San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said that she wants the Spurs owners “to pay” money they owe to the city of San Antonio and Bexar County, according to Molly Smith of the SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS. Spurs Sports & Entertainment owes the city of San Antonio and Bexar County $5M, but “neither government has made an effort to collect it” – even as they have agreed to spend public dollars on a $1.3B Spurs arena. The city, county and SS&E went in together to acquire Toyota Field from philanthropist and onetime developer Gordon Hartman in 2015 in the “hopes of luring” an MLS expansion team. As part of the $21M deal, SS&E was on the hook for a $5M “reimbursement payment” for part of the public financing if it failed to bring an MLS team to San Antonio by 2021. San Antonio FC’s lease agreement says that the $5M repayment “was to be repaid gradually from 2021 to 2028.” City Manager Erik Walsh provided information to the City Council noting SS&E has “repaid $250,000.” However, Walsh noted that “it has missed” $1.75M worth of scheduled payments. After factoring in interest, that outstanding balance “amounts to more than” $2M. If SS&E had acquired an MLS team, the city and county had “planned to ask voters to approve up to” $45M in public funding for a stadium expansion (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, 4/13).
