Southwest Florida ties span Rays-Brewers World Series

Business connections between Southwest Florida and the 2026 World Series extend from the owner’s suite to the dugouts and beyond as the games shift to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. The Milwaukee Brewers lead the Tampa Bay Rays 2-0 heading into Game 3 on Oct. 26.

Patrick Zalupski, who has moved on and off Forbes’ billionaires list in recent years, led the ownership group that purchased the Rays from Stuart Sternberg in September 2025 for an estimated $1.7 billion, according to Forbes.

Zalupski also is the CEO and founder of Jacksonville-based Dream Finders Homes. In February 2026, Dream Finders began marketing 226 home sites in Babcock Ranch. They were the remaining lots of 291 originally owned by another developer.

Dream Finders so far has sold 24 homes in what’s also known as America’s First Solar Town. It’s a small footprint, about 0.4% of the more than 6,000 homes sold in Babcock Ranch. Homes start in the mid-$300,000 range.

Naples residents Ralph and Shelly Stayer became minority co-owners of the Milwaukee Brewers in December 2023. Shelly Stayer, co-founder of Grace & Shelly’s Cupcakes, succeeded her husband in 2019 as chair of the board of directors of Johnsonville LLC. The sausage company supplies the bratwursts at Milwaukee’s American Family Field and has advertising signage painted across part of the outfield wall – visible on TV during hits toward the right-field party deck. The between-innings sausage race at the ballpark is also sponsored by Johnsonville.

Behind the scenes, Naples billionaire David Hoffmann’s company announced Oct. 22 that it purchased Champion Coach, an executive-level bus company that will transport the Brewers to and from their hotel and Tropicana Field.

The region’s business connections continue just next door.

Ferg’s Sports Bar, founded by a man who spent two of his formative years in Fort Myers, will be showing the games on 175 TVs, plus four Jumbotrons and two massive projection screens, in anticipation of about 5,000 ticketless fans — plus fans trying to score tickets at the last minute. These will be some of the most expensive tickets in World Series history, starting at more than $500 on the secondary market, as seen on StubHub. But at Ferg’s, admission is free, and a domestic beer costs about half the price compared with inside the ballpark, said Mark Ferguson, founder and owner of Ferg’s.

Ferguson played junior college baseball at Edison Community College — since rebranded Florida SouthWestern State College — in 1977–78. During those years, Ferguson lived in the same apartment complex as former WINK-TV sportscaster Craig Sager.

They lived at The Vogue, an apartment complex at Central Avenue and Fowler Street that no longer exists. Coincidentally, Ferg’s Sports Bar also has a Central Avenue address: 1320 Central Ave. in St. Petersburg.

Ferguson and Sager, who went on to be an NBA sideline reporter for TNT, maintained their friendship through the years until Sager died from cancer in 2016. Sager visited the bar during the 2008 World Series, which the Rays lost to the Philadelphia Phillies.

Ferguson went to Florida State University, earned a degree in education and in 1992 bought what had been a Sunoco gas station in St. Petersburg from 1939 until the 1970s. It later was converted into a transmission shop. Ferguson converted it into a sports bar with an original capacity of 75 people that has since grown to encompass an entire city block and serves thousands on game days. He has about 140 employees.

With the Rays pursuing a new ballpark in Tampa, Ferguson in recent years has diversified the bar, adding concerts by legacy rock bands to the business mix. Winger performed there Sept. 25, Lou Gramm of Foreigner is scheduled to perform Dec. 4, and Gene Simmons of Kiss is scheduled for Jan. 30, 2027.

“I’m still not convinced they are moving yet,” Ferguson said of the Rays. “But if they do, they do. The city is growing around us. St. Pete is a major league city because of baseball.”

Ferguson pokes fun at himself and the bar’s early days.

“Cold food and warm beer,” Ferguson said with a laugh of the humble beginnings. But after the Rays defeated the Cleveland Guardians Oct. 19 in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series, the entire Rays team walked next door to Ferg’s for a postgame celebration, partying there until about 3 a.m., Ferguson said.

“We’re over the moon,” Ferguson said. At the beginning of the season, he compared the Rays to a minor league team, not even envisioning a winning season. “And now we’re in the World Series. And it’s the best Rays team I’ve seen. Hitting. Defense. Pitching. Home runs. They can do it all.”

Players and coaches on both teams also have connections to Southwest Florida.

Rays first baseman Jonathan Aranda and shortstop Taylor Walls played for the now-defunct Charlotte Stone Crabs minor league team in Port Charlotte in 2019. Rays pitchers Griffin Jax and Tyler Wells played for the Fort Myers Miracle in 2018, winning the Florida State League championship. Rays pitcher Casey Legumina played for the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels in 2021.

Rays pitcher Shane McClanahan, who had a 10-7 record this season, is on the injured list and won’t appear in the World Series. He graduated from Cape Coral High School.

Milwaukee Brewers hitting coach Daniel Vogelbach, a Bishop Verot High School graduate, invited his parents and other family members to Milwaukee for Games 1 and 2 and will see them at Tropicana Field for Games 3, 4 and, if necessary, 5.

Vogelbach had access to four tickets at below face value, $250 each, and has been spreading those among family members — with his parents getting first pick.

“I told him, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Dan Vogelbach, Daniel’s father. Dan Vogelbach retired last year after founding Sports Specialty & Rehab in 1996 in Cape Coral. He sold the business in 2018 but continued working there after it rebranded to Select Physical Therapy, growing from three to 13 offices.

Josh Vogelbach, Daniel’s brother and an assistant football coach at Bishop Verot High, flew to Milwaukee for Game 2 and is hoping to attend Game 3 in St. Petersburg, as well.

Josh Vogelbach said his brother’s professional rapport with Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich — they were teammates with the Brewers in 2020–21 — helped Daniel Vogelbach land the hitting coach job this season.

“He’s been very blessed not only in his playing career but now in his coaching career,” Josh Vogelbach said. “The World Series is pretty incredible.”