City officials are talking to the San Antonio Spurs are about building a new downtown arena for the NBA team. The Spurs now play in the AT&T Center, shown above, on the East Side.

San Antonio Express-News
Greg Jefferson, Molly Smith, Staff writers
July 18, 2023Updated: July 18, 2023 6:54 p.m.

City Manager Erik Walsh has been talking with the San Antonio Spurs about the possibility of building a downtown arena, a city councilman confirmed late Tuesday.

"This is a really complex project, and we're very early in the process," said Councilman Manny Pelaez, who represents District 8 on the North Side. "Sooner or later, the mayor and city manager will approach council members and give us something more definitive to chew on."

Pelaez said Walsh gave him several quick updates on his discussions with the Spurs in the last two months or so — "downloads I've gotten from him as we passed each other in the hallway."

On Friday, the Express-News broke the news that the Spurs owners — led by Peter J. Holt, whose family owns a majority of the NBA franchise — are contemplating returning to the inner city after leaving the city-owned Alamodome in 2002 for the AT&T Center on the East Side.

"This may have gotten out faster than Erik wanted," Pelaez said.

A source said the Spurs and the new owners of the San Antonio Missions minor league baseball team are discussing the possibility of creating a downtown professional sports district that would bring together sports, dining and drinking. Co-locating the teams' facilities, the thinking goes, could bring a year-round stream of fans to the central business district, which is struggling to recover from the COVID pandemic, and touch off a wave of new restaurant and bar openings.

Holt and several other Spurs investors also own stakes in the Missions, whose current home field is the Nelson Wolff Municipal Stadium on the far West Side. Missions owners say the stadium doesn’t meet the standards of Major League Baseball, which controls the minor leagues.

The city owns Wolff Stadium.

Bexar County owns the AT&T Center.

In seeking voter approval in 1999 to raise the hotel and rental car tax to build the facility, county officials said the 19,000-seat arena would set off a burst of economic activity in the surrounding community. The reality is much different. People attending Spurs games, concerts, the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo and other events at the AT&T Center typically drive in, park and leave when the fun is over. There are few nearby restaurants or bars to hang out in before or after an event.

The Spurs' lease agreement for the facility expires in 2032.

"There are some things we have to be sensitive to — that our partners at the county don't feel like we're stepping on their toes." Pelaez said. "And how does the team walk away from the AT&T Center, and the community not feel like they got ripped off?"

Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, who represents District 2 on the East Side, reflected that sense of betrayal on Tuesday.

“Off the jump, this leaves the question of what happens to the AT&T Center that never fulfilled its promises to spur positive development on the eastside,” McKee-Rodriguez tweeted in response to the Express-News' story. “A new stadium cannot and should not happen until there are steps to remedy this broken agreement."

Efforts to reach Walsh for comment were unsuccessful.