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Sequ's absolutely right about the number of empty seats. I was there, and upstairs, there were whole rows in multiple sections that were empty. The Spurs may have been able to declare the game a sell out on paper, but I'd be shocked if that arena was 75% full in reality, even after the late stragglers got there.
I've been to hundreds of games at the AT&T Center and to every home opener in that building; the crowd last night was comparable to mid-week game in January against a horrible team. I've never before seen an opener with so many empty seats.
The location sucks, but that is the location because Bexar County had to step in to get the building done and, therefore, had to put it on County property. In 1999, the Spurs tried to work the deal for this building with the City of San Antonio and proposed a number of locations for construction, including a plot of land next to the Alamodome and an abandoned quarry. But the City government insisted upon tying a number of far more controversial proposals to the Arena proposal in that election and the Spurs were understandably concerned that funding for the arena might be defeated by those who would rally in opposition to the other proposals.
Left without a means to have a public vote on arena funding and a looming threat that the team would move, the County government stepped in and made the proposal that was eventually put before the voters and passed. But the County could not propose the construction of its building on City property and the most logical plot of County-owned land for building the arena was the plot next to the Freeman Coliseum, which is county property.
Thus, we're stuck with a building where it is because it became the only viable plan for keeping the Spurs here in 1999.
