Mayor Ron Nirenberg thinks San Antonio is due for another professional sports team – or at the very least a strategic plan on how to get one.
It has been more than seven years since the City of San Antonio and Bexar County contracted with a consultant to evaluate the area’s capabilities to add to its professional sports offerings.
The city and surrounding area has experienced tremendous growth and investment since then while also enduring the disappointment of being passed over as a new home to a National Football League franchise and a team in Major League Soccer.
Nirenberg told the Rivard Report this week he thinks it’s time to update the last pro sports study done on San Antonio in 2011 to see where the city stands now and where it might be in the coming years with projected growth numbers continuing to rise. The mayor said he plans to get that process underway in 2019, likely starting in the spring.
“It last showed us MLS and Triple-A [baseball] ready,” Nirenberg said. “I think the dynamic in San Antonio has changed dramatically since that report was updated last. So things have changed, and the trajectory that we’re on are certainly different, especially as it relates to downtown UTSA. That is changing the landscape. So we need to update that. We need to develop a strategic plan.”
Premier Partnerships, a consulting firm with offices in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, completed a review of the San Antonio market in 2011 “to ascertain the opportunity for major and minor league professional sports franchises in the San Antonio metropolitan market,” the company’s 271-page final report reads.
The study evaluated San Antonio’s ability to attract and support teams in the NFL, MLS, Major League Baseball, and minor league baseball as well as lower levels of professional soccer and Arena League Football.
The study concluded that MLS should be the City’s main target and that arena football and lower levels of soccer also would be appropriate pursuits. It suggested taking a “wait and see” approach when it comes to pursuing an NFL or MLB franchise, mostly because of the lack of long-term stadium options but also other factors such as having only six Fortune 500 companies anchored in the city and the median household income of $48,000 at the time.
The study didn’t rule out the possibility of an NFL or MLB team either relocating or being started here and finding success, but it said there were factors that would make it more difficult.
City and County officials believed they were taking steps toward attracting an MLS franchise in 2015 when they split the cost of acquiring Toyota Field for $18 million. But in October 2017, they were surprised when Columbus Crew ownership announced it was moving to Austin instead. It was another instance of franchises flirting with San Antonio only to chose a different home.
San Antonio currently supports the Spurs, the only major professional sports franchise here. In addition, the Rampage minor league hockey team, San Antonio FC of the United Soccer League, and the San Antonio Missions of minor league baseball round out the city’s pro sports franchises.
The San Antonio Commanders will play their inaugural season in the fledgling Alliance of American Football League early next year. Team officials said they have seen encouraging signs of support since the league was introduced this year.
Nirenberg said he has no doubt San Antonio could and would support an NFL team and he wants to make sure the city is the first place existing NFL teams look if they’re considering relocation.
The Oakland Raiders were in that situation in 2015 and 2016 and had a months-long flirtation with the city before ultimately deciding to move to Las Vegas, beginning next season.
The Los Angeles Chargers are the NFL team most likely to consider a move in the coming years. The Chargers left San Diego prior to the 2017 season and have been playing home games in StubHub Center in Carson, California, with a seating capacity of 30,000.
The Chargers are scheduled to play their home games as a leased tenant at the Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park beginning in 2020 when that stadium in complete.
“When there is an opportunity for San Antonio to pursue an NFL team at a time and in a manner that would make sense for our community, we should take that opportunity,” Nirenberg said. “So as it relates to any specific team, that’s my position. There is a dynamic at play in Los Angeles that is not entirely in anyone’s control. The world ought to know that if the NFL called, and it was a legitimate call, we would respond and we would respond in a way that makes the most sense and provides the best community benefit.”
San Antonio is moving from AA baseball to AAA baseball this offseason with the Missions set to begin the 2019 season playing in the Pacific Coast League after more than 100 years in the Texas League. The Missions are pursuing a new stadium in San Antonio, with hopes that it will be located in or near downtown.
Nirenberg has steadfastly opposed any public funding for a minor league baseball stadium, though he says he is willing to evaluate proposals. The team has put none on the table to this point.
Nirenberg is keeping the door open to public funding to help build an NFL stadium in the future should the need arise. The 2011 pro sports study concluded that the Alamodome could serve as a temporary home to an NFL team if one chose to move here, but because stadiums are such huge revenue generators for the NFL, a new stadium would be needed in San Antonio to sustain an NFL franchise.
“My answer today is no,” Nirenberg said of public funding for an NFL stadium. “My answer on everything, however, is show me something to even judge because right now, it’s all speculation. We certainly are in no position to build an NFL stadium on public dollars today. Does that hold true 15-20 years from now or even five or 10 years from now? We have to judge it whenever we see it. We will judge any deal on its own merits. We haven’t seen that deal yet.”
Nirenberg said updating the last pro sports study would help the City and other entities with policy alignment and efforts toward making smart investments. It could also give City leaders a better idea of how far they have come and whether San Antonio really is any closer to becoming more than a one (major) sports team town.
Nirenberg’s priorities never cease to amaze me.
San Antonio has a large number of impoverished people as well as being largely segregated and he’s having delusions about a NFL or MLB team.
