San Antonio City Council rejected calls to hold a public vote on its $489 million Spurs arena contribution on Monday, voting down a proposal to put it on the Nov. 3 midterm ballot.
The move means that last November’s election approving $311 million in Bexar County venue tax dollars for the arena, known as Proposition B, could be both the first and only time voters are asked about a public investment that totals more than $800 million.
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones called Monday’s meeting knowing she likely lacked the support from colleagues to get a city vote on the ballot.
Now that the council is facing a ballooning budget deficit, Jones said that investment of this scale deserved its own public hearing.
The majority of her colleagues disagreed, saying it was bad for business to invite the public to weigh in on major spending decisions that don’t legally require it.
“We should be very careful about establishing a precedent that every significant revenue bond decision requires another election simply because the dollar amount is large,” said Councilwoman Misty Spears (D9), one of the nonpartisan panel’s two most conservative members.
During public comment, the packed chamber was split between those who said voters are being shut out of the process and those who believe a county vote last year should suffice.
The 5-6 vote marked a slight decline in support since the council approved its tentative agreement with the team last year.
At that point, Jones wanted to pause negotiations so that the city could get an independent economic analysis on the sports and entertainment district. Five council members who supported the deal went around the mayor to put it on the agenda anyway, moving the project forward with a 7-4 vote.
On Monday, Councilman Edward Mungia (D4) was the only member to change sides, aligning with Jones’ call for a November election.
Mungia and the council’s progressives, Jones, Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2), Teri Castillo (D5) and Ric Galvan (D6), accounted for the five “yea” votes.
The six “nays” included the more business-centric members: Spears, Sukh Kaur (D1), Phyllis Viagran (D3), Marina Alderete Gavito (D7), Ivalis Meza Gonzalez (D8) and Marc Whyte (D10).
City vs. county funds
The concept of a new arena originated with city leaders, who spent years quietly exploring the possibility of how it could anchor a major downtown redevelopment effort known as Project Marvel.
But the $1.3 billion arena’s biggest political hurdle was securing money from Bexar County, which owns the team’s existing Eastside home, and was expected to put up $311 million of the $800 million in public funding.
County leaders came on board with the idea after negotiating an agreement to renovate the team’s existing home at Frost Bank Center, and helped secure support for both proposals on the November 2025 ballot, known as Propositions A and B.
Now nearly nine months later, the city is the one rallying support for its own deal, while the county’s East Side plans also seem to face some headwinds.
The San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo — expected to lead the redevelopment of the Spurs’ East Side home — has cast doubt on whether the vision voters embraced will ever come to fruition because private developers were promised some of the rodeo’s parking lots and barns.
Many changes have also been made to the City of San Antonio’s development vision surrounding the new arena site, including canceling plans for a new convention center hotel and scrapping a land bridge that lacks the originally expected federal funding.
This week City Manager Erik Walsh sought to tamp down on those concerns with a letter slamming “misinformation” circulating in the media, and insisting that the overall vision remains similar to when it was first proposed.
“As with any major project as complex and multifaceted as the sports and entertainment district, the initial plan is preliminary and has been, and will continue to be, subject to further evaluation, refinement, and potential modification as feasibility is assessed and additional information becomes available,” Walsh wrote.
Meanwhile, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai said the county hasn’t started collecting the venue taxes expected to fund its portion of the arena funding because its still determining whether it’s “protecting the public’s interest.”
Sakai also told KSAT this week that the county could face litigation if the city doesn’t produce its portion of the arena funding.
This story first appeared in the San Antonio Report.
