Wanted: Professional sports team (or teams) to fill beloved old stadium and bring joy back to down-on-its-luck Pawtucket.

Baseball, soccer, lacrosse — city and state officials are open to all types of athletic competition, as well as concerts, as they begin to search in earnest for new tenants to fill McCoy Stadium and replace the Pawtucket Red Sox.

On behalf of the city, the state Commerce Corporation on Tuesday morning went out to bid for "individuals, firms and/or organizations who are interested in using, redeveloping and operating McCoy Stadium."

The solicitation gives a "strong preference for a professional sports tenant" and "seeks proposals from a professional sports team or operator of a sport team(s) or a concert entertainment operator.... Respondents are encouraged to form partnerships in order to provide more than one form of entertainment."

While filling the 29-acre, city-owned stadium property is the main focus of the request for bids, it allows interested parties to pitch ideas for "redeveloping sites in the City's Downtown Redevelopment Area for ancillary or sports-related uses." That includes several pieces of real estate the city has been trying to redevelop, including the Apex department store site where the city had hoped to build a new PawSox stadium before the team, frustrated by long and fruitless negotiations with state officials, decided to move to Massachusetts.

Submissions are due April 25.

After nearly 50 years at McCoy, the PawSox last summer announced they would leave Pawtucket in 2021 for a new, $95-million, publicly financed ballpark in Worcester.

Since then Gov. Gina Raimondo has said she personally has been searching for other teams, including professional soccer team or Double-A minor-league baseball teams, to replace the PawSox at McCoy.

"I'm not letting the lights go out on McCoy," Raimondo told Harvard University students last month.

In an interview Tuesday, State Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor told the Journal that the state has received "a number of inquiries over recent months" from "sports franchises and leagues."

"While we are highly encouraged by the inquiries we have received, we have to ensure that they’re real," Pryor said. "We have to put them to the test through an application process. It is our expectation there will be applicants. We don't yet know how many inquiries will turn into fully fledged, complete applications."

Finding a baseball team to fill the ballpark is complicated by Major League Baseball's territorial rules, which give the PawSox the right to block any MLB-affiliated minor-league team from playing in Pawtucket.

Has Pryor had any discussions with PawSox management about what it would take to let another team play in its former home?

"It would be too soon to speculate about any specific arrangement," he said.

Soccer is another possibility. The state has in the past looked into the possibility of bringing the New England Revolution to Rhode Island. Revolution "investor/operator" Jonathan Kraft is a Raimondo acquaintance, but she said last year that the team appears set on building a new stadium in Boston. Minor-league soccer teams are also being considered.

On Tuesday, Raimondo's office did not answer questions about when she had last been in touch with Kraft or anyone else connected with the Revolution. Spokesman Josh Block said McCoy "offers a great location in a thriving city," and Raimondo "has spoken with many potential tenants and is open to exploring all options."

Built in 1942 and extensively renovated in the 1990s, McCoy was deemed obsolete by the PawSox ownership group shortly after they purchased the club in 2015.

The state, which subleases the ballpark from Pawtucket, has spent about $2 million in recent years on repairs to McCoy, according to budget documents. But a 2017 study concluded it would cost $65 million to renovate McCoy up to modern minor-league baseball industry standards.

Raimondo's capital budget for next year proposes spending another $800,000 over the next two years to patch leaks, improve walkways and keep the facility capable of hosting professional baseball.

That proposed spending also includes $200,000 to study potential reuse options for McCoy and evaluate the proposals that come back in response to Tuesday's request for proposals.

In addition to bringing a team to McCoy, Tuesday's solicitation asks bidders to say what kind of upgrades and work they would need done to McCoy and how much they could contribute toward paying for it. The examples of potential work include upgrades to the turf, replacement of seating, lighting and sound improvements, adding a portable stage and better food concessions.

"Among the factors we will be considering are the relative requests on the public investment side," Pryor said. "It's important they include real financial figures in their application."

Read the RFP