Report: Major League Baseball wants Tampa Bay Rays sold

As a March 31 deadline approaches for the Tampa Bay Rays to meet critical deadlines in its deal to build a new stadium in St. Petersburg, The Athletic is reporting Major League Baseball wants the team’s current owner, Stuart Sternberg, to sell the team. 

In a story posted to its website Sunday night, the prominent sports publication owned by The New York Times says the league and other owners are frustrated with Sternberg, writing MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and the owners “appear out of patience.”

The report says MLB wants the team to stay in Florida, either in downtown St. Petersburg, where a deal for a $1.3 billion stadium is teetering, or Ybor City. Moving the team to Orlando is also a possibility.

According to Forbes, the team is worth $1.25 billion.

The Athletic names the family of Edward DeBartolo Jr. and Dex Imaging CEO Dan Doyle Jr. as potential suitors. Joe Molloy, a local businessman who is chairman and CEO of JAM Sports Ventures and formerly a minority owner of the New York Yankees, is also mentioned in the story.

Molloy told to the Tampa Bay Times Sunday he is leading a group of local investors interested in buying the team.

The Rays and the city of St. Petersburg did not respond to a request for comment Sunday evening.

Sternberg told The Athletic that “I’m interested to read about what our industry partners have told you about our franchise and its future.”

The DeBartolo family made its fortune, in part, as mall developers and owned the San Francisco 49rs football team during its heyday in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

DeBartolo Development is based in Tampa. Company President and COO Edward M. Kobel did not respond to an email Monday morning.

As for Doyle, he was previously mentioned as a potential buyer for the team in 2023. A spokesperson for Dex did not respond to a request for comment Monday morning.

Molloy also did not respond to a request for comment Monday morning.

MLB's frustration with the team stems from the issues surrounding the construction of the new ballpark, with The Athletic writing that “after 17 years of trying to find a new stadium, Sternberg appears to be on the clock to firm up a long-term plan, be it by selling or building.”

That the Rays ownership finds itself in this position is both a surprise and not at all unexpected.

For nearly two decades now, the organization has attempted to find a replacement for Tropicana Field, trying and failing to make deals in Tampa and St. Petersburg and even floating an idea to play half its game in Montreal.

Every one of the plans failed even as the team thrived on the field.

Those days appeared to be in the past on Sept. 18, 2023, when the Rays, Pinellas County and the city of St. Petersburg announced plans to build a new stadium and redevelopment the Historic Gas Plant District.

The deal called for the team to put up $600 million for the construction of the stadium and cover all the cost overruns. Pinellas County would provide $312.5 million in bonds tied to bed tax revenue and the city $280 million.

The motto that day, and for months to follow, was “Here to Stay.”

But as happened so often with the Rays, the deal began to fall apart.

It started after Hurricane Milton tore the roof off Tropicana Field eventually forcing the team to move its games to Tampa for at least one season and delaying the groundbreaking and opening day of the stadium.

In the meantime, the Pinellas County Commission, dealing with the aftereffects of Hurricanes Milton and Helene, twice delayed votes on its portion of the financing that would come from bonds tied to the tourism tax. (It approved the bonds Dec. 17.)

The team pounced, accusing the county of killing the deal and making it impossible for the Rays to move ahead with the agreement.

Just minutes after Pinellas voted to hold up its end of the bargain, the Rays issued a statement saying “the county’s delay has caused the ballpark's completion to slide into 2029.

“As a result, the cost of the project has increased significantly, and we cannot absorb this increase alone. When the county and city wish to engage, we remain ready to solve this funding gap together.”

The team has not relented publicly on that sentiment.

It has a March 31 deadline to show the Rays can pay for its portion of the project. If it fails to meet that deadline, the deal essentially be dead.

“It’s not a question of whether we have the funds. We do,” team president Matt Silverman told The Athletic.

“The question is whether it’s a good use of those funds to commit us and MLB to this ballpark for the next 30 years.”