WACO, Texas — For over a month, staff with the City of Waco have been engaged in an extensive scoring process for proposals regarding bringing a minor league baseball team and stadium to downtown.
City of Waco Director of Strategic Innovations Tom Balk said of the 11 qualified proposal submissions that the city received, they've currently narrowed their choice down to four; all of whom were invited to speak before city leaders at Tuesday's council meeting.
"We're navigating that step to take us forward into the next phase," Balk said. "This is the moment where council's suggesting what they've seen and hear and collecting their thoughts so that way, next council meeting or the one there after, if we need more time, they're best equipped to allow the city to enter into an agreement."
Balk said the city is on the "precipice" of finding out who they'll be teaming up with as a development partner with the project to deliver this "visionary transformation" to downtown.
Balk said bringing a sport like minor league baseball to a city's downtown has proven to be "successful in many different communities."
"Baseball, whether it’s affiliated or minor league, professional baseball at this scale becomes a driver for the entertainment scene but couples with, and blends directly to, the downtown nightlife and street life," Balk said.
Balk said the prospects of bringing a minor league team to Waco is gaining traction within the professional baseball community and the city has come to an agreement with Waco ISD to explore a 60-acre "bubble" of property to host the stadium.
"If other opportunities present themselves (we'll explore them), right now the conceptual images show a baseball stadium in the vicinity of what was the Waco Middle School track on the property just off of 4th Street," Balk said, referring to the area where Indian Spring Middle School resides.
Balk said the conversation surrounding bringing a team and stadium to Waco, however, stretch far beyond just the physical structure. It also involved accommodating more people moving to the city and ensuring the project can be a success.
"We're populating downtown with ingredients that people will visit and enjoy that can be successful in the long term, and we've had to build on that incrementally, and we've expanded the demographic of who's interested," Balk said.
Balk said this is among a push to make public municipal services and amenities more accessible to the public and easy to interact with.
Balk added that it's possible the city could enter into an agreement with a development partner as early as the next council meeting. Though any agreement would have to also be approved by the Waco ISD School Board, giving them the "last word" to authorize anything to be built on their property, Balk said.