Yeah, it was very contentious and remains so.

And that’s in a city obsessed with the team with a generational player.

I don’t understand how anyone gets a stadium deal done these days if San Antonio can barely manage it.

Wassup with all the new arenas?

Do San Antonio residents really pay twice if the county tax is on hotel occupancy and rental cars? Sounds like the bulk will be paid by tourists and convention goers. The mayor is just making noise for the sake of making noise.

The city of NBA teams should be on the payroll until their debt is paid back. The team wants city taxes, that’s fine. But once the stadium is built, the city wants tv revenue sharing rights back.

Atlanta is struggling partially because we subsidized the Hawks and Falcons so fucking much.

There was a whole program for a homeless services agency that was lost to federal grant cuts. Would have cost the city about 500,000 to keep it. Which is expensive. But the Hawks are tied for the seventh most profitable team in pro sports (according to Forbes). Largely due to the lack of labor rights for stadium workers (Georgia issue not JUST the Hawks), kickbacks/subsidies, tax breaks and bunches of shit.

Stadium deals are wild, cause you walk over homeless folks on your way to watch a performance at a publicly funded stadium. And you know that there wasn’t money for helping people who are often just people with no family support who went through an emergency at the wrong time.

But there is money to make sure Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen and Metallica can play in Atlanta.

Mercedes Benz, State Farm Arena, Turner Field, Truist Park, Bobby Dodd, Sanford Stadium…….

I’m pretty sure there’s enough venue capacity in Georgia that EVERY tax payer could attend a Metallica Concert level event at the same time while still having seating capacity.

I haven’t even listed things, outside of College Football and pro sports teams that take in tax money and don’t send it out to the same degree.

Fox Theater, The Tabernacle, Infinite Energy Center…..

13 billion dollar state surplus, we have all these fucking stadiums, but no goddamn money for a proper social services and housing framework.

SHENGOAHEBTJAJWBRBABROABW

Sorry, just burnt out. I’m sure San Antonio is in a vastly different boat then Atlanta and Georgia but it’s a mess.

I will say as a San Antonio resident and someone who is in favor of project marvel, I don’t think Gina was doing anything wrong by asking for more information and a deeper study in the first place before the first vote considering it was pushed through pretty quickly under the former Nieurenberg tenure without as much public information given. But considering the vote went through and passed, I don’t think this conversation she’s having now is productive and it’s performative in the sense that we all know a second vote is not going to happen.

Her mayoral tenure has been interesting to say the least. I’ve never seen the city so divided on a mayor where either everyone absolutely loves her or hates her with no in between lol

Well i guess this kills the argument that residents wont be paying for this.

So many new Arenas recently kinda crazy 

Billionaires extorting cities for brand new stadiums so hot right now

From the title I thought this guy was advocating some kind of Prussian multiple level franchise based on paid taxes.

If we’re going down that path, California needs 136 senators to give its voters the same representation as Wyoming.

I’m sure the people on the Spurs sub (a majority of whom don’t live in San Antonio) will be totally reasonable about this and not call her names or anything.

Anyways, a few notes:

-The hotel and rental car tax cannot simply be reallocated to something else, so that isn’t an option

-This project included many other things, some that already are either a) scrapped or b) delayed indefinitely. There is def people I know who feel differently about it now, even after the playoff run, given that. I bet it would likely still pass but it would be closer

-The mayor’s issue, or at least one of them, is that the bill was absolutely rushed through (true) they didn’t give citizens or reps any chance to review it (true) and the Spurs were promising no public \( other than infrastructure costs (true they said it, no idea if that’s actually true, maybe that’s the \)489 mil)

-One thing that not many people seem to know is that the Spurs play regular season games at Moody Arena in Austin. Austin companies have also been our jersey sponsor for a while. And one of our new part owners (Michael Dell) is based in Austin. So, that is the Spurs main leverage here. They’ve never explicitly said they would move there, or threatened it. But anyone can conclude that’s their leverage

-The mayor also loves picking fights, and never ever is willing to compromise or admit defeat on things. She also has pretty repeatedly been outvoted as the only dissident for many things, by other Dems even. So, she likely is resentful that the Spurs made her look bad, and is looking for a way to get back at then.

