Credit: Michael Karlis
Pick up a local newspaper these days or turn on a news broadcast, and it’s hard to avoid speculation that the San Antonio Spurs may blow town if city leaders can’t serve up a deal for a new arena — and do it quickly.
For example, TV station KSAT last week ran the alarming headline “Could the Spurs leave San Antonio if a new arena isn’t built? It’s happened in other cities.”
Around the same time, the San Antonio Business Journal compared the debate over a new downtown arena to the Supersonics’ departure from Seattle some 20 years ago.
The hysteria isn’t limited to media outlets, though.
District 3 Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran has repeatedly warned that if a new arena isn’t built, the Spurs may fly the coop.
“We will lose significantly if we lose to the Spurs. For 20 years, Seattle has been waiting for an NBA team after the Supersonics left,” Viagran said during an Aug. 21 council meeting.
“I went up and I saw that stadium, and they are waiting,” she continued. “And, because they knew I was from San Antonio, they thought it was cute, and they said, ‘Look at the locker room we have for an NBA team.’ That was hard, and my heart sank a little. Then people talk about Las Vegas, and my heart sinks a lot.”
Viagran’s comments came moments before City Council, on a 7-4 vote, approved a term sheet with Spurs Sports & Entertainment for a new, $1.3 billion arena.
The city has agreed to put up $489 million for the project. Meanwhile, Bexar County is expected to throw in another $311 million by raising the visitor tax to 2%.
Voters still need to approve the term sheet at the November ballot box before that funding is disbursed to SS&E. In turn, the public vote has fueled more speculation by politicians and the media that the team might leave if voters don’t green light the public money.
Even so, experts told the Current such a scenario is improbable at best.
“Even if they lose this vote in November, I can’t see [the Spurs] not trying to come back relatively soon thereafter with a new and improved term sheet — and that new and improved version getting passed,” University of Texas at San Antonio political scientist Jon Taylor said.
Indeed, Taylor said it’s even possible San Antonio’s deep-pocketed elites would put up the money themselves should the Spurs seriously consider a relocation.
If voters say “no” in November, the city, the county and SS&E still would have ample time to hash out a better deal, Taylor added. After all, the team’s lease at the Frost Bank Center doesn’t expire until 2032.
Even if local leaders find themselves at an impasse with SS&E over a deal, the NBA isn’t inclined to allow franchises to leave so easily, according to Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Massachusetts’ Smith College.
“The league is going to be somewhat cautious, because the league doesn’t want to establish a reputation of having its teams picking up and leaving willy nilly from one city to another,” said Zimbalist, one of the nation’s top sports-economics scholars.
“It’s not good PR, and it also jeopardizes the relationship that teams have with cities. Because if the NBA simply lets everybody move, then the cities will be more cautious, and reluctant, to sign a long-term lease deal and to put down a lot of money when they see that as soon as the team becomes dissatisfied they can leave.”
Even if the NBA allowed the Spurs to jump ship, the process of moving to a different market is time-consuming and expensive, Zimbalist added.
First, the Spurs would need to find a new market with the demographics and economics to support an NBA team. Then, the ownership would begin the lengthy process of negotiating for a new arena and a lease agreement.
San Antonio economist Chris Baecker, a former City Council candidate, told the Current plenty of other cities may be interested in attracting the Spurs. Although the team is ingrained in SA culture, our metro area remains one of the poorest in the NBA. The city’s paucity of corporate headquarters — something critical to selling luxury box seats — doesn’t help matters.
“I can’t recall off the top of my head how many Fortune 500 companies are in Austin, but I know there’s a lot,” Baecker said. “That means a lot of opportunities for naming rights, more opportunities for sponsorships.”
But, even if the Spurs reach a deal with another city, the team would be required to obtain approval from the NBA Relocation Committee. The committee would analyze the move’s impact on the market and fan support before securing approval from the majority of league owners, a challenge of its own, according to Zimbalist.
“The league will also usually charge you some money or a fee for relocating as well,” the professor said.
What’s more, the Spurs haven’t publicly threatened to relocate, suggesting the hyperventilating rhetoric from local politicos and media outlets is premature.
Even District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte, one of the city’s fiercest advocates for quickly signing off on the Spurs’ tip sheet, has acknowledged the team isn’t looking to leave. Last month, during an appearance on San Antonio Sports Star’s The Blitz with Jason & Joe radio show, the councilman reaffirmed the Spurs “haven’t made those threats or anything.”
However, even if Spurs officials haven’t done so publicly, Zimbalist said pro sports teams sometimes hint to local politicians behind closed doors that they should keep relocation front of mind as they negotiate for new facilities.
“It’s not uncommon for that rhetoric to surface,” Zimbalist said. “It’s somewhat dangerous for a team owner to use it, because it’s always in the economic interest of a team owner to have a good relationship with the community. You don’t want your fanbase to think that you’re a cheap scalawag who doesn’t care about the town. You’d rather have the politicians using that rhetoric.”
During such high-profile negotiations, the public typically isn’t given a look behind the curtain, he added.
“One can assume that when politicians are making those noises, and the team owner isn’t, that they’ve had discussions about how they’re going to communicate [with the public],” Zimbalist said.
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