A Minor League Baseball team is eyeing Lubbock for its new home, with hopes of building a city-funded ballpark and relocating by early 2019.

Mayor Dan Pope, however, is calling the idea - 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 City 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."

City Councilman Jeff Griffith confirmed the San Antonio Missions is the team that's considering relocating to Lubbock.

"I have spoke with one of the proponents, but we've not had a full presentation on this item," Griffith said.

The Missions, a AA MiLB team, are expected to be displaced if the stadium the team uses brings in the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, a AAA MiLB team, the Denver Post reported in April.

The Missions also had their eye on Amarillo, but those plans were stalled in June after the team's owner, Elmore Sports Group, declined to sign a letter of intent.

Former City Councilman David Nelson told A-J Media he's an officer with Southpaw Sports and Entertainment Inc., which is pursing the opportunity to relocate a Minor League Baseball team to Lubbock. But, he said he could not provide additional details about the matter, adding that council members will hear a presentation on the subject during Thursday's meeting.

"Due to our agreement with Minor League Baseball, I cannot make any comment about the possibility of relocating a Minor League Baseball club to Lubbock, at this point in time," Nelson said. "Thank you for your patience and understanding in this endeavor."

Councilwoman Karen Gibson said she knows little information about a Minor League Baseball team's interest in bringing a stadium to Lubbock and that she has not spoken with Nelson.

"As little as I know about, I can't support," Gibson said. "First of all, I know nothing about it. When you're wanting to do something that he's wanting to do, the council members would need a whole lot of information in my opinion."

The resolution on Thursday's agenda could allow the city of Lubbock to go to the state of Texas' Comptroller's Office to create a venue tax, funded by hotels and motels, but the project has not been discussed with the hotel industry, Pope said.

"Even though the idea is that people that don't live in Lubbock pay for those hotel rooms, many of our hotels are owned by local people or local investors, and I feel like they need to be at the table," Pope said. "Our master developer downtown, even though they helped pay for the feasibility study for this ballpark, they don't feel we're to a point to consider it."

Pope said the council is working hard to stay on task and currently has other priorities, such as finalizing the budget, hiring a city manager and renovating Citizens Tower, a downtown high-rise, to become the next city hall.

"Those are the three top things on our list," Pope said. "And then providing good streets, fire service -man, things you would expect us to do. When you flip your light switch on your lights come on, when you flush your commode, your commode flushes. (The ballpark) to me right now is not a priority and ... it's not quite done yet."

In Amarillo, the Missions made a deal with Coca-Cola to get the company's former building site to open up the land for a stadium, conducted a feasibility study, passed a $32 million non-binding referendum in order to build a stadium and tasked the Local Government Corp. in Amarillo with being the lead planning group for reaching and closing a deal.

During a regular City Council meeting Tuesday in Amarillo, the city's mayor, Paul Harpole, said despite news the Missions may be talking to Lubbock, he has "no worries" about bringing the AA team to town.

Amarillo 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 council needs to reconsider the entire idea of funding a ballpark.

A spokesperson for the Missions did not return calls for comment by Tuesday afternoon.

(The Amarillo Globe-News contributed to this report.)

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