E-N: Spurs want $10 million released for arena

**duncan228** · 05-23-2009

Edit: Headline changed.

Spurs want $10 million released for arena

Spurs seek additional money for AT&T improvements
By Guillermo X. Garcia - Express-News

The San Antonio Spurs are seeking $10 million in Bexar County bond money for facility improvements at the county-owned AT&T Center in addition to the $75 million in bonds that voters approved last year.

Last week, Bexar County Commissioners put off approving a contract that would keep the Spurs in San Antonio until 2032, five years past the original deal, after Commissioner Tommy Atkisson complained about rushed negotiations.

County officials and the Spurs stressed the contract is simply an extension to the original pact the two signed in 1999, when the bond vote that secured the funds to construct the Spurs home court was signed. Both sides claimed there would be no monetary changes to the extension.

But tucked into the 12-page do ent is the Spurs' request for the $10 million, part of $24 million still available from the 1999 bond election.

Some of the other parties to the contract — the San Antonio Livestock and Exposition, Inc. and the Community Arenas Board, which acts as the county's landlord at the complex — apparently hadn't seen the proposed changes and were concerned with some of the do ent's language.

The deal, brokered by Commissioner Paul Elizondo, was completed last Tuesday , less than two hours before commissioners met, but not with enough time for the other parties to review it, Atkisson said.

He moved to postpone the vote so that those groups could be briefed.

The pact is an extension of the agreement with the Spurs that allows them access to the $75 million in venue tax revenue bonds that voters approved to finance AT&T Center capital improvements in 2008, funded through a tax on hotel rooms and rental cars.

The Spurs, who under the pact are obliged to kick in $15 million, pushed to get the item onto Tuesday's county agenda, Elizondo said.

Although the Spurs have agreed they won't be dipping into the $75 million bond fund before 2012 — they'll have to finance any improvements made to the stadium before then themselves, although they could seek reimbursement later — team officials were anxious to get the contract signed.

“It has been a year since the bond election and we were hoping to get this completed by the one-year anniversary,” said Leo Gomez, vice president for Spurs Sports and Entertainment, the holding company that owns the Spurs.

He noted that club officials wanted a signed contract before they begin laying out their plans, which the commissioners must pre-approve, for whatever changes they plan for the center over the coming decades.

“The situation ended up clumsy, time just ran out,” Elizondo said. “Some of the commissioners were confused, or didn't remember details, but they just didn't want to move forward without having had time to analyze the final product.”

The Spurs “are not getting a blank check, we are not giving the farm away here, but this contract does favor them, by and large,” Elizondo acknowledged. Originally, the Spurs had sought $110 million from the 2008 bond issue, but negotiations brought it down to $75 million.

David Marquez, the county's economic development director, said the agreement “guarantees that the Spurs won't be leaving San Antonio and that the AT&T Center will remain an attractive, technologically up-to-date facility that the fans will enjoy.”

A meeting is set for later this week, during which the Spurs will lay out details of the contract, Gomez said.

He declined to discuss what facility improvements the Spurs may be contemplating.

**raspsa** · 05-23-2009

Spurs' fanswould be more excited if the headlines read:
" SPURS SEEK ADDITIONAL MONEY FOR ROSTER IMPROVEMENT"

**Bender** · 05-24-2009

dang, raspa beat me to it. I was gonna say why don't they improve the team first...

**exstatic** · 05-24-2009

Money first, then players. The improvements open revenue streams that can then be invested into players. I don't know how many of you remember the teams in the AlamoDome. At that point the Spurs were borrowing money to make payroll the last two years. They rarely exceeded the cap, and only payed one premium salary. They had to borrow that cash to pay Tim in 2000-2002. He was the second big salary after David. Now they pay Tim, Tony, and Manu, and go up to, and sometimes a little over the tax. That's a huge difference from 8-10 years ago.