Screenshot / Google Maps
Minor-league baseball team the San Antonio Missions wants to build a 4,500-seat stadium on land currently being used as a Fox Tech High School parking lot.
Indeed, the 4,500-seat stadium is set to be built on Fox Tech High’s old baseball field, now being used as a school parking lot. However, real estate development firm Weston Urban – who also owns a large stake in the minor league San Antonio Missions baseball team – has yet to acquire the 2.3-acre plot of land from the district needed to build the stadium.
The MLB has given San Antonio Missions ownership until Oct. 15 to purchase the land and present a plan for a new stadium.
Although a public input meeting on the possible sale is set for 6 p.m. on Oct. 7 at SAISD headquarters at 514 Quincy Street, the district's Board of Directors has yet to set a date for a vote on the proposal, SAISD Director of Communications Lorraine Pulido told the Current on Wednesday.
SAISD's feet dragging has Missions Ownership, which includes former Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade, on edge.
"The MLB told us — they put us on notice — if we don't build a new stadium, they will pull our license," Andrade told the San Antonio Report last week. "If we run so close, we might not make the deadline, even if we deliver the letter personally. So that's our concern. Everything else we can work out."
What's more, SAISD is likely to receive pushback from community members as it discusses selling the land.
Under plan, Weston Urban would raze the deeply affordable Soap Factory Apartments to make room for the stadium and surrounding development. Tenants of the complex held during an impassioned rally earlier this month and called on council to vote down the project.
Community activists brought up the same issue during a school board meeting last week.
Among those raising concerns about the potential displacement of Soap Factory tenants was Alejandra Lopez, president of the San Antonio Alliance union of school workers. She told board members that selling the land will only worsen the city’s affordable housing crisis.
Community activists brought up the same issue during a school board meeting last week.
Among those raising concerns about the potential displacement of Soap Factory tenants was Alejandra Lopez, president of the San Antonio Alliance union of school workers. She told board members that selling the land will only worsen the city’s affordable housing crisis.
“We know there’s an affordable housing crisis in our district, and that crisis is one of the contributing factors that led to school closures last year,” Lopez said. “We also know that knocking down some of the only affordable housing that exists downtown and building a baseball stadium is only going to further exacerbate this issue.”
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