Patrick Zalupski has been running the Tampa Bay Rays since September 30, 2025, when his investment group bought the club from Stuart Sternberg. At 45, he’s the youngest owner in the AL East — and the first new owner in nearly two decades to inherit a team playing at Tropicana Field, which reopened in 2026 after Hurricane Milton tore its roof off.
Ownership at a Glance
- Principal owner: Patrick O. Zalupski
- Ownership group: Investment group led by Patrick Zalupski
- Took control: 2025
- Reported purchase price: $1.7 billion
- Most recent franchise valuation: $1.7 billion
- Owner’s estimated net worth: $1.1 billion
Worth noting: The $1.7 billion figure comes from ESPN, Sportico, and the Tampa Bay Times. Neither MLB nor the club officially confirmed the number.
Who Is Patrick Zalupski?
Zalupski was born in the Detroit suburbs in 1980 and grew up in Belgium, where his father worked for General Motors. He studied finance at Stetson University, did auditing work at FedEx, and moved to Jacksonville at 24. In 2004 he started flipping houses. In 2008 — the exact year the U.S. housing bubble burst — he co-founded Dream Finders Homes. That contrarian bet paid off: the company went from 27 homes in 2009 to 6,878 in 2022, and went public on the NYSE in January 2021.
Forbes pegged his net worth at $1.1 billion in March 2026. He lives in Jacksonville, is married with three kids, and has served on the University of Florida’s Board of Trustees since 2023.
How He Got the Team
Zalupski didn’t just walk up and buy the Rays — Sternberg was effectively pushed out. After Sternberg walked away from the new ballpark project in St. Petersburg’s Historic Gas Plant District in March 2025, Commissioner Rob Manfred and fellow owners pressured him to sell. It’s one of the clearest cases of an owner being shown the door by his peers in recent MLB history. Sternberg and his partners retained roughly 10% of the club.
The reported $1.7 billion sale price lines up exactly with the valuation Forbes assigned to the franchise in March 2026 — a figure that represented a 36% jump from 2025, the largest single-year increase of any MLB franchise that period.
Ownership History
- 1995: Vince Naimoli — $130 million (expansion franchise, Tampa Bay Devil Rays)
- 2004: Stuart Sternberg — bought majority stake; took full operational control in October 2005
- 2025: Patrick Zalupski’s group — reported $1.7 billion
What Else Comes With the Deal
Zalupski is founder, chairman, and CEO of Dream Finders Homes Inc. (NYSE: DFH), a homebuilder operating in eight southeastern states focused on first-time buyers. His partner Ken Babby serves as Rays CEO; Babby founded Fast Forward Sports Group and owns the Akron RubberDucks (Double-A) and Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Triple-A). Bill Cosgrove, co-president of the Rays, is CEO of Union Home Mortgage.
The purchase also included the Tampa Bay Rowdies, the USL Championship soccer club — meaning Zalupski picked up two professional franchises in one transaction.
Where to Watch Rays Games
In 2026 the Rays cut ties with Main Street Sports Group after the regional sports network stopped paying rights fees. Starting with the 2026 season, MLB produces and distributes all local Rays broadcasts through MLB Media. All 162 games are available via cable, satellite, and streaming — with a season package at $99.99 through Rays.TV and the MLB app, with no local blackouts. The Rays are one of six clubs that made this switch for 2026.
The Bigger Picture
Zalupski didn’t buy a winner. He bought a project. The Tropicana Field roof was shredded by Hurricane Milton in October 2024, forcing the Rays to play the entire 2025 season at George M. Steinbrenner Field — the Yankees‘ spring training facility, capacity 11,000 — before returning to a rebuilt Trop in April 2026. A big-league team spending a full season in their division rival’s backyard. That’s the situation he walked into.
In February 2026, the new ownership unveiled renderings for a proposed $2.3 billion stadium on Hillsborough Community College land on the Tampa side of the bay. The target: open by 2029, finally crossing the bay from St. Petersburg.
Where He Ranks Among All 30 Owners
- By franchise value: #24 of 30
- By purchase price paid: #5 of 27 (all-time, nominal dollars)
- By personal net worth: #21 of 21 (among owners with available data)
- By tenure: #29 of 30 (newest owner in the league)
Purchase prices are nominal and not adjusted for inflation.
Zalupski is the newest owner in MLB and the fifth-highest buyer by reported price in league history. He’s one year into a project that came with a wrecked stadium, a fractured fan base split between Tampa and St. Petersburg, and no shortage of off-field headaches. His bet is a shiny new ballpark across the bay by 2029. Whether that’s a vision or a pipe dream, the next few years will tell.
