Elmore Sports Group confirmed the potential move of the Colorado Springs Sky Sox (Class AAA; Pacific Coast League) to a new downtown San Antonio ballpark, while also promising to keep baseball in town with a lower-level team.
As regular readers will note, Elmore Sports Group has been talking with San Antonio officials about a potential downtown ballpark and left open the possibility the Sky Sox would be the team inhabiting that new ballpark, with the San Antonio Missions (Class AA; Texas League) franchise shifted elsewhere. In a statement released today by the Sky Sox, that potential move is explicitly confirmed, as well as the potential move of a lower-level team to Colorado Springs.
Here’s the full statement:
The Sky Sox organization and the Elmore Sports Group enjoys a wonderful relationship with the Colorado Springs community and our fans and has for over 28-year since Dave Elmore brought the team here from Hawaii in 1987. We truly cherish this relationship that has been nurtured over the years and believe we have one of the most loyal and dedicated fan bases in the country.
Our success in Colorado Springs is built on the mutual loyalty and respect that we share with our fans and our corporate and community partners. Since our first pitch in 1988, we have always worked to provide the Colorado Springs community with the best in affordable family entertainment in Colorado. This loyalty and respect continues to be of utmost importance to us, so we want to be open and transparent with our community and share with you our intentions for the Sky Sox franchise.
In recent years, the landscape at the major league and affiliate level has changed and has left the Sky Sox without a natural geographic fit for a major league partner here in Colorado Springs. These challenges are well known in the baseball industry and have become a concern for maintaining a long term Triple-A relationship with a major league partner in Colorado Springs.
We have been asked by the City of San Antonio to explore the concept of bringing our Triple-A franchise into a new downtown ballpark development. As business owners and caretakers of our Sky Sox franchise, we need to give this proposal serious consideration. In order to fully explore these possibilities, we have agreed to meet and work with San Antonio city officials to test the viability of a new downtown stadium and explore a possible move of Triple-A baseball to San Antonio. We want our fans in Colorado Springs to understand there are no agreements of any kind and no foregone conclusion that the team will be moving, but we want to be as open and transparent with both communities as possible. This is a long process and any decision or potential moves will be years in the future.
We deeply appreciate our relationship with the Colorado Springs community and want to ensure you that it is our sincere hope to keep professional baseball in Colorado Springs. So while the process of exploring a potential move of our Triple-A franchise is ongoing, we will also be exploring the possibility of moving a Short-season-A team to Colorado Springs. Any relocation of any team at any level is a complicated process that can take seasons to accomplish and involve approvals at many levels. We are very sensitive to the desires of our communities and we want the very best for each of our cities involved in the process. Our top goal throughout this process is to provide our communities with the best long term successful and stable franchises in the country.
We will continue to be open throughout the process and provide updates as they become available. As we move forward in the process, we have fantastic seasons planned in the years to come in Colorado Springs and our dedicated staff is committed to always providing you with the best in affordable family entertainment.
Besides the Missions and Sky Sox, members of the Elmore Sports Group own the Inland Empire 66ers (High A; California League), the Bakersfield Blaze (High A; California League), the Eugene Emeralds (short season A; Northwest League), the Helena Brewers (rookie; Pioneer League) and the Idaho Falls Chukars (rookie; Pioneer League), and are in the process of buying the Lynchburg Hillcats (High A; Carolina League). The Elmore Sports Group includes Dave Elmore, D.G. Elmore Jr. and Doug Elmore.
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