San Antonio lacks affordable housing. We have a major issue with gentrification. Our public transit system is based on slow moving buses. We have lost much of our manufacturing jobs and our public education system with 16 separate and unequal districts amounts to defacto segregation.
No Mr. Mayor San Antonio definitely has far more priorities than more give a ways to wealthy sports owners.
What is the mayor supposed to do about your claim of segregation? Most people self-segregate with like people.
Again Pancho??
Your ignorance never ceases to amaze me!
Why is the lack of affordable housing the City’s problem? Not to mention the Mayor was the first to establish a housing task-force to study the issue.
The City has nothing to do with transit – if you have issues in that regard, complain to VIA which is an independent agency with their own CEO and governing board. The City works with VIA as do all the other municipalities in the County that VIA serves.
Provide examples of the manufacturing jobs we are losing (never mind we are becoming a national center for cyber-security). We are expecting another 1M people here in the next 25 years – are they coming here because there are no jobs?
The City has nothing whatsoever to do with public education – you are right that it is absurd that there are (actually 19 in Bexar County) that many separate school districts that fight for funding and which most have corrupt boards. And what is “defacto segregation”, and what does it have to do with the school districts?
And to top it off, a professional sports team (another one) will provide jobs and contribute to the economy. The Mayor is looking out for you – perhaps you can get a job as a peanut vendor in the stands of the new stadium.
And finally, stop writing in to this newsletter, because your comments are always moronic and unfounded.
Thank you, Pancho. Our city has a long way to go and many opportunities to improve the daily lives of our citizens other than pouring public money into another sports team.
I’d pass on the NFL and MLS, instead, we should pursue a team in the Liga MX league. Having a team in the Mexican premiere league would be huge for SA.
Liga MX is better league than MLS with more National players.
Good target
I agree with Nirenberg and Valdez. I think that with a second pro sports franchise in San Antonio, there will be a larger ‘wallet’ so to speak, from which to spend on improving the plight of the impoverished.
I support your opinion Pancho! Lol Jack, what did Pancho ever do to you. I really liked this article, and this organization in general. Keep it up!
With that being said, I couldn’t help but to laugh my butt off when I was reading these comments.
To Pancho: I totally agree, the mayor of San Antonio SHOULD have his priorities set on helping the most vulnerable people in his community. Then again, we have to be honest and clear about causation .The leader of this city SHOULD be vocal about raising awareness, especially when it comes to gentrification. That’s a problem
The mayor is making this statement only because his team feels like this polls well. We know GB isn’t going to support this kind of expenditure and it provides yet another contrast between the two frontrunners. And, I think the “public” would support a Lingerie League team.
I love Ron but this is stupid. Our city has so many other challenges to take action on. The number of sports teams we have doesn’t translate to a forward-thinking city. Pretty disappointed with this story.
Some of these comments effectively diminished a reasonable comment conversation about pro sports in San Antonio.
Seriously folks. We constantly cry for better paying jobs that Fortune 500 companies can bring. These companies, like it or not, will desire things like an educated populace and great restaurants and yes the best in entertainment options including big league sports. Gentrification needs to happen and outside money brought in by developers and big business is the only way to progress the educational and transportation systems, entertainment, housing along with a stronger tax base. Increasing population with more and more uneducated impoverished people is not going to improve our circumstances. Sorry ain’t gonna happen.
Here is the issue with Texans, sports and taxes. A large majority of Texans think taxes are theft. Many Texans think people in office can only tackle one issue at a time. They also believe sports markets will come to your city because you are just so dog on wonderful.
All of this is garbage. Columbus has a smaller population and has a lot more issues than San Antonio when it decided to invest in the city. It raised the crap out of Taxes. One of the things it purchased was the largest soccer arena in the country and the arena district downtown. Which later laid the foundation for what would be the NHL stadium for the Columbus Blue Jackets. They tore down large areas of the city and cleaned them up. They spent money on public transportation to allow people to take Transportation into downtown. People when these projects first happened sounded like every Texan….oh my taxes, oh there is so many other things to deal with.
Now Columbus is ranked as one of the best cities to live in. It’s the top 3 Sports market and top 5 sports market waiting on a NFL team and the public works project, funded by a large tax increase ( It was really only like 40 bucks more a year on my local taxes nothing astronomical) added not hundreds but thousands of jobs to Columbus. Amazon distribution and many tech companies now thrive thanks to those changes. From someone who has lived in a ton of cities and loves San Antonio. Step one create a real public transportation system a rail that connected everyone to the core of the city would be optimal. Run a line out to the Spurs. Get rid of the worst stadium , the Alamo dome and replace it with a muli-use stadium. (Let the Rampage play downtown) Find a realistic solution for a downtown AAA stadium so it shows you are serious about wanting real sports in your city. If you can’t even find and support a standard AAA team why would anyone give you anything better? Once all that is done make a massive push for MLS because no city in America should have a soccer team before San Antonio. The argument that no one can afford to go to these games is idiotic. You know who packs MLB games? The O’s in Baltimore who has a worse poverty problem and they also pack the Ravens stadium. Your excuses are Texas made and San Antonio driven. You want nice stuff but you don’t want to pay for it.
Sorry but you can’t have a steak unless you pay for it, you can only eat at McDonald’s. Welcome to life.