According to the team’s owners, Mayor Ivy Taylor will be meeting with owners of the Colorado Springs Sky Sox. The Sky Sox are interested in moving their Triple A team to San Antonio in exchange for the Double-A San Antonio Missions moving to Colorado.
Sky Sox officials confirmed they’re meeting with Mayor Taylor. In a statement provided to TPR, Sky Sox executives said: “If the City of San Antonio, the 37th largest TV market in the country calls and says they would like to talk about a downtown stadium and the possibility of bringing Triple A Baseball to San Antonio, it would be imprudent as business owners not to listen.”
Sky Sox officials go on to say this is the beginning of the process and right now there’s no deal and no downtown ballpark in San Antonio.
During her State of the City address, Taylor said one of her goals is to build a new ballpark in downtown San Antonio and bring Triple-A baseball to the city. Her office also confirms that next Wednesday she’s meeting with the owners of the Elmore Sports Group, which owns the San Antonio Missions and the Colorado Springs Sky Sox.
Originally published March 31, 2016:
Triple-A Baseball Team Might Be Coming To San Antonio, But Not From The Austin Area
During her State of the City address, Mayor Ivy Taylor said the city was laying the groundwork for a new downtown San Antonio ballpark and that will come with a Triple-A baseball team to help fill the seats.
Reported rumors of who that team might be have caused some friction among league officials. The San Antonio Express-News reported Thursday that the Elmore Sports Group, the group that runs the San Antonio Missions, is in talks with the Texas Rangers to move the Round Rock Express to the Alamo City.
Branch Rickey is the president of the Pacific Coast League, the league that the Round Rock Express belongs to and has serious doubts about the possibility of the Round Rock Express moving.
“I would certainly think it would be a tragic misstep to report information that was so wholly inaccurate based on the casual information that came to him or her,” Rickey said.
And yes for baseball fans, Rickey is the grandson of Branch Rickey who helped break the color barrier in 1947 when he signed Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Minor League Baseball or MiLB was formed in 1901 as a way to farm players not yet ready for the majors. It includes 30 Triple-A baseball franchises that are aligned with 1 of 30 major league teams and those major league teams provide their minor league counterpart players. The Round Rock Express currently is the farm team for the Texas Rangers.
Rickey said as a league president, the Express still has one of the highest records of attendance at their games and team has farmed out some real talent for the Rangers. He says he’d be shocked to see the Express leave Central Texas.
“Because they just have a fabulous relationship with the Texas Rangers, they have a fan base here in the Austin, Greater-Austin, Round Rock-area that is one of the most zealous and supportive things going,” Rickey explained.
Rickey warned other franchise owners to not tamper with other teams’ markets by creating rumors.
As of now, the Texas Rangers have contracted with the Round Rock Express franchise through the end of 2018.
Late Thursday afternoon the San Antonio Express-News told TPR it has made changes to its story and is now reporting it has no information to suggest that the Round Rock Express is coming to San Antonio.
We contacted the Express management and the Elmore Sports Group but both declined to comment.
