“If that works, great,” Jones said. “If it doesn’t work, we’ll keep on working until we can get everybody together and give them all the information.”

Jones said he hopes to have the final details ready “as soon as possible.”

The mayor will likely face an uphill battle, with five of nine council members having publicly stated their opposition and the process already behind schedule.

The late withdrawal of the paper, which came as the chamber was filling up with red-clad opponents to the stadium plan, did not sit well with some council members.

Councilwoman Reva M. Trammell, 8th District, said the mayor “stood the people up.”

“He should have been man enough to come in here and say, ‘Hey, I decided to pull the paper,’” Trammell said. “Those people that were out here tonight — we didn’t even give them a chance.”

Jones first presented the plan in November, pitching as an opportunity to build a new home for the Richmond Flying Squirrels, commemorate Shockoe’s slave history and generate jobs and revenue by spurring the private development of a grocery story, hotel and apartments in the Bottom and freeing up for redevelopment North Boulevard, where the Squirrels now play at The Diamond.