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Bexar County commissioners on Tuesday voted to move forward on hammering out a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the city and San Antonio Spurs for a proposed downtown home for the NBA team.
The MOU would outline the roles all parties would play to make a new arena a reality.
Commissioners previously voted to name County Judge Peter Sakai as the county's official negotiator on the proposed arena.
While the city and Spurs are focused on the development of a larger encompassing project called "Project Marvel," the county is focused only on a new arena.
Sakai made it clear the Spurs current home, the Frost Bank Center, and Freeman Coliseum, both managed by the county, will be the subject of a master plan to keep them as revenue generators well into the future if the Spurs end up relocating downtown.
"If we do the master planning and we get it right, as to what this Frost Bank Center is going to be, what the Joe Freeman Coliseum is going to be, what can be imagined [for] the redevelopment for the East Side around this county investment. ... we could really be a game changer for this community," Sakai said. "And not just for the East Side, but for the entire community."
The goal would be to have a master plan completed to educate voters before they go to the polls to decide if the county's venue tax would be used to help fund a new downtown arena.
Sakai has remained firm that county property taxpayers will not be asked to foot the bill for a new Spurs home.
Precinct 3 County Commissioner Grant Moody was the only commissioner to vote no on moving forward on work on a memorandum of understanding. He said all the parties need to put their cards on the table now for the talks to be serious.
"This MOU today, I don't see the value here," he said. "To me, it seems premature, and it seems really high level and soft, and it doesn't really advance the project negotiations."
Jeff Webster, president and CEO of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, and Luis Rodriguez, the president and CEO of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, both encouraged commissioners to move forward with the early talks on the proposed new arena.
The San Antonio City Council will receive an update on the progress of the sports and entertainment district on Wednesday.
How to pay for the new Spurs arena and the rest of the district — which is supposed to include a pedestrian land bridge over IH-37, an upgraded Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, a new Convention Center hotel, an upgraded Alamodome, and renovations for the John H. Wood Jr. Courthouse — will be one of the biggest subjects of that briefing.
No direct city or county general fund dollars have been proposed to be used for the project, but special tax zones like the Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) around the arena are.
Under these schemes, property taxes generated from new development could be used to pay for some portion of the arena costs and other developments as they’re generated over time.
Some critics have said that additional tax money from TIRZs could be used for improvements in the public interest, rather than reducing costs for major corporations.
The San Antonio Spurs organization was recently valued at $3.85 billion. The entire City of San Antonio’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget is $3.96 billion.
Funding from the Spurs, other private entities, and so-called public-private partnerships will also be considered to pay for the arena, according to city documents that will be discussed in Wednesday’s briefing.
The city council will also be briefed on the draft version of the memorandum of understanding between Bexar County, the City of San Antonio, and the Spurs that the county approved on Tuesday.
