackling that head on. Can you say anything to that? Perfect. Okay, great. Jeff Patterson with WFLA TV. And I’ve I’ve heard what you said about not wanting to pigeon hole yourself into one location over the other, but I also just heard you say we’re looking at everywhere. So, everybody wants to know what side of the bay you’ll land on, but does that include also when you say everywhere in the region, does that include Jacksonville or Ohio or Orlando? So, where are you looking? Uh, you know, I’m trying to narrow it down a little bit. Well, I can answer Ohio’s a no. I wasn’t gonna say that. I don’t want to pick I didn’t want to put down Ohio. I’ve got that covered. Yeah. But, uh, look, it’s it’s our first and highest priority to be successful right here in Tampa Bay. I think that is the clearest answer. And also to the prior question, we’re very aware and in touch with the fatigue around this issue over the last 21 years. You know, we certainly haven’t lived it firsthand, but being alongside the staff, understanding and listening. So much of this is about listening and asking questions. We know that fatigue is real, and you know, we know that we have a lot of work to do ahead of us and and that work begins today. Don Strub, Round Table Sports. You guys are obviously tasked with a era of uncertainty and quite the work ahead to secure all of your future plans, but through more of a short-term lens, how excited are you about the progress of Tropicana Field and getting this team established back in its home after an unprecedented season? Yeah, I mean, you know, as I said, it’s been a little bit of my home away from home. You know, we haven’t been able to have official meetings with public officials, as Patrick mentioned, ahead of the the the the closing of the transaction. What I have been able to do is spend a good amount of time at Tropicana Field and seeing the work that the city’s been able to do and our partners at AECOM is doing and the staff to be able to get this ready. I mean, when I say they’ve answered the call, they have answered the call in a meaningful way uh unanimously to step up to be able to get baseball ready so that we can open up here in April uh against the Chicago Cubs. And I think that work is is is really quite heroic. And when you look, of course, of what the region has been through with not one but two storms to get the roof back on, to get the building open. We think it’s going to look great in the spring. And obviously, we’re looking at both the short-term goals of getting back, but also finding our forever home. For sure. We’ve got to be a little ambidextrous about the way that we operate. And I think, you know, being focused, of course, on the long term while also keeping keeping our eye on the ball in front of us is is is the task at hand and we’re we’re up for the challenge. Hi, Colleen Wright with the Tampa Bay Times. Uh, you mentioned that your goal is to have a world-class ballpark ready for 2029 and it would anchor, you know, best-in-class mixeduse development. That sounds very similar to what the previous owners had in line and it was already approved by St. Petersburg and Penllis. Would you revisit those plans or uh given that time is of the essence does that make Tropicana field a more attractive option? Uh great great question. We think I’ll take the second one maybe Tropicana Field. I think in the short term that’s a great we’re we’re really excited to get back there. As Ken said, we need to be back there. We need to be in a major league ballpark. Uh I think the team wants to be there. The fans want to be there. Uh long term we we’re looking for our forever home and that is in the Tampa Bay region. We believe um it’ll be it we need a new we need a new ballpark. I think that’s been I think I don’t think that’s disputed by anybody on either side of the bay. Uh a new ballpark is critical to delivering what we want to accomplish over the long term. Anything to look perfect Scott Smith Fox 13. Uh congratulations gentlemen. Uh so two-parter the extension of a lease at the trop is that a discussion that’s been had yet and to follow up you guys mentioned the high level kind of evaluation process. Did that did the results of that precede or was it contingent upon your your offer in a sense? Did you did you pursue those you know options side options prior to making the offer for the purchase? I think I think it’s premature to talk about the extension on Tropicana Field. As we said, we’re just eager to get right back in there in the spring and and put everything we can. Both, by the way, the public money going in, but the team making the commitment as well to show how committed that we are uh to returning to our home. Uh and I think that that’s that’s where our focus is. Hello, uh Veronica Brazino with St. Pete Rising. uh quick question and again congrats to to all of you on on the purchase and welcome to Tampa Bay again. Um but I want to ask what are your thoughts on the current uh proposal submitted by Arc Invest and their partners as well? Yeah, I think we you know we we’re digesting it. I think like everybody else is we’re uh familiar with the folks who have put that together. Obviously we are um you know I would say uh energized and encouraged by any development that’s happening in the region. we we look across, you know, all the entire region and are encouraged just by how much growth as you go through and see cranes and development. Uh it’s very inspiring. And so we’ll we’ll have a chance to sit down and understand that proposal and and obviously work alongside our partners at the city and understand what that what that means. But I think right now we’re we’re still in the process of digesting it. Yep. Good morning, gentlemen. Congratulations. Uh Tom Kraniki from WDA radio, the radio home of the Rays. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks. You’re welcome. So, have you gone about the process from a baseball standpoint and identifying the roster and maybe key pieces, core pieces that you’d like to maybe commit to for the long-term future? I’ll take that one. I just want to reiterate, yeah, these guys are prohibited myself. The short answer. Exactly. Yeah, Eric just had his press conference last week and we uh we support everything he said at the press conference. It speaks for itself. And and Eric and Kevin we trust. Yes. Yes. Hi guys. Congratulations. Rock Riley, Tampa Free Press, WDAE. I know you said that um Atlanta is like the crown jewel. That’s an open air stadium. It’s a little more humid down here. Is there any possibility of a retractable roof with the new stadium that you’re going to have built? Great. Yeah. No, great point on on Atlanta Trouest Park is open air. Uh we envision a fully enclosed domed climate controlled non- retractable ballpark. Um we think this there’s a lot of issues and maintenance with retractable roof. Most of the owners we’ve talked to would actually now recommend against it. They wish they hadn’t done it. So, but we envision a fully enclosed um which we think becomes a world-class concert venue um you know 150 180 events a year. Um we really think this is something that could be much much greater and more encompassing than just a ballpark. One more question. Well, Ken Patrick, we heard a lot from you, Bill. I want to hear from you for a second. I know you mentioned a lot of your experiences here in Tampa Bay, especially with the Gasperilla Bowl, right? Um, how has that experience been? What have you kind of noticed about the community here and and what were your your role be with this ownership group? Yeah, I appreciate that. So, it, you know, it’s it’s been wonderful. We, you know, Tampa reminds me of of kind of a Midwestern town where I’m from. you know, the people are warm, wonderful, very prideful of the area of Tampa Bay. And so it, you know, for for our family, it’s it’s always felt like home. Um, I think that for my role in this organization for the most part, this is the way I look at it. I think it’ll evolve. Ken has his, you know, he’s a CEO. He’s running day-to-day running the business operation. everything revolves around him. Patrick uh you know being the control person speaks for itself. I think I’m here to be another set of ears and eyes for both of them. Uh interact with them, help them out. Um you know we us three uh we really have a great open discussion. We’re a team. It’s not really individuals. We’re a team. I think my um I’m looking forward to the impact within the organization. As I said earlier, it it’s a it I have been in awe of the people and the quality of the people uh and their commitment to Tampa Bay and winning. So, I’m I’m looking forward to building those relationships deeper and really adding value anywhere I can. I think it’ll evolve over time. Thank you all. I know this was short, but thank you so much for attending. We’re going to do the photo op and then get over to our staff. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Hey Rozie, is there any way to cut out my phone ringing? Oh lord.

Tampa Bay Rays Managing Partner and Co-Chair Patrick Zalupski, Co-Chair Bill Cosgrove and Chief Executive Officer Ken Babby will address the media.
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