Talks on a new downtown venue for the NBA team began more than a year ago. But the city and Spurs still won't say what it will cost or who would pay.
If the plan is to ask taxpayers to help pay for a new downtown Spurs arena, the city of San Antonio, Bexar County and the NBA franchise will need a new plan. The University of Texas at San Antonio's Center for Public Opinion Research has gauged voter support for a potential Spurs move from the Frost Bank Center on the East Side to the center city in two recent polls.
The latest, released Monday, showed that San Antonians aren't really into it. RELATED: 'Project Marvel': City's downtown plans go well beyond a new Spurs arena The online poll surveyed almost 700 registered San Antonio voters from Sept. 11-16. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.7%. About 41% of respondents said they were opposed to a Spurs relocation, while 35.6% said they wanted it to happen. The remaining 23.3% either had no opinion or didn't know what to make of the idea. In a poll conducted three months earlier, respondents had been almost evenly split, with 36.3% against and 36.6% for. RELATED: What you need to know about a potential Spurs arena in downtown San Antonio In other words, the idea appears to be losing ground. Here's the question as posed in both polls: 'There is talk that the city of San Antonio may be working with the San Antonio Spurs basketball team to build a new arena for the Spurs downtown near Hemisfair and the Alamodome. Would you be in favor of the Spurs moving downtown to a new arena?' You may have noticed there's no mention of the possibility taxpayers will help foot the bill for construction costs. RELATED: Inside the city’s secret effort to woo Spurs to a new downtown arena I asked Bryan Gervais why. He's a UTSA political science professor and director of the polling center. Gervais pointed out that the undertaking has been shrouded in secrecy. City officials have barely acknowledged their discussions with the Spurs, and neither side has said anything about how much an arena would cost or how it might be financed. For a pollster, introducing the idea of spending tax dollars on the project would cross a line. “We’d have to ask ourselves, are we shaping public opinion instead of gauging it?” Gervais said. How many more respondents would have balked at a Spurs move if UTSA’s pollsters had worked the cost factor into the question? We'll never know. An information vacuum As any political consultant will tell you, lack of information about a big project involving public property or tax dollars won’t stop anyone from forming an opinion about it. The UTSA polls make that clear enough. A new arena could cost as much as $1.2 billion and would be located on public land: the current site of the Institute of Texan Cultures at Hemisfair. San Antonians will go on talking about the idea. They'll talk about it among friends and family, on radio call-in shows and in letters to the editor. Of course they will. For one thing, it’s the Spurs — five-time NBA champions, the city’s only major league team and now the home of Victor Wembanyama, who’s shaping up to be a superstar. San Antonio may be a small, blue-collar market by the standards of professional sports, but its Spurs fan base is deep and dedicated. And those fans care about where a new Spurs arena would be located. And they care about who would pay for it. 'Faraway deal'? Several weeks ago, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai told me the county is in talks with the city and Spurs, and could help with arena financing — provided it can secure support from the city for East Side improvements that potentially would make the area around the team's current home, the county-owned Frost Bank Center, more attractive to investors. 'A RIDICULOUS GIFT': Wembanyama is expected to supercharge Spurs fan base and revenue In 1999, the Spurs and political leaders sold the idea of a publicly financed East Side arena to voters with the implicit promise of jobs and growth for the surrounding area. The arena materialized. The jobs mostly didn't. The county judge wants some measure of redress for his constituents. He also wants to ensure the Fost Bank Center doesn't become another forlorn Astrodome, which fell into a state of decay after the MLB Astros abandoned it in 2000. But Sakai, who hasn't directly participated in the Spurs discussions, said he had yet to see a proposed deal. He might be waiting a long while. During a recent 'EN Vivo' session — part of the Express-News' series of live, online Q&As with 2025 mayoral candidates — District 8 Councilman Manny Pelaez said an agreement with the Spurs 'is so far off — this is a faraway deal. 'Right now, the only thing we've seen is just some very broad strokes,' the North Side councilman added. 'I'll tell you right now, nothing's been negotiated. It's not like negotiation teams are locked up in a room right now hammering out a deal that we'll be showing you sometime soon.' But that's not a reason for the city to stubbornly maintain its silence. San Antonians have a right to hear the outlines of what the city and Spurs are discussing and to have the chance to criticize, and seek to change, the parts they don't like. After all, a Spurs arena would recast Hemisfair, one of the center city's premiere public spaces; change the flow of vehicular and foot traffic in the area; take up public land; likely rely on public financing; and slight the East Side. The arena, if it gets built, would be the centerpiece of Project Marvel, an even broader plan the city has been hammering out, also in secret. Project Marvel is the city's code name for a sports and entertainment district that would include an upgraded Alamodome, an expanded Henry B. González Convention Center, possibly a land bridge connecting the Alamodome's footprint to Hemisfair's, and more. In stories published over the past year, the Express-News has pieced together an outline of the city's plans through numerous interviews, mostly with confidential sources, and our review of e-mails, text messages and other documents the city tried, but failed, to keep out of our hands. City Attorney Andy Segovia’s office has asked the Texas attorney general to reject several of our open records requests, mostly unsuccessfully. But for all that, we still don't know much. On July 19, 2023, City Manager Erik Walsh told me, 'The mayor and I have met with the Spurs, and there's nothing to share.' Fourteen months later, there’s still “nothing to share”? Remember that the next time you hear a city official talking reverently about transparency.
University Of Texas At San Antonio NBA Center For Public Opinion Research Fost Bank Center City East Side Express-News Marvel Institute Of Texan Cultures MLB Astros EN Vivo Peter Sakai Bryan Gervais Erik Walsh Andy Segovia Manny Pelaez San Antonio East Side Hemisfair Frost Bank Center Bexar County Alamodome T Center Faraway Henry B. González Convention Center Texas North Side Astrodome Project Marvel Victor Wembanyama AT&Amp Q&Amp
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
San Antonio Restaurant Reviews | San Antonio CurrentReviews on new and established restaurants and bars in the San Antonio area
Read more »
Spurs Offseason: Can Malachi Flynn Realistically Make San Antonio's Roster?The former Detroit Pistons guard has quite a few roadblocks ahead on his path to securing a regular-season roster spot with the San Antonio Spurs.
Read more »
San Antonio Spurs 2024-25 NBA Preseason Awards Odds: Wembanyama Chases MVP and DPOYWith the NBA season fast approaching, several Spurs stars are eyeing potential awards by the end of the year.
Read more »
San Antonio Spurs Promote Gorgui Dieng to Assistant General Manager of Austin SpursThe former San Antonio Spurs forward is embarking on a new career path.
Read more »
Spurs Offseason: Who Would San Antonio Protect in NBA Expansion Draft?The San Antonio Spurs won't have to worry about this for a little while longer according to Adam Silver, but if an NBA expansion were to happen, which eight players would be protected and why?
Read more »
Spurs Starter, September 23, 2024: San Antonio Spurs Week BeginsYour daily briefing on what's going on with the San Antonio Spurs, including news, draft & more.
Read more »