The Rocky Mountain Vibes announced Wednesday that they will no longer play in Colorado Springs. That decision leaves the state without any minor baseball teams.
In an interview with KRDO13 in Colorado Springs, owner D.G. Elmore pointed to changes in the Pioneer League recently and over the past few years.
He also cited the closures of two other Pioneer League teams in Colorado. Last month, the Grand Junction Jackalopes announced they will relocate. And this summer, the Northern Colorado Owlz moved from Windsor to Colorado Springs and competed as the Sky Sox — a nod to a former team in town — for their last season as a team.
Elmore said the Vibes won’t play anywhere for the 2026 season. CPR News has reached out to team and league officials for comment.
The Elmore Sports Group bought the team when it was the Hawaii Islanders of the Pacific Coast League. In 1988, the team relocated to Colorado Springs and was renamed the Sky Sox.
They served as the Triple-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians until Colorado got its own Major League Baseball team in 1993. The Sky Sox then became the Rockies’ top minor league team and later became affiliated with the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Sky Sox would continue to play in Colorado Springs until they relocated to San Antonio to become the Missions in 2019. At the same time, the Helena Brewers moved to Colorado Springs and rebranded as the Rocky Mountain Vibes.
The Vibes began play in the Rookie Advanced-Pioneer League. But the league was converted from an MLB-affiliated league to an official MLB Partner League following the contraction of Minor League Baseball in 2020.
And now that the team is on its way out, it ends decades of minor league baseball in Colorado Springs. With the departure of the Vibes, the Pioneer League will not field a team in Colorado next season.
The Northern Colorado Owlz of Windsor cited issues with securing a new stadium when they announced their resignation from the league. The team finished out the rest of the season by adopting the Colorado Springs Sky Sox name and sharing block tickets PARK with the Vibes.
And now that the Grand Junction Jackalopes are leaving Colorado, the team is reportedly looking to move to California. In 2022, they won the Pioneer League as the Grand Junction Rockies. Their alternate identity, “Grand Junction Humpback Chubs,” had become popular among Colorado fans this season.
Ironically, the Vibes closed out their last season with a 10-8 comeback win over the Jackalopes in September. The Vibes had a record of 47-47, marking only the second time in team history they finished with a record of .500 or better.
