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The new era for the long-struggling Rays is now underway, and incoming owner Patrick Zalupski wants his own version of The Battery.
Zalupski, along with co-chair Bill Cosgrove and CEO Ken Babby, held an introductory press conference Tuesday morning and said atop his to-do list is to build a domed ballpark and mixed-use development, at least 100 acres in size, akin to The Battery and Truist Park developed by the Braves.
The new Rays owner’s admiration for his Major League Baseball colleagues in Atlanta is so great that he called The Battery “the gold standard of what we want to build and develop here in Tampa Bay,” and that he’s met with Braves executives to learn about their experiences. Zalupski said he intends to have the new stadium open by 2029, which would require striking a site deal fairly soon.
“It’s no secret that we need a new forever home,” Zalupski said. “It is our first and highest priority to find that home, here in Tampa Bay.”
The session arrived two weeks after Major League Baseball owners approved the $1.7 billion sale from Stu Sternberg and his partners. Sternberg will remain a minority owner of the franchise for the immediate future. Zalupski’s interest in striking a stadium deal as soon as possible follows Sternberg’s previously abandoned plans to build a $1.3 billion ballpark in St. Petersburg, Fla., the team’s current home.
The new ownership group said they will be looking at stadium sites on both sides of Tampa Bay, but it’s expected the priority will be the east side, closer to the Buccaneers’ Raymond James Stadium and Lightning’s Benchmark International Arena. Any deal, wherever it happens, will likely require a public-private partnership, Zalupski said, but there have been no new stadium financing models finalized since the demise of the St. Petersburg agreement.
It’s hardly surprising that The Battery will be a prominent model of what the Rays want to do, as the Braves’ complex has served in the same role for many other sports teams. The Battery was also repeatedly cited by Philadelphia officials earlier this year after an arena deal was struck between Comcast Spectacor and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment.
The NHL’s Stars, considering a move to suburban Plano, Texas, cited The Battery last week in a very similar fashion. The real estate ambitions, meanwhile, will provide a crucial and additional revenue stream for the Rays, long one of MLB’s most economically challenged clubs.
“It’s what you have to have in today’s Major League Baseball to be successful,” Zalupski said. “Without that revenue generation, it’s going to be really, really challenging, or nearly impossible, to compete with the major markets.”
The Immediate Future
The Rays, meanwhile, remain on track to return to hurricane-damaged Tropicana Field in 2026 as repairs continue to the ballpark, with nearly half of the new roof panels now installed. The team played in 2025 at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, the spring training home of the Yankees, and also the site of the new owners’ press conference Tuesday.
“I think Tropicana Field is going to look better than it’s ever looked,” Babby said of the restoration efforts. “The city, behind the scenes, is doing wonderful work. The team is doing work. We’re spending a lot of time together, thinking about enhancing the [fan] experience.”
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