NEW YORK (AP) -- Major League Baseball owners voted unanimously Monday to approve the sale of the Tampa Bay Rays to group headed by real estate developer Patrick Zalupski, allowing the transfer from Stu Sternberg's group to close.

The Rays said on Sept. 17 they expected the sale to close within two weeks.

Sternberg took control of the team from founding owner Vince Naimoli in November 2005 and rebranded it the Rays from the Devil Rays after the 2007 season. The Rays won AL East titles in 2008, 2010, 2020 and 2021, and twice reached the World Series, losing to Philadelphia in 2008 and to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020.

The Rays in March withdrew from a $1.3 billion project to construct a new ballpark adjacent to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, citing a hurricane and delays that likely drove up the proposal's cost. The team said in June it had started talks about a potential sale.

Because of damage to Tropicana Field caused by Hurricane Milton last October, the Rays played home games this season across the bay at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, the spring training home of the New York Yankees. The Rays went 41-40 for their ninth straight winning record at home.

Playing home games in an open-air ballpark for the first time, the Rays experienced 17 rains delays over 16 games for a total of 17 hours, 47 minutes.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said last week that he expects under Zalupski the Rays will start a new search for a new ballpark site in the Tampa and St. Petersburg area. Under Sternberg, the Rays announced plans for and then failed to move ahead with proposed ballparks at the Al Lang Stadium site in St. Petersburg (2007), Ybor City in Tampa (2018) and the site adjacent to the Trop in downtown St. Petersburg (2023 ).

Tampa Bay started this season with an $81.9 million payroll, ahead of only the Athletics and Miami.

Playing at a 10,046-capacity ballpark, Tampa Bay had 61 sellouts and drew 786,750, down from 1,337,739 in 2024, when they were 28th among the 30 teams and ahead of only Miami and Oakland.

Tampa Bay is currently 29th in home attendance this year, ahead of only the Athletics, who are playing home games at a minor league ballpark in West Sacramento, California, while a new stadium expected to open in 2028 is built in Las Vegas. The Rays have completed their home schedule while the A's have drawn 711,609 with six home games left.

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