{"id":439644,"date":"2026-09-18T06:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T06:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/439644\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T06:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T06:18:08","slug":"niosa-financial-records-show-multiple-years-of-deficits-leading-up-to-decision-to-suspend-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/439644\/","title":{"rendered":"NIOSA financial records show multiple years of deficits leading up to decision to suspend event"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The San Antonio Conservation Society says it canceled A Night in Old San Antonio, or NIOSA, for 2027 after years of falling attendance and financial losses, a major shift for the longtime Fiesta<\/a> event that helps fund the nonprofit\u2019s programs and grants.<\/p>\n

Viewers who no longer attend NIOSA told KSAT they had several reasons for staying away in recent years.<\/p>\n

Some said they did not like the crowds. Others pointed to safety concerns after a 2023 shooting at Market Square during Fiesta. Some also said they were afraid of being targeted by immigration officials. But the most common reason viewers gave was cost.<\/p>\n

After the pandemic, the cost to attend NIOSA increased from $15 to $25. With inflation continuing to affect household budgets, many people said they could not justify the added expense.<\/p>\n

Officials said attendance has dropped 48% since the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Financial records show the impact has been significant. Before 2020, the Conservation Society collected between $3 million and $4 million from the event before expenses. From 2022 to 2025, that number dropped to less than $500,000.<\/p>\n

That means the organization was bringing in more than six times as much from the event before the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Organizers said NIOSA did not break even last year, and said it spends $600,000 just between La Villita and security. Records also show the event has failed to break even for the past couple of years, creating budget shortfalls for the nonprofit.<\/p>\n

The Conservation Society has used NIOSA revenue to support other programs and grants preserving history across San Antonio. <\/p>\n

Public filings show the organization as a whole lost money in both 2023 and 2025. The conservation society would have also lost money in 2022 had it not sold a $4 million property.<\/p>\n

It has been able to stay afloat thanks to its reserves, but President Betty Buech\u00e9 said in hindsight, leaders could have stepped in sooner by seeking extra funds such as through sponsorship.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving lost money for the last four years, it probably would have been wise to do some after-action evaluations and come up with ideas like that,\u201d Buech\u00e9 said, \u201cbut we are where we are right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The nonprofit said it is not cutting any of its other programs and is exploring other avenues for fundraising.<\/p>\n

While NIOSA is not gone yet, it is also not set in stone that the event will return in 2028.<\/p>\n

KSAT obtained the last 10 years of public financial filings for the San Antonio Conservation Society for this story. We are working on uploading those documents and will update this story once they become available.<\/p>\n

Read also:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The San Antonio Conservation Society says it canceled A Night in Old San Antonio, or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[993,7185,14620,34182,82,84,83,632],"class_list":["post-439644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-downtown","tag-fiesta","tag-la-villita","tag-niosa","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-sapd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439644","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=439644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}