At least two investment groups with Tampa-area ties have expressed interest in purchasing the Tampa Bay Rays and keeping them in the region while Major League Baseball pressures owner Stuart Sternberg to sell, according to published reports.
Joe Molloy, a Tampa native and former managing partner of the New York Yankees, told the Tampa Bay Times on Sunday that he is leading one of the groups. The Athletic reported one of the investors is Eddie DeBartolo Jr., a businessman with longtime Tampa ties and former owner of NFL’s San Francisco 49ers.
On Monday, Tampa lawyer Carter McCain told the Times and the "JP Peterson Show" podcast that he represents another set of Rays suitors who hope to build a stadium as part of an entertainment complex with private money.
The Athletic also reported that Dan Doyle Jr., who owns Clearwater’s DXL Imaging, is part of an investment group but did not offer any specifics. Doyle was the lead investor for a group that tried to buy the Rays in 2023 for $1.85 billion.
Adding to the mix: The Athletic reported that baseball commissioner Rob Manfred and other MLB owners are trying to convince Sternberg to sell and threatening to take away some of the Rays’ revenue-sharing income to force a move.
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At this point, there have been no known offers presented to Sternberg.
The public acknowledgement of potential suitors comes ahead of a March 31 deadline for the Rays to commit with the city of St. Petersburg on a planned $1.3 billion stadium with Pinellas County to replace Tropicana Field. The venue, built as part of $6.5 billion redevelopment project, likely would open in 2029 at the earliest.
Muddling that stadium plan: Hurricane Milton ripped the roof off the stadium on Oct. 9, leaving it damaged and unusable for at least 2025.
The Rays are playing this season in Tampa at Steinbrenner Field, the New York Yankees’ spring training facility, while St. Petersburg determines what needs to be done to make the Trop baseball-ready.
The Rays have waffled on whether to accept the new stadium deal, citing cost overruns they would be responsible for because of delays after the hurricane. Sternberg has blamed the county commission for the delays.
Malloy told the Times his group was prepared to pick up on the St. Petersburg stadium plan, if still available.
“We have assembled an incredible team that shares our vision,” Molloy told the Times.
McCain told the Times his group planned to build the stadium and entertainment complex with private money. He told Peterson they have the "capability and expertise to execute."
"The days of cities, counties and states giving billions of dollars to billionaires are over," McCain told Peterson. "So this is going to have to be an economic plan that will work on a stand-alone basis. I think the days of getting into the sports business by just buying a team are over."
McCain declined to name any of the suitors with his group but said most are from another market with a background in the hospitality industry. One, he said, was involved in baseball and "well-respected" in the commissioner's office.
He added they "love Tampa Bay" and had no thoughts of relocating the team.
Sternberg has given no indication he is interested in selling the team, but that may not matter.
The Athletic reported that this year’s end of the collective bargaining agreement between MLB and its player union could lead to negotiations on “ways to lessen the team’s share in revenue sharing or put contingencies around it.”
MLB’s revenue sharing distributes money from wealthier teams to poorer teams to make the league more competitive. Each team contributes a percentage of local revenue to a pool, which is equally split among all 30 teams.
They Rays historically struggle financially - with Tropicana Field among the worst-attended venues - despite making the playoffs five of the past six years, including a World Series appearance.
In 2024, Tampa Bay home attendance was 1.34 million, down 1.44 million from 2023. Playing this season in 11,000-seat Steinbrenner Field won’t improve that figure.
Large-market clubs that pay the most into revenue sharing are not happy keeping the Rays afloat, and at least some of the small-market teams are annoyed, The Athletic reported.
Tampa Bay is considered a small market, and the Rays have been valued at $1.23 billion by Forbes. Sternberg’s group paid $200 million for the franchise in 2004.
Molloy was a Yankees senior executive for 11 years and served as managing general partner from 1992 to 1995. Among his Yankee credits is the planning and building of Steinbrenner Field with local government partnerships. Molloy is currently chair and CEO of Tampa-based JAM Sports Ventures, a sports franchise consultant firm.
DeBartolo Jr., a Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee, ran the 49ers over a 23-year span in which they won five Super Bowls. He was suspended by the NFL for a year and in 2000 stepped down after his indictment for failing to report a 1998 extortion attempt by former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards. He pleaded guilty, was fined and sentenced to two years of probation, then pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2020.
Doyle, an inductee in the Tampa Bay Business Hall of Fame, started DEX Imaging in 2002 with his father, the founder of Danka Business Systems. They sold DEX to Staples in 2019 before buying it back with Gamut Capital Management in 2024.
