SAN ANTONIO – Amid a Spurs playoff run electrifying San Antonio, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones pushed Spurs ownership to cough up money she said it owes the city and asked one of its deep-pocketed owners to chip in for a new arena.
Jones sent separate letters last month to Spurs Sports & Entertainment Chairman Peter J. Holt and tech billionaire Michael Dell, a minority owner of SS&E.
From Holt, she’s looking for the Spurs to make good on a decade-old soccer deal gone sideways, while she asked Dell to consider covering part, or even all, of the city’s share of a new, downtown arena.
Her requests come as the city faces a budget crunch and considers the possibility of raising property taxes for the first time in 33 years.
Failed MLS aspirations
Jones repeatedly called for the Spurs organization to make reimbursement payments owed under a 2015 deal meant to bring a Major League Soccer franchise to town.
San Antonio and Bexar County paid $9 million each to acquire Toyota Field, which it owns through a Public Facility Corporation and leases to San Antonio FC, a soccer club owned by Spurs Sports & Entertainment which plays in the lower-tier USL Championship.
Under the lease, SAFC agreed to pay up to $5 million over several years if it wasn’t awarded an MLS franchise, which local officials hoped would happen during a league expansion.
The portion of the 2015 lease agreement for Toyota Field requiring San Antonio FC to pay up to $5 million for not getting an MLS franchise.
(SABC Soccer PFC)
But after Austin secured an MLS team instead of San Antonio, Bexar County officials acted in December 2022 to give the Spurs a pass on the reimbursement payments. Then-County Judge Nelson Wolff was especially angry with the MLS on how the selection went down.
“That was a really underhanded move of what they did,” Wolff said at the time. “So I think it would be unfair to hold y’all accountable for that.”
Jones said, however, the city needs every cent it can shake loose as it figures out how to close a $131 million budget gap over the next two years.
In a letter dated May 15, the same day the Spurs clinched the Western Conference Semifinals against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Jones congratulated Holt on the Spurs’ playoff run.
San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones’ letter to Spurs Sports & Entertainment by criley
She also highlighted the city’s budget struggles and asked for a “quick and fair resolution to the issue of penalty repayment after the inability to bring a Major League Soccer team to our city.”
SAFC paid the first reimbursement payment of $250,000, according to a city fact sheet, but none since.
In her letter to Holt, which she indicated was coming ahead of a meeting between the Spurs and city staff, Jones put the amount owed at $2.1 million, including interest, with an additional $1 million due this year.
“Payment in accordance with the contract would remind everyone of the strength for the City’s relationship with the Spurs owners — a relationship built on mutual respect,” she wrote.
Those payments would go to the city and county-controlled PFC.
While the money could be used on stadium improvements, it could also be transferred to the city and county.
Jones said she has not heard from the Spurs organization since sending her letter, “but my understanding is in conversations that they had with the city manager we should hear something back by the end of next week, I believe is what we’re looking at.”
“We have had discussions with the city and the Public Facilities Corporation to ensure all agreements related to Toyota Field support the long-term success of soccer in San Antonio. These discussions are part of an ongoing process, and we remain aligned with our partners on delivering a community-focused path forward for the venue. SAFC has been a proud part of our community for more than 10 years and we are committed to its success, with more than 50 employees supporting the team and venue operations at Toyota Field.”
Jose Lizardo — Senior Director, Toyota Field & STAR Complex
A city spokesman declined to comment on Jones’ May 15 letter to Holt or her subsequent letter to Dell.
Dollars from Dell
The plan to pay for a $1.3 billion Spurs arena calls for the City of San Antonio kicking in $489 million, Bexar County contributing $311 million, and the Spurs paying $500 million, plus cost overruns.
The county’s funding will be covered by a venue tax on hotel stays and car rentals, which voters approved in November. The city’s share would be financed through the Spurs’ lease of the arena, ground leases by developers and tax capture zones for local property tax and hotel-related state taxes.
However, Jones has been skeptical whether the funding deal, which she voted against, is really the best the city can do. And on May 21, she asked Michael Dell, the head of Dell Technologies and a part-owner of the Spurs since 2021, to kick in more.
The day after the Spurs faced the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals, Jones congratulated Dell on both the team’s success in the playoffs and for landing on TIME’s list of 100 most influential philanthropists.
San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones’ letter to Michael Dell by criley
Before asking him about creating and investing in “AI-native mental health facilities” and “identifying a collaboration opportunity” for digital tools to help cities and municipalities plan better, Jones asked Dell about “contributing a portion of or the full amount” of the city’s $489 million share of the arena.
“The economic environment is challenging and there are no signs of that abating with the implementation of the One Big, Beautiful Bill, persistent inflation, and the impact of tariffs, all of this layered on San Antonio’s status as the third most impoverished major city in the country,” she wrote.
Jones said she believes “people expect us to do all the things we can to collect money that we’re owed and ask people who can help us, who can help us.”
“So yes, the mayor of the third-poorest city in the country asked the seventh-richest person on this planet for some help for the arena, of which of course he’s a minority owner of the team.”
According to Forbes, Dell is now actually the sixth-richest person in the world, worth $224 billion.
As of Thursday, a spokesman for the mayor said Jones still hasn’t received a response to her letter.
