How city hopes to pay for proposed Sports and Entertainment District

How will the proposed San Antonio Sports and Entertainment District project be paid for? And will the burden fall on taxpayers?

The News 4 I-Team asked those questions for you after the announcement.

City officials said several times: taxpayer money from residents will not be paying for the new Spurs arena.

They are looking at private investment and a number of special taxes paid by visitors.

Beyond that, there weren’t a lot of details

“I need to see some numbers about that,” said District 9 Councilmember John Courage.

Councilmembers were impressed by the vision, but they wanted specifics and city staff said it’s too early even to give a cost estimate.

“We don’t have a dollar amount,” said City Manager Erik Walsh.

However, internal city records obtained by the News 4 I-Team state an estimate of three to four billion dollars for the entire project.

Taxpayers may be asked to approve a bond measure to pay just for infrastructure: like roadways, park and neighborhood improvements.

The city may also use something called a Project Finance Zone approved by the Texas Legislature. It sets a three mile radius around both the convention center and the Alamodome.

The city gets to keep the state’s portion of hotel occupancy taxes and sales taxes within those zones. The city could also use its own portion of the hotel and occupancy tax.

In its proposal the city also listed Bexar County’s venue tax as a potential funding source. Bexar County was also listed as one of the four main partners along with UTSA, the city and the Spurs.

However, city officials did not give more details when asked about the county’s participation.

“Talk to the county about that. We’re not going to put words in their mouth but the county has been present and part of the conversations for the duration,” said Mayor Ron Nirenberg.

Late Thursday however, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai told the News 4 I-Team: “My staff and I were not supplied with a copy of the Spurs presentation in advance nor were we briefed. We are still evaluating the material that was presented today to city council.”

The first improvement the city wants to start on is the expansion of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. Staff says they will come back to the city council with a feasibility study on how to pay for that on December 4th.