A conceptual rendering of what San Antonio sports district Project Marvel might look like in 15 years. Credit: Courtesy Image / City of San Antonio

The San Antonio Spurs want to ask voters in the May 3 election to approve raising the county’s visitors tax to 2% to pay for a new, $1 billion arena at Hemisfair, a Bexar County Commissioners Court agenda and media reports indicate.

Commissioners Court on Tuesday will discuss holding an election to raise public money for a new Spurs arena, according to that meeting’s agenda. Commissioners also will discuss the prospect of entering a contract with the city and Spurs Sports and Entertainment (SS&E) related to the project.

However, the county isn’t expected to take any action during Tuesday’s meeting, Precinct 4 Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert said in a statement released Monday.

The agenda item, which will be discussed during a closed executive session, comes a month after the Express-News reported that SS&E polled select Bexar County voters on whether they’d be open to hiking the visitors tax to 2% — the highest rate allowed under state law.

SS&E plans to use all the funds raised by the tax for a new arena, Calvert said in his statement. Additionally, the NBA franchise wants the question on the ballot for the May 3 municipal election, which also will decide the city’s new mayor.

Bexar County has until the end of next week to submit a resolution describing the project and proposed funding mechanisms to Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar’s office if the question is to make the ballot.

Hegar’s office also would need to approve the proposal by Feb. 14 to make the deadline for the May election.

In his statement, Calvert expressed concerns about what would become of the East Side’s Frost Bank Center, the Spurs’ current arena, if a new one is built to replace it. The Frost Bank Center is located in Calvert’s precinct.

“There are many unanswered questions such as how much money will the city of San Antonio contribute for the new arena, what funding will the county need for the Frost Bank Center to survive for the next 20 years so that the Eastside doesn’t have an Astrodome sitting as a dead carcass on an economically vibrant piece of property, and most importantly what do you, the community, want in terms of priorities with your tax dollars,” Calvert said.

Indeed, much of the economic development local leaders promised ahead of the 1999 public vote on the Frost Bank Center never came to fruition.

To avoid a fate similar to that of Houston’s Astrodome, which has largely sat unused for the past 15 years, Calvert will host two town halls to ask residents what they want to see happen if voters approve a new Spurs arena.

Those gatherings will take place 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on both Jan. 25 and Feb. 1 in the Freeman Coliseum’s Frontier Room.

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This article appears in Dec 26, 2024 – Jan 1, 2025.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...