Photo courtesy of the City of San Antonio
The year 2024 will go down as a monumental one in San Antonio and South Texas, especially in terms of the state of its sports venues. A once-in-a-lifetime confluence of circumstances – both planned and unforeseen – have created a moment in time that is going to impact four (and potentially five) of the city’s venues and three of its major sports teams: the San Antonio Spurs, San Antonio Missions, and UTSA Roadrunners.
These factors include a looming deadline from Major League Baseball, the relocation of a university institution, and the accrual of public land all happening at the same time. Officials with the City of San Antonio unveiled a long-rumored master plan in November dubbed “Project Marvel.” Should it come to fruition, it would create a new entertainment district that would reshape the city’s downtown area.
The ultimate goal would be the construction of a new arena for the Spurs on a site currently occupied by UTSA’s Institute of Texan Cultures at HemisFair Park, a massively renovated Alamodome for the Roadrunners, and the two sites connected by a land bridge rising over the highway that currently divides them, allowing allow pedestrians access to both venues.
The owners of the Missions have their own visions of a downtown stadium as well, and are currently in the middle of negotiations to acquire land parcels needed for the site. The new ballpark would meet MLB’s standards and allow the team to move away from Nelson Wolff Municipal Stadium, and more importantly keep the club in the Alamo City.
These are unprecedented times in the city, and it has taken a herculean effort to keep track of all of the moving pieces to these massive projects. Madison Iszler is a business and real estate reporter for the San Antonio Express-News. She’s done a fantastic job covering these stories and I asked for her help to make sense of all the moving parts in these stories, as well as to share her insight on the forces behind them. I would recommend following her online on X here for all the latest updates.
Photo courtesy of Madison Iszler
EM: We’ll just jump right in and do a broad overview to start with. What is ‘Project Marvel’ and what can you share about how it affects the sports teams in San Antonio?
MI: Project Marvel, I think, should be transformational for all of downtown should all the pieces of it pan out. There are a couple of big facilities involved. There’s the Alamodome. We don’t know a lot about that yet, as far as what it entails and what other events the city would try to attract with that.
Also, expansion of the [Henry B. González] Convention Center, which has been expanded before, and then the Spurs [arena], which I think most folks are most excited about. There are some other minor projects like apartments, restaurants, parking, and the land bridge, which could potentially connect the Alamodome with the rest of downtown.
So, there are a bunch of different things with a bunch of different timelines and probably costing a lot of money.
EM: Hypothetically, if there were no obstacles at all in the way, when would some of these plans ideally get started?
MI: The City Manager, Erik Walsh, has said they’re furthest along with the Convention Center piece. They laid out kind of a rough timeframe for everything when this was first unveiled to the City Council. It’ll take a while, but they are being aggressive with certain pieces.
So, the Spurs arena, for example, said that construction could start in 2028, which is fairly soon. The Alamodome would be the last piece of the puzzle, because they said they couldn’t start on [renovations] until the Final Four [which is scheduled to be held at the Alamodome in 2025].
EM: Obviously, money and how things will be paid for is going to be a pretty major hurdle to overcome for this project. What are some other things that might be in the way that could disrupt Project Marvel?
MI: Yeah, the money is a big one. Where does it come from? What types of mechanisms will be used? Will voters be asked to pay for anything? That’s a big piece. There is also a lot of construction going on downtown right now. The Alamo Visitors Center and Museum, what’s going on at HemisFair. The Final Four is going to be a big deal downtown.
There’s a bunch of stuff being built right now. So, I think just in terms of logistics, figuring out how that’s going to work. I was just working this week on a story on parking and how the infrastructure aspect of Project Marvel will work. I think that’s another roadblock. City officials have said that’s part of all of this. They’re going to look at how they’re going to get people in and out of the area more easily and how much more parking they’re going to need.
That is definitely a question I’ve been getting from our readers – “Where the heck am I going to park?”
EM: One of the unique aspects of this, that I’m not sure many other big cities have to factor in with their major pro sports franchises, is how Bexar County – which San Antonio resides in – will have a say in the new Spurs arena. The Frost Bank Center site, rather infamously some might say, was built using County-owned land. So, the Spurs moving impacts the County greatly. Where are things currently with the County and their involvement in the project?
MI: [Bexar County Judge] Peter Sakai has said that he wants to see a plan for redeveloping the Frost Bank Center before he commits to anything, as far as funding. One of the potential financing sources city officials had raised [when presenting Project Marvel] to the council was maybe a county venue tax. Obviously, they would need the county on board for that.
The Spurs lease [at the Frost Bank Center] runs through 2032, so they could leave earlier than that. If the city is going to start construction in 2028, it’s not going to take that long to build, so the Spurs could definitely leave before 2032. It’s not clear right now if the county is going to be on board and it’s not clear what the plan around the Frost Bank Center would look like.
EM: Shifting gears, I know there is a lot more that will need to happen before we see developments from Project Marvel, but let’s talk about the Missions. This seems to be a lot closer to getting moving than the other downtown venues. What can you tell me about where things are now?
MI: At this point, it seems that the holdup is a parking lot that [the San Antonio Independent School District] owns. It’s part of the footprint of where the ballpark would go. The owners of the Missions have indicated that they need that as part of their plans. [The school district] hasn’t decided if they’re going to sell it. There’s been a lot of back and forth over the past couple weeks.
The City and the County have signed off on financing for the ballpark. Weston Urban [owners of the Missions] own the land around the area, but there’s this little, tiny hole that still needs to be filled. The school district came out with a list of demands that are conditions for them to sell. I don’t know what the city and the county and Weston Urban have been willing to budge on or not. It was quite a lengthy list of demands.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: On Monday, December 16, all of the parties came together and agreed on a cost for the land in question.]
EM: The Missions are really motivated right now by what is essentially a ticking clock from Major League Baseball. They have an urgency to get things done. What about everyone else involved in this process?
MI: That’s a good question and one that I’d like to get answered myself. Right now, the Missions aren’t talking. They kept saying, as you referenced, that they’re under a deadline and they wanted to get a deal done so that they could communicate that to MLB.
It’s unclear to me if that meant them just sending the most basic of documents and saying here is where we want to put it and the city and the county are okay with it and then MLB saying you’re good to go. Or does MLB want more details, like how are you going to pay for it? Do you have all the parcels of land you’ll need? I just don’t know, and the Missions have not said.
My impression at this point, given that the Missions haven’t been yanked yet is that they’re fine. They got the city and the county to sign off, but I’m sure if the school district doesn’t sign off, then that’s another story. I don’t know what happens if they don’t approve.
EM: I could go on and on with you about this for forever, but I’ll wrap up with the big question. I’ve heard some of these ideas and plans for more than a decade. Why now is all of this looking like it has momentum to happen?
MI: The City Manager has said that it’s kind of a mix of factors. He and other tourism folks have said that the city is losing out in terms of conventions. So, that part of Project Marvel is factored into that. UTSA also approached the city about what to do with the Institute of Texan Cultures site, so that’s part of it. Also, the Spurs lease runs out at the Frost Bank Center in 2032. That’s fairly soon.
Also, downtown has been in a weird place since the pandemic. It’s been hotel and tourism dominated for a while. People that live in San Antonio don’t really go downtown, and it’s been quite clear for some time that companies don’t want to go there [for office space]. In cities like Dallas and Houston, they have a bunch of corporations in their downtowns, while we don’t have that.
Also, the city has a ton of land in their control. It’s a huge footprint to work with. I’m definitely excited to keep writing about this and to see what happens with some of the pieces.
----------
Follow Eric Moreno's Stadium Journey on Twitter at @EricMoreno6477.
Comments