Manassas City Council is expected to make a final decision on Monday regarding a proposal to sell the city-owned land that's long been home to the Greater Manassas Baseball League.
Micron Technology wants to buy the 18-acre property for a price tag of more than $14 million.
From the city's perspective, it's a major economic opportunity.
"Micron is our largest employer and the largest taxpayer in the community," Manassas City Manager Pat Pate previously told 7News. "So we're trying very hard to keep them in the community."
But for families behind the Greater Manassas Baseball League, the potential sale of the land has created uncertainty about whether their kids will be left without a place to play baseball.
The Greater Manassas Baseball League has been around since 1957 and has called the E.G. Smith Baseball Complex home since 1981. The complex includes six baseball fields.
"We don't want to stand in the way of the sale, we know it's a huge opportunity for the city," said Colby Poteat, president of the Greater Manassas Baseball League. "We want to be moved as single unit, in the city, preferably, but if not in the city than close by in the county, so that residents of the city and nearby neighborhoods can still enjoy us and come out and play baseball and softball.
City leaders have said they're committed to finding the league a new home.
The city also says that's why the real estate option agreement under consideration would allow baseball to continue at the Godwin Drive site for a minimum of two years, so the city has time to find a new home for the league.
"It's been our goal all along that we will find something, we will find another field, a complex, so that they will have somewhere to play baseball," Manassas Mayor Michelle Davis-Younger said. So we're not getting rid of baseball in Manassas, that's not the business we're in, nor Micron."
The baseball league has been pushing the city to put that commitment in writing.
On Thursday evening, the council's land-use committee approved a resolution that would do just that.
The resolution reads in part:
It shall be the policy of the City Council of the City of Manassas to continue the ongoing discussions with our partners with a goal of identifying and helping to fund the construction of a new facility in close proximity to the City of Manassas that will provide a 21st century tournament level baseball/softball facility for the use of the residents of the City of Manassas and surrounding communities.
The resolution now heads to the full council for a vote on Monday, Sept. 27. On that same day, council members will take a final vote on the proposal to sell the Godwin Drive property to Micron Technology.
That piece of land sits adjacent to the company's current plant in Manassas.
Poteat told 7News he can only hope city leaders keep their word and work to find the Greater Manassas Baseball League a new home.
"Find us a place to play where we can play as one unit," he said. "And let the families enjoy being at one place together."
City leaders admit they're running out of undeveloped land within city limits, and don't have the space to build six new baseball fields at one location.
During Thursday's land use committee meeting, city leaders said the city is actively negotiating with "outside parties" and they're confident they'll find a space that can accommodate the Greater Manassas Baseball League
A city spokesperson told 7News they're discussing options with Prince William County and looking at available land outside city limits.