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City Suspends Planning on San Antonio Triple-A Bid

San Antonio Missions 2015San Antonio has halted financial planning on a new ballpark for the relocating Colorado Springs Sky Sox (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League), putting the future of a new facility in doubt.

Mayor Ivy Taylor told the San Antonio City Council last night that no funding for a new ballpark would be included in the city’s fiscal year 2017 budget or in the 2017 bond program, making it nearly impossible to reach a 2019 opening date. From the San Antonio Express-News:

But Taylor acknowledged Wednesday that meeting that date is now nearly impossible. Based on rough estimates of construction time, the city would have to be turning dirt by next fall in order to have a stadium built for the ‘19 season. The deal is further complicated by the various player-development contracts between minor-league and major-league franchises.

The reference, of course, is to the PBC, which is up for renewal in 2020.

This doesn’t kill the project, but it does raise issues about the future of baseball in San Antonio. The San Antonio Missions (Class AA; Texas League) is currently without a lease for Wolff Stadium, but it’s expected a temporary one (for two seasons) will be worked out. Longer term, the issue for Elmore Sports Group, the team’s owner, is whether to commit long-term to San Antonio or to continue talking to Amarillo and Wichita about a move of the Missions there.

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