In its ongoing efforts to keep the East Side in the picture when it comes to helping fund a new downtown Spurs arena, Bexar County commissioners told staff to draft a resolution for funding the arena while also providing a glimpse into improvements at the Freeman Coliseum site.
With the commissioners’ approval on Tuesday, the county manager will prepare a draft resolution describing a master plan for upgrades to the site of the annual San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, and using the county venue tax to help pay for it.
The funds also would support the cost of a $1 billion downtown Spurs arena.
Bexar County and the venue tax are key to a deal with the city that would allow the basketball team to move downtown. County officials have been holding out for corresponding investment on the East Side, where the team would be breaking its lease at the county-owned Frost Bank Center.
But a looming statutory deadline to get the venue tax on the ballot after the county agreed to work with the city on “Project Marvel” is forcing their hand, and making at least two commissioners uncomfortable.
Pct. 3 Commissioner Grant Moody said the vote was premature.
“There’s a few things we talked about that I would still like to see fleshed out more,” he said. “I was going to be fine with directing staff to provide us more options and come back to court, but I’m not OK with the specific and very directed recommended motion that has been put on the table here.”
Pct. 4 Commissioner Tommy Calvert, whose district includes the Freeman, expressed concerns that the process was moving too quickly without community input.
“I do not see a lot of the suggestions that the community had incorporated into either the judge’s 18-member committee or the town halls that I had,” in January, Pct. 4 Commissioner Tommy Calvert said.
Locked out of much of the formal negotiations, the Eastside commissioner has sought to influence the improvements in his precinct, mostly without success.
“It puts me in a very weird position because I want to move this stuff forward, but I think that there has not really been enough time for the community back-and-forth that’s been a consistent refrain on these big-ticket items,” he said.
“Typically, in the past, all the commissioners were asked for their input … and it was a much more inclusive process.”
Seemingly impatient with the discussion Tuesday, Pct. 1 Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores reminded Moody and Calvert that the court has been talking about the issue for months.
“Those numbers have been given and I’m not sure why this is considered a surprise,” she said. “We are in a crunch time here, so it needs to pass today.”
Better expo halls and green space
A proposal for the coliseum grounds could bring the construction of two new expo halls with several other structures modified, plus upgrades to exterior buildings throughout and new gates and green space created.
Renderings developed by the architecture firm Gensler show buildings reconfigured for a variety of programming and paved walkways and landscaping to make the site more inviting.
The project comes at an estimated cost of $197 million and is an effort to attract more year-round events to the 166-acre site, including trade shows and amateur sports tournaments, said Cody Davenport, executive director and CEO of the San Antonio Livestock Exposition, which hosts the rodeo every year in February.
“It looks like an asphalt jungle out there, and it’s just these old barns thrown up everywhere,” Davenport said of the annual rodeo, which had a $330 million economic impact on the city this year.
“We’ve traveled all over the nation, and … the key word here is that it allows us to compete. It allows us to compete with outside entities that are all over our state right now, choosing to be in other cities and other locations in San Antonio because we don’t have facilities like this,” he added.
The improvements would also allow the site to better support urgent public health needs, as it did during the Covid-19 pandemic, said Derrick Howard, executive director of Bexar County Community Arenas.
Not the next Astrodome
The plans come as officials anticipate what the City’s grand vision for a sports and entertainment district in downtown San Antonio means for the East Side if the county-owned Frost Bank Center loses its primary tenant, the Spurs.
“It cannot be the next Astrodome,” Sakai has said, referencing Houston’s former arena, shuttered in 2009 and now used as a storage facility.
Howard said the master plan is a way to get ahead of that. “We know that the things on the site could change in the next couple of years, and if they do, there has to be a plan to be ready to engage if that change happens,” he said.
The venue tax, which is paid by visitors and collected on hotel rooms and rental cars, could yield up to $397 million a year if the hotel occupancy tax remains at 1.75%. The funds have been used in past years for improvements to the San Antonio River, sports facilities, performing arts facilities and community arenas.
If the county asks voters to raise the rate to the maximum 2%, that figure could go up to $449 million. Commissioners have not yet voted on whether to raise the rate.
Some of that money would be spent on upgrades to the Frost Bank Center, which is estimated to need $78 million in improvements through 2029, and an undetermined amount on the new Spurs arena.
Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai pushed the court to vote after a protracted discussion.
“I appreciate the debate, that’s the reason why I’ve allowed everybody to have their say, but at some point we have to make a decision,” he said.
The measure passed 4-1, with Moody casting the lone vote against it.
Pct. 2 Commissioner Justin Rodriguez clarified that their action “starts the clock” on taking the matter to voters in November, after some details are worked out.
“There’s no secrets here — the Spurs are looking at a potential new arena,” he said. “We, as responsible owners of [the Frost Bank Center] … need to make sure that it’s viable going forward, and that’s where the Rodeo as a partner comes in … and making sure it’s thriving there. That’s what this is about.”
