Voters officially signed off on plans for a new $1.3 billion NBA arena for the San Antonio Spurs, approving Proposition B with 52.1% of the vote Tuesday night.
The vote means roughly a quarter of the arena’s funding will come from the Bexar County venue tax — or fees on hotels and rental cars — which will be increased and extended as part of the ballot proposition.
The rest of the funding will come from the city of San Antonio, which is using tax reinvestments to provide $489 million without a required public vote, and the Spurs, which expect to put in about $500 million.
City leaders have already signed off on their agreement with the Spurs leadership, including a nonrelocation agreement to keep the team calling San Antonio home for the next 30 years in exchange for help funding the new arena.
That agreement was contingent on Tuesday’s vote, meaning the team has what it needs to start planning the new sports and entertainment district.
Spurs Jesus and fans celebrate the election results after finding out Props A and B pass during the Spurs election night watch party on Tuesday night at River North Icehouse. Credit: Amber Esparza / San Antonio Report
At a Spurs election night party at River North Icehouse, cheers and “Go Spurs, go,” chants broke out when election results began to load on attendees’ phones and computers.
“The community has spoken,” Spurs chairman Peter J. Holt said. “We love this city, we love this county, and the county and the city love us back.”
The Spurs have been in San Antonio since B.J. “Red” McCombs bought the team here in 1973 — part of his vision to bring a professional sports team to the HemisFair Arena downtown.
Since then the team has moved twice, to the NFL-style Alamodome that then-Mayor Henry Cisneros championed in the early 1990s, and later the AT&T Center the county built for the Spurs on the East Side, known today as the Frost Bank Center.
The Alamodome was never a good fit because it was designed to entice an NFL team that didn’t end up materializing. The AT&T Center was built for basketball, but never drew the surrounding development leaders hoped it would attract to the East Side, contributing to what the team’s leaders say has been a poorly rated fan experience.
By increasing and extending the venue tax, county leaders now also have money and permission to convert their existing arena into a year-round stock show and rodeo district.
San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones speaks with Spurs Managing Partner Peter J. Holt during the Spurs’ Win Together election night watch party at River North Icehouse on Tuesday evening. Credit: Amber Esparza / San Antonio Report
County leaders wanted a plan to ensure the venue doesn’t become the abandoned sports complex like the Houston Astrodome, and in the end, Proposition A’s rodeo plans wound up even more popular than the Spurs arena.
“We’re ready to do something really special that’s going to help the Spurs. It’s going to help the rodeo. It’s going to help all sectors of the community, and it’s going to be right in the heart of our city,” Holt said at a Win Together PAC election night watch party Tuesday.
The team’s effort to return downtown comes as many sports franchises are now pivoting to what’s known as sports and entertainment districts, which involve surrounding arena or stadiums with mixed use development like bars, restaurants, retail and apartments.
In the case of the Spurs, team leaders are promising to deliver that new development themselves, which is expected to provide the property taxes to repay bonds issued to build the arena.
The ask also came as professional sports teams across the country have had a harder time bringing voters on board with publicly funded arenas, and early polling showed support for Prop B underwater.
A group of environmental activists and neighborhood leaders, known as No! Project Marvel, printed their own yard signs opposing the idea before it had even been presented to the City Council.
Meanwhile a PAC aligned with the 50-year-old community activist group COPS/Metro Alliance, which fought the Alamodome in 1989 and plans for failed PGA golf course in the early 2000s, organized to fight Prop B from pulling public resources into what opponents fear could be an economic development folly.
COPS/METRO leader Father Jimmy Drennan and organization members watch early election numbers roll in at the COPS/Metro election night watch party. Credit: Diego Medel / San Antonio Report
On Tuesday night, COPS/Metro leader Father Jimmy Drennan said the Prop B result “shows that people love the Spurs.
“But with the number of people that have come out to vote, they are also people who have helped articulate a vision that says affordable housing, safe neighborhoods, long-term job training with high paying jobs, safety and security in our communities,” he said at a watch party at the Friendly Spot. “We are committed … to work with our elected officials, with our business leaders, and with the citizenry of San Antonio to create a vision that does not do one at the expense of the other.”
In the face of pushback, a PAC aligned with the team poured more than $7 million into its campaign supporting Prop B, and was still sending text messages from local leaders and celebrities like former Mayor Ron Nirenberg and actress Eva Longoria nearly until the polls closed on Tuesday.
Election Day turnout seemed to reflect the heavy investment, adding roughly 100,000 votes and delaying the early results from being announced while hundreds of voters in line finished casting their ballots after 7 p.m.
Arena timeline
City Manager Erik Walsh said in recent weeks that the City Council will come back in early 2026 to hammer out the remaining details of its agreement with the Spurs, including parking arrangements now that a planned land bridge over Interstate-17 has been scrapped, how to spend a $75 million community benefits agreement the team agreed to give back to the city.
Walsh projected a 60-month timeline for designing and constructing the arena, and expressed a desire to see that other parts of the overall vision, known as Project Marvel, to happen concurrently.
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, who sought unsuccessfully to slow the deal earlier this year, also wants to revisit who profits from portions of the deal like concessions and naming rights at the arena, and whether affordable housing could be included.
“I think what’s important is to make sure that folks know that there’s going to be a San Antonio on Nov. 5 — regardless of the outcome of the propositions,” Jones said during an October panel discussion hosted by the San Antonio Report. “I think it’s really important that we continue to negotiate.”
D1 council member Sukh Kaur celebrates with former assistant city manager Lori Houston as early results come in during the Spurs’ Win Together election night watch party at River North Icehouse on Tuesday evening. Credit: Amber Esparza / San Antonio Report
Both Jones and Sakai attended the Spurs’ watch party Tuesday night at River North Icehouse, where Holt vowed to continue working with the mayor on some of the remaining sticking points.
“Great partnerships sometimes have disagreements, and so we are excited to welcome Mayor Jones, and we’re so happy she’s here,” Holt said. “We’re so happy to work together with her on the future, no matter what that looks like.”
Several council members also attended the Spurs’ election night party and said the sports and entertainment district’s design should include community input — a sticking point of the project so far, as many of Prop B’s most vocal critics cite the closed-door nature of early negotiations as reason for their opposition.
The arena and surrounding district will be in Councilwoman Sukh Kaur’s District 1. She said it was important that affordable housing and opportunity for local businesses be included in a sports and entertainment district.
As the favorable results rolled in late Tuesday, Holt said the Spurs were just starting the design process for the district around the planned arena, but said it would be “uniquely San Antonio” and incorporate local stakeholders.
“We’re at the very beginning of the design stage,” Holt said. “We’re open to anything that makes the sports and entertainment district successful, that will ultimately serve the community, which is going to be a fun and exciting and creative and collaborative process.”
Council members are also preparing to finalize an agreement for their funding of the Spurs and hammer out a community benefits agreement with the team.
“We have to come together and figure out what we’re going to do with this community benefits agreement,” Kaur said. “One thing I’ve already started advocating for, and going to continue pushing tomorrow, is a joint city-county appointed task force that determines how the CBA moves forward.”
Diego Medel contributed to this report.