New Long Island Ducks owners don't expect any major changes to team or game-day experience
Sean Decker, President of REV Entertainment, speaks to the media in Central Islip as his group his introduced as the new owners of the Long Island Ducks on Thursday, January 29, 2026. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
The sale of the Long Island Ducks by founder Frank Boulton to REV Entertainment, the official sports and entertainment partner of the Texas Rangers, became official Wednesday.
Despite the company’s MLB ties, Sean Decker — the Ducks’ new owner and REV Entertainment president — said there will be “no major changes” to Ducks baseball and the game-day experience.
Decker said the Ducks — the all-time leader in wins and attendance in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball — will “no question” remain a staple of the league, which they have won four times.
“Let me be very clear: We are an events company for the Texas Rangers. There is no ulterior motive,” Decker said Thursday at a news conference at Fairfield Properties Ballpark in Central Islip. “ . . . There’s no intention of doing anything with moving the team geographically, league, etc. We’re here to be exactly where they are today.”
The transaction ended the tenure of Boulton, 75, who founded the Atlantic League. He was the league’s chairman from its inaugural season in 1998 until December.
Boulton did not disclose any financial details of the sale, noting that the Ducks are not a public company. He said he never put up a “for sale sign” but added that numerous people approached him about the possibility of a sale in recent years. He started talking to Decker “about a year ago.”
“I don’t know if my day-to-day [schedule] will ever look the same from day to day, but I’m here as an adviser,” said Boulton, who added that he is not retiring and will be at plenty of Ducks games this year and beyond. “I created the Atlantic League. I created the Ducks. So if there’s questions with any sponsors or anybody needs anything, I’ll always be part of the Ducks.”
The role of Ducks president and chief business officer Michael Pfaff, who also is in charge of baseball operations, will not change.
“Nobody needs to be told how highly I think of Frank Boulton and how much he means to me personally, and that will never change,” Pfaff said. “I think I will still talk to Frank just as much now as I have in the past because I feel very fortunate that what we’ve built is a real friendship and care for each other that goes beyond the business and the baseball.”
Decker, 40, is a Texas native who has an extensive background in professional baseball. He started as an independent baseball umpire at 19, joined the Rangers in 2010 and started putting REV Entertainment together in late 2016.
REV Entertainment already owns and operates three independent baseball teams — the Frontier League’s Schaumburg Boomers and the American Association of Professional Baseball’s Cleburne Railroaders in Texas and the Kane County Cougars in Illinois. They also own and operate the New Mexico Goatheads of the ECHL (a minor league of the NHL).
So why the Ducks?
“The better question is why not the Long Island Ducks?” Decker said.
He added: “We think that the Ducks are one-of-one, at the very top of the list, and the opportunity to be here is a really big deal for us.”
With four baseball teams in his portfolio, Decker said he will try to get to a Ducks home game or two each month. He said Madison SanFilippo, the vice president of sports management and brand for REV Management, will be in Central Islip “quite a bit” and he is “excited for her to be leading this from the headquarters side.”
Decker said REV Entertainment is broken down into four different sectors: sports management (in which the Ducks fall), events, sports marketing and real estate development. Events have been at the core of the company’s success.
“I think our goal will be to do more events [at Fairfield Properties Ballpark in 2027],” Decker said. “We’re not saying we’re going to do a lot of major concerts and things like that. I think getting corporations to do private events here and getting fans to want to come to birthday parties and weddings and all those kind of things here, company softball games, maybe youth sports, it will be a big focus for us. Potentially lifestyle-type events, festivals and things like that.
“But it’s not like an overnight thing. That sales cycle is 12 to 18 months to get people interested in thinking about doing it here. And so we’ll lean into that, but I think it’ll take some time to get there.”
Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
