SAN ANTONIO – Mayor Ron Nirenberg joined the chorus of local politicians’ voices who would like to keep the Missions playing baseball in San Antonio for the foreseeable future.
“Baseball has been a San Antonio pastime since the late 1800s, and we are committed to keeping the Missions as a part of our city’s cultural landscape,” Nirenberg’s statement began, in part. “The ownership group is heavily invested in this development to ensure that we arrive at an agreement that is fair to our community, and we have benefited immensely from the partnership with the Missions’ new local owners.”
Nirenberg also suggested that the city, county and the team are working toward a plan for a new downtown stadium.
Some San Antonio residents KSAT spoke to Wednesday seemed to favor a potential downtown baseball stadium.
“I think something like that is awesome for bringing people together,” resident Gabriel Diez said. “I love going out to the ballpark and watching games. Invite some friends over, maybe having (sic) a couple of drinks, heading over there. Sounds like a great time.”
Designated Bidders LLC, a San Antonio-based ownership group led by Spurs partial owner Bruce Hill, Randy Smith, and Graham Weston, officially assumed control of the Missions and their stadium — Wolff Stadium — from the Elmore Group in Nov. 2022.
Weston and Smith co-founded Weston Urban, a San Antonio development firm with an emphasis on “reviving the city’s center,” according to its website.
In addition to ownership changing hands, Major League Baseball instituted new facility standards for each of its minor league teams as a part of the first-ever collective bargaining agreement between minor league players and team owners that went into effect with the 2023 season.
The collective bargaining agreement will expire in 2027.
Nirenberg’s statement comes more than one month after Bexar County Commissioners gave Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai the authority to draft a letter before Aug. 1 to send to Major League Baseball addressing the county and team’s intent to adhere to MLB’s new facility standards.
“Major League Baseball has the authority to move the San Antonio Missions,” Sakai said during a June 2024 news conference. “It is our understanding through the local ownership that without this letter after Aug. 1st, the San Antonio Missions could be subject to removal process by Major League Baseball. All we’re trying to assure Major League Baseball is that we are working and doing our very best to work in good faith to find a contract, a financial arrangement, with the local baseball ownership.”
When Missions partner Bob Cohen spoke with KSAT in April 2023, he discussed some of the team’s upgrades to Wolff Stadium, but the organization fell short in other areas, including a new locker room. Cohen also said the team was looking at different locations for a new stadium, which included downtown San Antonio.
“Major League Baseball has made it very clear that Wolff Stadium doesn’t comply with the requirements of what Major League Baseball wants in a minor league stadium,” Cohen told KSAT in 2023. “A lot of the things they want are player health and wellness.”
When asked about how a new Missions stadium would be funded in June, Sakai suggested to the ownership group about a hybrid of public and private funds.
“Right now, there’s no offer whatsoever by the county,” Sakai said in June 2024. “However, I will tell you in talking to, and I have talked to the local baseball ownership, I’ve asked them that it be a public-private partnership, that there be significant equity provided by the private sector, by the local baseball ownership and whatever financing they will get, it’d be made available to. Also wanting to make sure that… …the burden of this finance is not put on homeowners.”
One resident shared their curiosity with KSAT about how the city, county and team would fund the potential project.
“It depends on how it’s financed,” Jeff Kurth told KSAT. “I know a lot of repairs and things they did to the (San Antonio) river was taxpayer money and look at what that did. I think it would be a good investment.”
More San Antonio Missions stadium coverage on KSAT: