Mayor wants Spurs arena funding back before voters. Here\u2019s why…<\/a><\/p>\nMayor Gina Ortiz Jones has been pushing for a citywide vote, arguing that Bexar County voters approved the county’s $311 million contribution last November but San Antonio voters have not had the same opportunity to weigh in on the city’s proposed $489 million investment. <\/p>\n
Jones needs support from at least five council members to put the measure on the ballot.<\/p>\n
McKee-Rodriguez said his support for putting the issue before voters should not be confused with support for the arena deal as it currently stands.<\/p>\n
This deal is shaping up to be horrific, and people deserve to vote based off of new information,” McKee-Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
The District 2 councilman argued the arena could have broader financial consequences for the city, including its ability to pay for neighborhood projects. He also raised concerns about city departments and staff being redirected toward the arena project while San Antonio faces other financial pressures.<\/p>\n
“We’re also needing to orient entire departments and staff around this arena project, and these are financial obligations that constrain our ability to spend money elsewhere, while we’re already facing a growing deficit,” he said.<\/p>\n
McKee-Rodriguez also pointed to San Antonio’s history of investing public money in sports facilities, including the Alamodome, Frost Bank Center, Wolff Stadium and Toyota Field. He questioned whether those projects ultimately delivered the economic development promised when public investments were proposed.<\/p>\n
None of it pans out the way it’s supposed to,” he said. “And that’s why sports venues routinely fail to deliver on the promises that are made to justify the public investment.<\/p>\n
McKee-Rodriguez said he wants stronger terms before the city commits to the arena, including revenue sharing from sources such as naming rights. That’s an issue Jones has also raised publicly, saying she wants the city to receive a share of revenue from naming rights, concessions and parking.<\/p>\n
McKee-Rodriguez also wants the Spurs to make a longer commitment to San Antonio.<\/p>\n
At this point, we need a 50-60 year agreement,” he said. “As well, I want to see a commitment to affordable tickets and accessibility baked into a number of the developments taking place around the arena. Beyond it being a tool for measuring support in the direction we’re going on this deal, it’s just good practice.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, Spurs Sports & Entertainment CEO R.C. Buford released a statement pointing to the previous vote and calling for the project to move forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast November, the people of Bexar County made their voices heard,\u201d Buford said in the statement.<\/p>\n
He said voters approved a vision that includes a new downtown home for the Spurs, investment in the East Side and new opportunities across the community.<\/p>\n
We committed to respecting that vote and we will,\u201d Buford said. \u201cNow is the time to move forward together. This project is about strengthening San Antonio for the next generation.<\/p>\n
The debate over the arena \u2014 including how much public funding should be involved and what voters should be asked to approve \u2014 is likely to remain a major issue as city leaders consider their next steps ahead of the November election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2014 San Antonio City Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez says he will vote in favor of giving residents…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-405698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}