It is arena game time in the Texas City.
Anybody in the San Antonio, Texas metropolitan area have a billion dollars or so to spare so that the National Basketball Association’s San Antonio Spurs’ ownership can build a new arena? Spurs’ ownership, according to the San Antonio Express-News, wants a new building with an estimated $1.2 billion price tag. The ownership is willing to pay about 20 percent of the cost. Spurs Sports and Entertainment is thinking that its share of the tab should be about $240 million. The ownership is of the opinion that San Antonio and Bexar County residents should pick up the rest of the bill. The message here is this, San Antonio if you want to remain a big-league city and we are the only big-league sports team in this market you better pay for that privilege.
It is unclear if Spurs’ ownership is planning to build just an arena or if that arena will be part of a greater development which would include residential, retail and office space surrounding the building. San Antonio lawmakers recently passed a bill that created a downtown sales tax zone with that revenue earmarked to go to the city’s convention center and possibly a city-owned sports facility, the Alamodome. That revenue would not produce enough money to pay off the costs of a Spurs’ basketball arena. San Antonio officials want to keep the Spurs ownership group happy and have been talking to the ownership about building a new arena for the past year and a half. San Antonio officials are also worried that Spurs’ ownership may fall in love with nearby Austin and move operations to the Texas capital. Spurs’ games have been played in Austin because the ownership group wants to expand its fan base. San Antonio is a small market. The arena game is underway in San Antonio.
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