Officials in Lubbock are ready to prepare a bid if the San Antonio Missions (Class AA; Texas League) relocate and Amarillo city leaders can’t follow through with funding for a new ballpark.
Lubbock officials say they’re ready to talk funding of a new ballpark for the Missions and owner Dave Elmore if the team is indeed available — something that would happen if Elmore’s Triple-A team, the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, relocates to a new San Antonio ballpark. Now, the assumption by many is that the team would end up in Amarillo — and, indeed, that still seems to be the assumption there, despite the refusal of Elmore to sign a Memorandum of Understanding for a new Amarillo ballpark. So enter Lubbock as a contender to land the Missions, per the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal:
Mayor Dan Pope, however, is calling the move – which will be discussed at Thursday’s City Council meeting – premature, saying a site feasibility plan has not been completed, a location has not been determined and the council has been presented with few details.
“The sum of my discussions about this project is less than an hour,” Pope said Tuesday afternoon. “I can’t speak for council, I can only speak for myself, but I feel like this project is not fully developed. There’s too many questions about the plans and it’s something that the time is not right.”
Lubbock City Councilman Jeff Griffith confirmed the San Antonio Missions is the team that’s considering relocating to Lubbock.
Now, when we first reported the Missions were in play, we predicted multiple cities would express interest in the team — it is just not everyday a Texas League team is available. So the fact that Lubbock officials are interested in the team is absolutely no surprise. The surprise is that more cities aren’t interested. From Amarillo.com:
Mayor Paul Harpole said that despite news that the Missions are talking to Lubbock, he has “no worries” about bringing the AA team to town….
Councilman Elisha Demerson said he had not heard about the Missions considering Lubbock, but that he has confidence in the LGC to work out the talks. However, Demerson said that if the baseball team is a “no go” then Amarillo’s city council needs to reconsider the entire idea of funding a ballpark.
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