duncan228
05-23-2009, 10:54 PM
Spurs' first title fed appetite for new arena (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Spurs_first_title_fed_appetite_for_new_arena.html)
Mike Monroe
Rounding a bend in the San Antonio River during the Spurs' first NBA championship celebration parade in 1999, the barge carrying Spurs majority owner Peter Holt and other members of the ownership group heard a sound echoing above the rest of the cheers that was music to their ears.
A large group of fans, some of them with signs expressing the same sentiment, were chanting: “Arena! ... Arena! ... Arena!”
The Spurs had been working the political and business communities for months, seeking support for a new arena that would allow them to vacate the Alamodome, a multi-use venue that lacked the suites and club seating vital to the fiscal success of pro sports franchises.
On that June river parade day, a referendum was in the offing that would allow Bexar County voters to approve $146 million in county hotel and rental-car taxes to be used to pay for 84 percent of the construction of the SBC Center.
Holt heard the chant, and pointed at the group.
“That's when I realized it was for real, that we had a chance to get the referendum passed,” Holt said. “It all came home to me at that parade. When there were 250,000 people at the parade, people lining every inch of the river and hanging out every window, that showed me that the people of this community really did love the Spurs.”
Six months before that parade and Sean Elliott's “Memorial Day Miracle” shot, Holt and other members of the organization had reason to question the depth of the community's love.
Spurs president of business operations Rick Pych, who had joined the organization in 1993, had been the point man in the effort to gain approval from several taxing entities to fund construction of an arena that had been proposed for a multi-use area near the intersection of Interstate 35 and Loop 410 on the Northeast Side.
In the final months of 1998, with NBA players locked out by ownership in a contentious collective-bargaining process that delayed the start of the 1998-99 season, momentum for that arena at the abandoned Longhorn Quarry site dwindled.
“We had worked diligently, all fall, and right up to December,” Pych said. “It all came to a head at a meeting at Jefferson High School. We all made presentations to all the (taxing) entities. At the end, it was clear it was not going to move forward.”
Holt and Pych then turned their attention to getting a referendum on the November 1999 ballot that would give Bexar County's voters a chance to approve, or turn down, an increase in the county's hotel and rental-car tax that would be earmarked for construction of the facility now known as the AT&T Center.
Through much of the truncated 1998-99 season, the organization was discouraged.
“I do believe it was going to be difficult, and understandably so,” Holt said. “There were lots of problems with cities and teams building them — the political forces, cost overruns, the issue of rich owners and rich players getting tax dollars. Without the (NBA) title (in 1999), it would have been very difficult to get either the county or the city to have a referendum. We weren't getting anywhere — at least I wasn't getting anywhere. But after that championship and the river parade, everyone understood: Well, at least give the voters a chance to say ‘yea' or ‘nay.'
“That's when it all started to fall into place.”
The referendum vote, which came on the night of the Spurs' season opener in which the players received their championship rings, produced an overwhelming approval of the funding.
“From an economic standpoint, we went from a situation where we were literally losing $10 million or more a year, playing at the Alamodome, to a situation where we have been profitable,” Pych said.
The impact the Spurs' first championship had on the team's ability to thrive in one of the NBA's smaller markets can't be overstated, and not just because it enabled the successful referendum result. Phoenix Suns general manager Steve Kerr, a guard on the 1999 title team, believes it allowed Spurs coach Gregg Popovich to fully implement the program that produced three more championships in a decade in which the franchise has been as dominant as any in pro sports.
“That was a crossroads for Pop,” Kerr said. “The NBA coaching carousel can be unfair. So many guys lose their jobs before we know how good they can become. For Pop to overcome that early stuff and win a title allowed him the chance to blossom. It allowed Pop to be himself, and not worry about anything else.”
Three NBA championships later, the cheers and chants from the first championship river parade still resonate for the Spurs.
Mike Monroe
Rounding a bend in the San Antonio River during the Spurs' first NBA championship celebration parade in 1999, the barge carrying Spurs majority owner Peter Holt and other members of the ownership group heard a sound echoing above the rest of the cheers that was music to their ears.
A large group of fans, some of them with signs expressing the same sentiment, were chanting: “Arena! ... Arena! ... Arena!”
The Spurs had been working the political and business communities for months, seeking support for a new arena that would allow them to vacate the Alamodome, a multi-use venue that lacked the suites and club seating vital to the fiscal success of pro sports franchises.
On that June river parade day, a referendum was in the offing that would allow Bexar County voters to approve $146 million in county hotel and rental-car taxes to be used to pay for 84 percent of the construction of the SBC Center.
Holt heard the chant, and pointed at the group.
“That's when I realized it was for real, that we had a chance to get the referendum passed,” Holt said. “It all came home to me at that parade. When there were 250,000 people at the parade, people lining every inch of the river and hanging out every window, that showed me that the people of this community really did love the Spurs.”
Six months before that parade and Sean Elliott's “Memorial Day Miracle” shot, Holt and other members of the organization had reason to question the depth of the community's love.
Spurs president of business operations Rick Pych, who had joined the organization in 1993, had been the point man in the effort to gain approval from several taxing entities to fund construction of an arena that had been proposed for a multi-use area near the intersection of Interstate 35 and Loop 410 on the Northeast Side.
In the final months of 1998, with NBA players locked out by ownership in a contentious collective-bargaining process that delayed the start of the 1998-99 season, momentum for that arena at the abandoned Longhorn Quarry site dwindled.
“We had worked diligently, all fall, and right up to December,” Pych said. “It all came to a head at a meeting at Jefferson High School. We all made presentations to all the (taxing) entities. At the end, it was clear it was not going to move forward.”
Holt and Pych then turned their attention to getting a referendum on the November 1999 ballot that would give Bexar County's voters a chance to approve, or turn down, an increase in the county's hotel and rental-car tax that would be earmarked for construction of the facility now known as the AT&T Center.
Through much of the truncated 1998-99 season, the organization was discouraged.
“I do believe it was going to be difficult, and understandably so,” Holt said. “There were lots of problems with cities and teams building them — the political forces, cost overruns, the issue of rich owners and rich players getting tax dollars. Without the (NBA) title (in 1999), it would have been very difficult to get either the county or the city to have a referendum. We weren't getting anywhere — at least I wasn't getting anywhere. But after that championship and the river parade, everyone understood: Well, at least give the voters a chance to say ‘yea' or ‘nay.'
“That's when it all started to fall into place.”
The referendum vote, which came on the night of the Spurs' season opener in which the players received their championship rings, produced an overwhelming approval of the funding.
“From an economic standpoint, we went from a situation where we were literally losing $10 million or more a year, playing at the Alamodome, to a situation where we have been profitable,” Pych said.
The impact the Spurs' first championship had on the team's ability to thrive in one of the NBA's smaller markets can't be overstated, and not just because it enabled the successful referendum result. Phoenix Suns general manager Steve Kerr, a guard on the 1999 title team, believes it allowed Spurs coach Gregg Popovich to fully implement the program that produced three more championships in a decade in which the franchise has been as dominant as any in pro sports.
“That was a crossroads for Pop,” Kerr said. “The NBA coaching carousel can be unfair. So many guys lose their jobs before we know how good they can become. For Pop to overcome that early stuff and win a title allowed him the chance to blossom. It allowed Pop to be himself, and not worry about anything else.”
Three NBA championships later, the cheers and chants from the first championship river parade still resonate for the Spurs.