In other words, the mayor very likely wants to fight the Spurs, and some of her concerns are likely valid, some purely out of pettiness and self interest. Whether or not that’s a good idea or not, idk.

The mayor is feeling the crunch because of the city’s budget deficit is at \(150 Millie, she is reavaluating subsidizing 'for profit' entities like the Botanical Gardens and others, she has already asked/received the fee the city paid for the failed MLS bid, I live by the airport & planes are A LOT LESS often & I gather it's got to affect the hospitality community this city is geared for, it's not exactly just the SS&E she is 'against' but the FACT that the city 'needs help' and is asking 'step up' to those that can like HEB Valero and yes the Spurs, seeing other arenas be funded by 'private moneys' while the city (with a deficit) is footing a huge part (probably) got the mayor sweating, previously the SBC Arena (where the Spurs are now) promised development around it but nothing has happened so revenue sharing would be fair for Project Marvel development that would HELP the City the Spurs the tourist .... the payment the team is committed to is 'renting the downtown arena for 30 years' .... I have been saying that if WE the citizens help pay for the arena then it should be a '50+ year lease' then (I'm a huge Spurs fan & want this all to work out... but it's tough when things have gotten more expensive the economy is eh and the SofH is pushing everything up including gas groceries & the Big Ugly Bill goes into effect soon so its like this city is getting hit by prime Mike Tyson ....and property taxes are already high here so it's tough and it's kinda weird asking mega \) havers to just help out a little but it seems like begging so she is getting ‘bad press’ … it’s a mess that doesn’t need to be, we love our Spurs & gobble up the merch tix and watch parties at bars/restaurants… let’s get this worked out y’all)

I think we’re at a point where the deal for the arena is about as good as it’s going to get for either side, and has been approved by voters and the city council. It seems that the mayor’s goal is to have the public contribution to the arena be 0 which is completely unrealistic. It doesn’t surprise me at all that nobody seems to enjoy working for or with her at this point.

Under normal circumstances I would be more on the side of those who oppose using any public money for this arena, but we’re not dealing with normal circumstances here. I am not sure if people fully appreciate the potential level of attention, influence and growth that results from having someone like Wemby on your team. If he even comes close to reaching his expected potential you’re talking about international levels of attention and massive financial tailwinds year after year after year. And he loves it here! Give us them 15+ years of joy, man.

This isn’t like the Portland area fiasco where the owner wants the city to pay the whole thing. The Spurs are paying a significant amount of the project and will cover the anything over the projected cost. This is a good deal for San Antonio. \(311 million comes from venue tax, 2% on hotel rooms and 5% on rental cars. These are county funds specifically for projects like this and they are primarily raised through taxes on visitors. The remaining \)489 million comes from the city through a Project Finance Zone. When a city wants to built a new sports arena or convention center they have it approved by the state, then a 3 mile radius is drawn around the project location and the city collects the growth in hotel related taxes within that 3 mile radius over a 30 year period in order to finance the project. If this wasn’t in place the state would be collecting these taxes, not the city. This money can also only be used on these sorts of projects. The mayor is majorly fucking the city by jeopardizing a good deal.

Wild name for a publication these days but whatever floats your boat

Take it from a guy in KC… owners don’t want to pay and will love to places that will.

It’s not a coincidence the spurs play two games in Austin every year. The second the San Antonio starts to get cheap, the more appealing the trip down 35 will look.

As proud and happy as I am to be a warriors and Giants fan, like most I would’ve never voted for public financing to build their stadium/arena.   This general sentiment led the warriors who were coming off 2 titles in the past 3 seasons to build the chase center with zero public financing.

The Giants who had moderate success also built their massively popular at&t park with zero public funding in 2000. The Giants quickly went from an average attendance team to one of the top attendance team the next couple decades.

The 49ers however would have to move to Santa clara because our voters rejected their demand for stadium funding (500+ million) in 1997 and 2006.

This is horrible. I’d move just to not pay for some private team that doesn’t care about it’s citizens

I already voted twice lil bro

Surely the additions will add more wealth into the city in the long run though, no? You have the next megastar on your team and based on how the roster is constructed I can’t imagine that changing in the next 10+ years.