John Romano: Getting a stadium built is the only way to judge a new Rays owner

John Romano, Tampa Bay Times on Oct 1, 2025

Published in Baseball

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TAMPA, Fla. — The honeymoon starts now. With any luck, it will last through brunch.

By then, the Rays’ incoming ownership group will have been reminded that Tampa Bay needs a baseball stadium. That the payroll needs a boost. That Junior Caminero needs a pen, a notary and a contract extension that would make an accountant blush.

These are exciting times for Rays owners and fans, but they are girded with urgency. Every possible hope and dream is dependent on a new ballpark that has been on the agenda for nearly 20 years.

Everything else is an accessory. New players, new ticket plans, new marketing schemes. All important, except if there is no stadium under construction a year from now. Because then the conversation will have changed dramatically, particularly with the use agreement at Tropicana Field coming to an end 36 months from now.

Here’s another way of looking at it:

We have not yet had the perfect baseball owner, but Tampa Bay has been blessed to have the owner we needed at the moment.

Vince Naimoli? He was brusque and had no clue how to build relationships with fans or business leaders, but he was the bare-knuckle type who bullied Major League Baseball into expanding to Tampa Bay by threatening a lawsuit over the failed bid to buy the San Francisco Giants.

Stuart Sternberg? He was limited financially and demanding in negotiations but — in the words of baseball operations president Erik Neander on Tuesday — he “legitimized” a lost franchise and provided more winning teams than a low-revenue market had the right to expect.

Which brings us to today with Patrick Zalupski and his partners.

We have their bios and we’ve heard glowing recommendations, but we really don’t know what’s in their hearts. And, after spending roughly $1.7 billion to buy the team, how much money will they have leftover to increase the payroll, let alone build a stadium?

The hope, of course, is that a plan is in place and the wheels are already turning. The Zalupski group’s interest existed even before the Rays were up for sale and, presumably, they understood that a stadium was a necessary part of the equation.

If you’ve been here long enough, you’ve heard about stadium ideas for the Al Lang Field site, Carillon, Albert Whitted, the Historic Gas Plant district, Ybor City, the Fairgrounds, Channelside, Riverwalk and heaven knows where else. The point is, plans repeatedly have fallen apart.

With that in mind, there are several reasons for optimism within the Zalupski group.

No. 1, Zalupski amassed his fortune as a home builder in Jacksonville so you might surmise he understands the ins and outs of developing land for maximum potential. It’s possible the costs of a stadium could be offset by the surrounding development, much in the same way the Tropicana Field concept was conceived. Special taxing districts could provide the public financing component, which is more palatable than a simple handout.

No. 2, Zalupski appears to have a relationship with Gov. Ron DeSantis, and former Speaker of the House Will Weatherford is part of his ownership group. DeSantis has been adamant that state funds will not be used for stadium construction, but it wouldn’t be shocking if there was wiggle room for land or infrastructure costs. And you could assume Weatherford could grease the wheels with the state Legislature.

No. 3, incoming CEO Ken Babby has successfully built relationships with politicians and community leaders in Akron and Jacksonville and got major stadium renovations accomplished as an owner of minor-league teams in both cities.

The plan is to pursue a stadium in Hillsborough County, although we do not yet know their preferred site. The idea that Ybor City landowner Darryl Shaw was not identified Tuesday as part of the Zalupski group makes me skeptical that the historic area is a destination. If the bulk of development revenues around an Ybor City ballpark end up in Shaw’s pocket, it’s less likely to go toward funding a stadium.

The Fairgrounds — and a potential partnership with the Seminole Hard Rock Casino — might get a more serious look than in the past, and the Hillsborough Community College site across the street from Raymond James Stadium could be another possibility.

For now, it’s mostly conjecture. The kind of wishful thinking that we’ve embraced at times and ultimately came to regret.

Within a year or two of the Rays beginning play in 1998, the bloom was already off the rose for Naimoli in Tampa Bay. The Sternberg era got off to a much better start and 18 years of mostly winning baseball kept him in good graces, but stadium failures eventually forced his hand.

So now we’re left wondering if Zalupski is the owner we’ve been waiting on for nearly 30 years.

Obviously, it’s too soon to have that conversation considering he hasn’t even taken his opening bows.

But if this group pulls off a deal to build a stadium in the coming months, you could absolutely say they were the perfect owners for Tampa Bay today.

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