With San Antonio facing a budget crunch, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones is on the hunt for money owed to the city — and she’s starting with Spurs Sports & Entertainment (SS&E).
SS&E owes the city and Bexar County nearly $5 million after the NBA franchise failed to bring a Major League Soccer (MLS) team to town as part of a public financing deal for Toyota Field, the Express-News reports.
During a mayoral town hall last Thursday also attended by District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo, Jones told audience members that she’ instructed City Manager Erik Walsh to track down corporate entities that owe the city more than $1 million and are more than six months late on repayment.
“If it’s over $1 million, and it’s more than six months late, we want to know about that,” Jones said. “You know why? Because when we go to budget season, and we’re telling people we’ve got to cut X, Y and Z, but maybe we don’t have to cut as much if we just go get that money. Frankly, we owe it to our community to understand how we are going to get the things that we are owed.”
SS&E officials didn’t respond to the Current’s request for comment on Jones’ demand.
The NBA franchise’s debt has resurfaced less than six months after the city, county and voters approved a $1.3 billion public financing deal for a new basketball arena for the Spurs at Hemisfair.
Jones and Walsh have both been thinking of creative ways to bring in additional revenue this budget cycle, the mayor said at her recent town hall. Property tax revenue has remained static while sales tax revenue has declined, she explained.
“To give you a sense of how tough the economy is, the bond amount [in Fiscal Year 2027) is … a lot smaller than we thought it would be,” Jones said during her most recent town hall. “In 2017, the bond was $800 million. In 2022, it was $1.2 billion. But based on current economic factors, our bond is $600 million. That’s significantly lower than what we were hoping and planning for, but what that means is that we have to be ruthless in how we prioritize who gets what.”
Apparently, that ruthlessness begins with SS&E.
In 2015, the city, county and SS&E acquired Toyota Field for $21 million with the hopes of landing an MLS expansion team. As part of that deal, SS&E would be required to cough up $5 million if it failed to lure an MLS team to San Antonio by 2021, as previously reported by the Current.
As of press time, there’s no MLS team in San Antonio, nor is one expected to come to town anytime soon. Instead, Toyota Field’s primary tenant is the minor-league San Antonio FC, also owned and operated by SS&E.
SS&E has repaid the city $250,000 since it failed soccer experiment but has missed more than $2 million in scheduled payments, including interest, according to the Express-News’ calculations.
Those missed payments could be because Bexar County Commissioners in December 2022 decided to scrap the $5 million fine if SS&E committed to leasing Toyota Field for one additional year at a cost of $100,000.
However, San Antonio City Council never approved the lease change, meaning SS&E is still legally the hook to the city for $5 million.
This isn’t the first time Jones has taken aim at SS&E, though.
Last month, District 7 Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito and District 10 Councilman balked at a proposal from Jones to ask SS&E to enter into a revenue-sharing agreement in exchange for publicly financing the new basketball arena.
Jones said the additional revenue could be used to help pay for more police hires — something Alderete Gavito and Whyte have been advocating for.
Even so, Alderete Gavito was skeptical.
“We can’t ask the private sector to open up its books to us,” Alderete Gavito told the Current. “That’s like telling H-E-B, ‘Hey, for every gallon of milk you’re selling, give $1 to the city. It’s just not going to happen.”
As for the Spurs, they’re gearing-up for their first playoff run since 2019, with the first-round set to kick-off at the Frost Bank Center at 8 p.m.
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