Over the past few weeks, San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has been publicly calling to include a vote on the November ballot concerning the city’s $489 million financial contribution toward the new downtown arena. The arena, predominantly designed to house the San Antonio Spurs, has previously been through a vote which locked in a majority of the funding.
In a 5-6 decision, the San Antonio City Council voted against adding the measure to the November ballot.
“I’m having a little bit of déjà vu because
I feel like this room was built exactly the same way — two sides, Aug. 21 last year — and we were litigating this exact same discussion, and nothing has changed, actually, about this deal,” said Dr. Sukh Kaur, District 1 Councilwoman.
After the vote, RC Buford, CEO, Spurs Sports & Entertainment, released this statement on behalf of the Spurs Organization:
“Today’s decision allows San Antonio to move forward on a path that was established through years of work, public discussion, City and County action and last year’s vote. We can now turn our full attention to delivering on that shared vision and the transformational opportunity ahead for our city.
We are grateful to the community, business and civic leaders, Spurs fans and residents who have taken the time to learn the facts and make their voices heard. There is still a great deal of work ahead, and we are ready for it. We remain committed to working alongside our public and community partners to deliver a downtown arena and district that strengthens San Antonio for generations to come.”
Although the groundbreaking is scheduled for 2027 and the completion is still many months away, it appears as though the attempts to adjust or possibly derail the project have been thwarted, at least for now.
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