Mayor Jeff Longwell said Thursday that Wichita is in the final stages of talks to bring an affiliated baseball team back to the city.
After weeks of touting a major “baseball announcement,” Longwell said he can’t make the announcement everyone’s been waiting for—yet.
“If we were to name them today, we would jeopardize the process," he said during his address at the Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce Issue Forum.
However, Longwell did say that the city has met with the owner of a minor league team, who visited Wichita last week and liked what the city has to offer.
"So we really do believe that we’re at the end of these negotiations, and ... we should have a team that we can announce after the Winter Meetings very soon in about a month or so," he said, referring to the annual MLB event.
Longwell called the process of bringing a team to Wichita "difficult" and "intricate," but said "we will make sure that we cross the finish line, because it's too important to our city."
Wichita hasn't had a Minor League team since the Wranglers left in 2007.
City officials have been working to recruit an affiliated team to play in a potential new baseball park to replace Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.
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