As long as the future of City Market is in the thinking stage, it’s good that the Ballard administration is thinking big.

Some of the more ambitious aspects of the long-term plan unveiled Thursday will beat tall odds if they become reality. But there’s no sense foreclosing them until the business, arts and social services communities have been given a crack at taking them on.

Out of patience with a 123-year-old landmark that is beset with problems and survives thanks to a taxpayer subsidy, Mayor Greg Ballard directed the market’s board to come up with ways to make it pay its way and truly enhance Downtown.

Among the options: Close the two wings and concentrate the operation in the historic main building.

The strategy launched Thursday envisions imaginative use of those wings; the east one as a fitness center and the west one as a venue for the visual or performing arts, repositioning the market as a 24/7 attraction.

That’s good news and that’s the easy part. The real work comes in finding investors who will take a chance on a facility whose only traffic in years has been for weekday lunch and a seasonal weekly farmers’ market.

Meanwhile, there is the bread and butter: the present and prospective vendors of meat, produce and prepared food. The market’s leadership says existing tenants will not be forced out as additional sellers are sought; indeed, the hope is for a jam-packed hall of colorful nutrition with the electric atmosphere of a big-city bazaar.

All that plus weight machines and violins? Before that scene plays out, there’s the matter of more costly renovation on top of the prolonged facelift of 2007. Then there’s the specter of renegotiating leases with vendors, who’ve had sometimes testy relations with management. There’s the need for a promotion budget. There’s a government that has no money to spare and has given the market nearly $300,000 this year. There is, finally, a recession.

The obstacles are formidable and the recent history is not encouraging. At the same time, though, the potential of this spacious and familiar gathering place cannot be overlooked. With help from surrounding development — especially at the Market Square Arena site, still frustratingly orphaned — City Market could be part of a rebirth of the east end of Downtown.

Or, the market could dry up into a monument. The coming few months should tell. The mayor is right to say that limping along is no longer an option. He and the market’s overseers now must give it the best possible shot at viability.