Reports: Sky Sox set to move to San Antonio

For months, a plan to bring Triple-A baseball to San Antonio has been missing a handful of key components, including a new downtown ballpark and a tenant willing to set up shop if the Double-A Missions are headed to Amarillo. It appears one of those pieces may have been found in Colorado Springs.

Triple-A baseball is destined for the Alamo City by 2019, Mayor Ivy Taylor and Missions owner David Elmore announced Thursday. The Elmore-owned Colorado Springs Sky Sox are set to make the move, according to reports.

"Today, I'm so excited to announce that the Elmore Group has committed to bring a Triple-A franchise to San Antonio to play in a new downtown stadium for the 2019 season," Taylor said at a City Council meeting. While the Sky Sox were not specifically mentioned during the news conference, they are the only Triple-A team owned by the Elmore Group.

"I look forward to working with you, mayor, on our new stadium," Elmore said. "I've seen what it has done for other communities throughout the United States and I know it will do the same for San Antonio, and perhaps even more."

The move still has many obstacles to clear, as Colorado Springs general manager Tony Ensor stressed to The (Colorado Springs) Gazette on Thursday.

"This is the beginning of a very long process," Ensor told the newspaper. "There are no guarantees. There are no foregone conclusions we're leaving."

Ensor noted that San Antonio has no funding in place for a ballpark and has not yet determined a site for the facility. The Elmore Group does not plan to contribute to the stadium's development, which could reach $75 million, The Gazette reported.

The Sky Sox play in Security Service Field, the third-oldest ballpark in the Pacific Coast League, and have not finished higher than 10th in attendance over the last seven years. Colorado Springs' elevation presents another challenge. The highest ballpark in the nation at 6,531 feet, Security Service Field was home to the Rockies' Triple-A affiliate from 1993-2014, but the Rockies aligned with Albuquerque before last season. Now affiliated with Milwaukee, Colorado Springs took a toll on that system's pitchers in the first season of the partnership, with the Sky Sox staff finishing third from the bottom with a 5.01 ERA.

"The altitude is the big albatross in the room for us to be able to find and maintain that Major League partner for Triple-A baseball in the long term," Ensor said.

The Gazette explained that the problem with developing pitchers in Colorado Springs could hamper any Minor League organization, which prompted Sky Sox officials to tell the city last fall that even a new ballpark wouldn't necessarily guarantee the team's future in Colorado Springs.

The Elmore Group has owned the Missions for 30 years and looks to be on the verge of moving the Padres' Double-A affiliate 500 miles northwest to Amarillo. Coincidentally, Amarillo city staff released a report Wednesday that trimmed about $4 million off the cost of a proposed downtown ballpark to accommodate a Texas League team, according to Amarillo.com. That estimate puts the price tag for Amarillo's new facility at approximately $44 million, funded primarily through hotel-occupancy taxes. Amarillo voters approved a non-binding referendum by just 820 votes of 22,444 cast in November.

Colorado Springs released a statement earlier this week suggesting a Rookie-level team could fill the vacancy at Security Service Field if the Sky Sox relocate. The Elmore Group also owns the Helena Brewers of the Pioneer League.