{"id":185373,"date":"2025-07-18T12:27:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T12:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/185373\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T12:27:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T12:27:00","slug":"tampa-bay-rays-valued-at-1-7-billion-in-reported-sale-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/185373\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Rays valued at $1.7 billion in reported sale agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An agreement in principle has been reached for <a ref=\"dofollow\" data-ga-onclick=\"Inarticle articleshow link click#News#href\" href=\"https:\/\/m.economictimes.com\/topic\/major-league-baseball\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Major League Baseball<\/a>\u2019s <a ref=\"dofollow\" data-ga-onclick=\"Inarticle articleshow link click#News#href\" href=\"https:\/\/m.economictimes.com\/topic\/tampa-bay-rays\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> to be sold to real estate developer <a ref=\"dofollow\" data-ga-onclick=\"Inarticle articleshow link click#News#href\" href=\"https:\/\/m.economictimes.com\/topic\/patrick-zalupski\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Patrick Zalupski<\/a> for approximately $1.7 billion, according to The Athletic. The deal, expected to be finalized by September &#8211; potentially before the end of the current MLB season &#8211; would keep the franchise in the Tampa Bay region.<\/p>\n<p>The Rays, currently 50-47 and battling for a wildcard spot in the American League, have made two World Series appearances, losing to the Phillies in 2008 and the Dodgers in 2020. <\/p>\n<p>Despite their on-field competitiveness, the team has consistently ranked among the least valuable MLB franchises. Forbes valued the Rays at $1.25 billion in March 2025, second-lowest among MLB&#8217;s 30 teams.<br \/>Current owner <a ref=\"dofollow\" data-ga-onclick=\"Inarticle articleshow link click#News#href\" href=\"https:\/\/m.economictimes.com\/topic\/stu-sternberg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Stu Sternberg<\/a>, who bought the franchise in 2004 for $200 million, revealed last month that the club had entered exclusive negotiations with Zalupski, a Jacksonville-based real estate executive. That dialogue now appears to have culminated in a deal.<\/p>\n<p>One major question surrounding the team has been its stadium situation. The Rays recently withdrew from an agreement with St. Petersburg officials to construct a new stadium, casting uncertainty over their long-term home. Complicating matters, Tropicana Field &#8211; where the Rays have played since their 1998 debut &#8211; suffered roof damage from <a ref=\"dofollow\" data-ga-onclick=\"Inarticle articleshow link click#News#href\" href=\"https:\/\/m.economictimes.com\/topic\/hurricane-milton\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Hurricane Milton<\/a> in October 2024.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"ET logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/118783427.cms.png\" width=\"90%\"\/>Live Events<br \/>With repairs ongoing, the team is set to play its 2025 home games at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, typically used by the <a ref=\"dofollow\" data-ga-onclick=\"Inarticle articleshow link click#News#href\" href=\"https:\/\/m.economictimes.com\/topic\/new-york-yankees\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">New York Yankees<\/a> for spring training. The Rays aim to return to Tropicana Field in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An agreement in principle has been reached for Major League Baseball\u2019s Tampa Bay Rays to be sold to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,16181,19,4,34148,62,24877,297,34149,26275,2550,68,2551,2549],"class_list":{"0":"post-185373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-rays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-hurricane-milton","10":"tag-major-league-baseball","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-mlb-franchise-valuation","13":"tag-new-york-yankees","14":"tag-patrick-zalupski","15":"tag-rays","16":"tag-st-petersburg-stadium","17":"tag-stu-sternberg","18":"tag-tampa-bay","19":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","20":"tag-tampabay","21":"tag-tampabayrays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114874236737023778","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}