PAWTUCKET, R.I. - The Pawtucket Red Sox are officially interested in talking to other cities that might be equally interested in having the minor league baseball team in their community.

The team's exclusive negotiation rights with the city of Pawtucket — described as "monogamous" by Mayor Donald Grebien during a May press conference have expired.

“The exclusive relationship we had with Pawtucket, the ‘monogamous’ relationship, ended as of July 1,” one PawSox source said here on Monday. “So, as of now we will be returning phone calls.”

There have been what can be called “back channel” communications between the PawSox and Worcester officials, so some level of mutual interest has been established. The only face to face contact, however, has been through Worcester's Canal District Alliance, whose new president, Gene Zabinski, made a recent visit to McCoy Stadium, where the team has played for years, to introduce himself as the guy who has mailed about 10,000 postcards to the team offices.

All 10,000 of those postcards, which are signed by fans expressing an interest in having the team relocate to Worcester, have been collected and are stored at McCoy.

The Pawtucket Red Sox have been looking to move from aging McCoy Stadium, once one of the most popular ballparks in Triple A baseball, since former Boston Red Sox President Larry Lucchino and investors from Rhode Island bought the team in February of 2015.

However, just three months after that, the leader of the Rhode Island interests, Jim Skeffington, died unexpectedly while exercising. Since then the process of finding a new place for the PawSox to play in Rhode Island has been contentious. How much Skeffington’s death has had to do with that, and how much the failure of Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios venture — financially backstopped by the state — has had to do with it are open to debate, but things have reached the point where team ownership will at least consider a move.

The latest Rhode Island proposal has the PawSox moving just about a mile from McCoy, to downtown Pawtucket overlooking the Blackstone River. The cost to build a new stadium there is estimated at $83 million, of which ownership would pay about $43 million, the state about $23 million and the city about $15 million.

The state, though, adjourned its legislative session recently without acting on a finance bill for a new ballpark, and there are no guarantees as of yet if and when it will take up any such bill, or if it would pass.

Worcester could be considered an attractive option since the city is geographically in the heart of traditional Red Sox territory, and would retain the team’s Eastern New England market and expand it to the west and northwest.

Worcester has not had a team in organized baseball, an affiliated minor league team, since 1934.

Team officials could be attracted by the city’s economic base in health care and education, commuter rail service from the east, and the potential for locating near what seems to be a reviving downtown. Historically, minor league sports franchises need occasional shots of emotional adrenaline to maintain fan interest. One is a new facility, the other a new city, and a move from Pawtucket would provide both.

Lucchino has a history of building downtown urban ballparks. He did it in Baltimore and San Diego.

There is no ballpark in downtown Worcester. The Bravehearts of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League play at Hanover Park at the College of the Holy Cross, but that park is not big enough for a Triple A team.

The PawSox are aware that the Bravehearts have a substantial constituency in Worcester that could factor into any possible relocation.

One possible site for a big-enough stadium would be the vacant Wyman-Gordon property near Kelley Square, which is why the Canal District Alliance has been active in courting the PawSox. There are no guarantees there, either, about how much the property would cost to acquire and what potential expenses there might be in developing it.

If anything were to happen in Worcester, things would have to progress pretty quickly. The PawSox’ lease at McCoy Stadium runs out after the 2020 season.

There is the perception that in announcing that they will listen to other offers the PawSox will galvanize Rhode Island officials into approving a plan to keep the team in the state, turning other interested cities into mere leverage to get a deal done down there.

“That’s not our intention here,” a PawSox source said. “It’s not the way we do business. We’re trying to find the right fit with a place where things work both for us, and for them.”

That might wind up being Pawtucket, after all. It won’t be at 1 Ben Mondor Way, but could be within an infield single of the spot where the Blackstone River ends. Or, a sacrifice fly from where it begins.