Neighbors living near Nelson Wolff Municipal Stadium showed up this week with a specific ask for what should replace the aging Westside ballpark once the San Antonio Missions leave for good: a full-time senior center. Joseph Guerra, who lives next to the stadium, told city officials there is currently no senior center serving the south end of District 6, and he wants that gap filled on the more than 40-acre site once the ballfield is gone.
The request came during the second of three community meetings San Antonio is holding to determine what happens to the property after the Missions relocate downtown, according to KABB. The city has hired a firm to study possible uses for the site, and that firm presented three models for a reimagined park at the meeting. Guerra also argued the park area on the site should be expanded, not just repurposed.
Oldest Ballpark in Texas Nearing the End of Its Run
Wolff Stadium, which opened along U.S. Highway 90 West in 1994, has been home to the Missions for more than 30 years and is described as the oldest ballpark in Texas. The facility no longer meets Major League Baseball's standards of operation, a shortfall that has driven the team's long-planned move to a new downtown venue. The stadium seats 6,200 fans in fixed seating, with a maximum capacity of roughly 9,200 to 9,500, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
That downtown ballpark, a $160 million project along San Pedro Creek, was originally slated to open for the 2028 season but was delayed by a year after developers cited trouble securing electrical equipment including switchgears and transformers, the Express-News reported. Major League Baseball has since approved the revised timeline, waiving its earlier mandate that San Antonio deliver a compliant stadium by 2028, according to the SA Current. The Missions now expect to open their new home for the 2029 season, which means Wolff Stadium will host games at least one year longer than previously planned.
District 6 Councilman Open to Ideas, Eyes Bond Funding
District 6 Councilman Ric Galvan, who represents the area, said he is open to ideas for the stadium site's future. Galvan has told the SA Current he intends to use feedback gathered from the public meetings to position the Wolff Stadium redevelopment for inclusion in San Antonio's 2027 municipal bond program, though city officials have noted that borrowing capacity that year could be constrained by other major capital initiatives.
Galvan has also disclosed holding preliminary discussions with public institutions, including Port San Antonio, VIA Metropolitan Transit and University Health, about potential partner uses for portions of the property, according to the San Antonio Report. The city intends to retain ownership of the roughly 40-acre parcel as it weighs multi-use proposals for the land.
Next Meeting Set for September
The city's Economic Development Department launched the three-meeting master planning process in August, with the final session scheduled for September 12 at the Cuellar Community Center, running from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The resulting master plan will ultimately go before the San Antonio City Council for formal approval.
The financial arrangement behind the downtown stadium replacing Wolff is built on $126 million in city- and county-issued bonds backed by Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone revenues, with team ownership group Designated Bidders LLC contributing up to $39 million in private equity and covering any cost overruns, per the Express-News. Those bond sales have been rescheduled to early 2027 to match the construction delay. Surrounding the new ballpark, developer Weston Urban is planning a four-phase, $1 billion mixed-use project along San Pedro Creek featuring 681 residential units across two towers and a 160-room hotel, with tax revenue from that private development helping fund the public stadium bonds.
Even as the Wolff Stadium site awaits its next chapter, the city has kept the current ballpark running. San Antonio's City Council authorized $258,129 last year to reimburse 70% of nearly $369,000 in mandatory interim upgrades at the stadium, including visiting locker room and dugout modifications required by Major League Baseball, according to Community Impact. Nearby, Bexar County has separately committed $12 million to renovate the adjacent 41-acre Rodriguez Park into a multi-sport complex with upgraded courts, fields and greenway trail connections, a project the San Antonio Report says was meant to revitalize Westside parkland after decades of neglect.
