When Bexar County commissioners discussed options for a new San Antonio Spurs arena at a recent town hall meeting, two main questions dominated the conversation. Who would pay for a new arena? And, what would be done with the Spurs’ current home at Frost Bank Center?
When Bexar County commissioners discussed options for a new San Antonio Spurs arena at a recent town hall meeting, two main questions dominated the conversation. Who would pay for a new arena? And, what would be done with the Spurs’ current home at Frost Bank Center?
In response to the latter, commissioner Tommy Calvert proposed expanding San Antonio’s Stock Show and Rodeo. The CEO and executive director of San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, Cody Davenport, spoke at the town hall. “We got 1.5 million people that are about to come here just in the month of February,” said Davenport.
Calvert also pitched demolishing the current arena to repurpose the land. Calvert told Fox San Antonio, “Creating a graduate school with a baby animal nursery, building parking garages, and building more affordable housing could all be good solutions.”
Residents who attended the Town Hall had mixed feelings about the plans. Many cited the fact that Frost Bank Center is less than 25 years old, so they hoped taxpayer funds would not be used to build another arena so soon.
For now, the proposed downtown arena would receive funding from the city and county as well as the Spurs. Some private investors would also contribute to funding the arena. At this week’s town hall, county officials did include an increase in taxpayer funding as a potential option, but city officials recommended tapping into a venue tax to be collected from services like hotels and car rental companies.
No official cost estimates have been released by the city, county or Spurs at this time. However, News 4 San Antonio reported estimates of $3 to $4 billion.
Peter Sakai, county judge, told News 4 San Antonio, “We are not prepared at this time or have any of that information in order for us to be prepared to make any decisions that would commit any of the venue tax or any possible increase. We need to know how much this project will cost, we haven’t gotten those figures yet.”
