San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, right, attends a town hall last week alongside Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez. Credit: Michael Karlis
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones continues to lob criticism at pricy downtown development Project Marvel, this time telling East Side voters she wants the San Antonio Spurs to foot more of the bill.
As part of a non-binding term sheet between the city and Spurs Sports & Entertainment, the NBA franchise promised to pay $75 million to City Hall over the next 30 years in exchange for $489 million in public financing for a new basketball arena at Hemisfair. The team’s contribution is part of a Community Benefits Agreement, or CBA, comprised of cash the city is free to spend as its see fit with no strings attached.
However, at District 2 town hall last Thursday, Jones said Spurs’ total contribution is paltry considering the city’s needs.
“Seventy-five-million-dollars over 30 years, that’s $2.5 million a year,” Jones told . “You know how much it costs to do a speed bump? Sixteen-thousand dollars.”
Jones continued: “Two-point-five million dollars divided by $16,000, that’s 156 speed bumps — 156 speed bumps divided by 10 districts, that’s 15 speed bumps [per year] for 30 years in exchange for $489 million.”
Jones’s arithmetic draw loud applause from the crowd in District 2, which overwhelmingly rejected Proposition B during the November election. That ballot item approved the use of taxpayer dollars to help fund a new Spurs arena — a centerpiece of Project Marvel, the city’s proposed $4 billion sports-and-entertainment district.
Project Marvel’s backers praised the Spurs’ CBA, and the NBA franchise’s monetary pledge also figured heavily into marketing materials it used to convince voters to back Prop B.
Although Bexar County voters passed Prop B by fewer than 10,000 votes, the finalized term sheet between the city and SS&E detailing the financing for the new basketball arena has yet to be finalized. Indeed, the city hasn’t even acquired the land where the new facility would be constructed.
With that much still unsettled, Jones promised to keep fighting for a better CBA from the Spurs.
“So, it’s important, with this non-binding term sheet that we currently have, that we continue to ask for more,” Jones told the District 2 crowd. “But, now, when I ask for more, I need you to have my back.”
Jones’ demand that the Spurs come up with more cash comes less than a month after the mayor railed against billionaire Spurs co-owner Michael Dell for giving the Trump White House a historic $6 billion donation that she said could have bankrolled the San Antonio arena.
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‘I wonder if he was able to do that because the city gave up so much money for the arena,’ Jones said of billionaire Michael Dell.
The news comes as Bexar County residents head to the polls to decide whether to approve a new Spurs arena.
One political expert warns the vote could come back to bite council members who sought it, especially if the public perceives the move as a waste of time.