{"id":510482,"date":"2026-08-18T08:25:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T06:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=510482"},"modified":"2026-08-18T08:25:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T06:25:22","slug":"san-antonio-rejects-referendum-on-spurs-new-arena-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/san-antonio-rejects-referendum-on-spurs-new-arena-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio rejects referendum on Spurs’ new arena funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

REFERENDUM PROPOSAL REJECTED<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The San Antonio City Council<\/strong> voted 6-5 on Monday to reject a proposal<\/strong> that would have allowed voters to decide on the city’s contribution to the new Spurs arena.<\/p>\n

As a result, the issue will not appear on the November 3 midterm ballot<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A $1.3 BILLION ARENA PROJECT<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Public funding includes $311 million from Bexar County and $489 million from the city.<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n

Last November, Bexar County<\/strong> voters approved Proposition B with 52.1% of the vote<\/strong>, authorizing $311 million in county venue-tax funding for the project.<\/p>\n

The proposed arena is expected to cost $1.3 billion<\/strong>, with the city contributing the remaining $489 million<\/strong> in public funding.<\/p>\n

THE MAYOR’S POSITION<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Gina Ortiz Jones had pushed for a public vote, arguing that San Antonio’s financial outlook had changed.<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n

Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones<\/strong> had called for a citywide vote despite the fact that the city was not legally required<\/strong> to seek voter approval for its contribution.<\/p>\n

Jones pointed to a projected $158 million budget deficit in 2027<\/strong> and argued that San Antonio’s financial situation had changed since last year’s county vote.<\/p>\n

However, the $489 million in proposed arena bonds could not be used to cover the city’s operating-budget shortfall<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

BUFORD: \u201cWE CAN NOW MOVE FORWARD\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The Spurs CEO welcomed the council’s decision and said the organization can now focus on delivering the arena project.<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n

Spurs CEO R.C. Buford<\/strong> said:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cToday’s decision allows San Antonio to move forward on a path that was established through years of work, public discussion, city and county action and last year’s vote.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Buford said the franchise can now turn its attention toward delivering the project and its potential transformational impact on the city.<\/p>\n

THE SPURS WILL INVEST AT LEAST $500 MILLION<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The franchise has also committed to covering any construction cost overruns.<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n

The Spurs have committed at least $500 million<\/strong> toward construction of the new arena and have agreed to cover any cost overruns<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Buford emphasized that significant work remains, but said the Spurs are committed to working with public and community partners to deliver a downtown arena and district designed to strengthen San Antonio for generations to come<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Source: ESPN<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The City Council voted 6-5 against putting the city’s $489 million contribution to a public vote on the November ballot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":510481,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[399],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-510482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2026\/08\/Spurs-Arena.jpg","digistream_id":0,"digistream":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510482"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=510482"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=510482"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=510482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}