[Excerpt]
The whole effort has been largely shielded from the public, with meetings behind closed doors. Now that San Antonio and Bexar County have entered into an agreement to continue these conversations, the lack of transparency will likely continue.
That's why we're calling for a transparent, aboveboard, meaningful decision-making process that includes community input. We have no doubt that the push for Project Marvel will persist, but the public needs to be involved.
A lot of questions don't have answers. For instance, who stands to benefit from another new Spurs arena? How much are the Spurs invested in this community?
While San Antonio's Holt family remains the largest shareholder of Spurs Sports and Entertainment LLC, ownership now includes private equity groups.
Outside investment groups like 6th Street Partners from San Francisco, Earnest Partners from Atlanta, Austin billionaire Michael Dell and Joe Gebbia, Airbnb co-founder, billionaire and Tesla board member, would profit from the new arena.
We’re told taxpayers won't fund the latest Spurs endeavor, but if the city chooses to tap into tax increment reinvestment zone, or TIRZ, funds, that's still our tax dollars.
To date, every proposed funding stream the city has put forward requires taxpayer dollars, which is simply too risky for those of us living in the third-poorest large city in the country.
[Photo Credit: San Antonio-Express News]
Spurs Ownership Has Failed to Make the Case for a New Publicly Funded Stadium, San Antonio Express-News [pdf]