{"id":954371,"date":"2026-07-23T16:51:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/954371\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T16:51:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:51:21","slug":"faces-of-the-spurs-listening-tour-promise-concern-on-new-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/954371\/","title":{"rendered":"Faces of the Spurs listening tour: ‘Promise’, concern on new arena"},"content":{"rendered":"

About three dozen people snacked on complimentary platters of sandwiches and guacamole cups topped with crabmeat Wednesday evening during one of the last of a series of Spurs listening sessions.<\/p>\n

Spurs Sports & Entertainment has been hosting a series of 10 \u201ccommunity conversations<\/a>\u201d in the past week or so to gather input on Project Marvel, the $4 billion planned arena district<\/a> first introduced in late 2024.<\/p>\n

There are two more chances to weigh in \u2014\u00a0 today, July 23, at Morgan\u2019s Wonderland, and Monday, July 27, at the San Antonio Shrine Auditorium, 901 N. Loop 1604 West. Both meetings start at 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

The conversations at the most recent session at Our Lady of the Lake University ranged from concerns about affordability, traffic and transparency to fan nostalgia for the team\u2019s glory days and former Spurs center David Robinson, and anticipation for a new arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got proponents and opponents, and then the curious,\u201d Bobby Perez, chief legal officer and general counsel, Spurs Sports and Entertainment told the Report. \u201cPeople are coming, and they\u2019re learning and they\u2019re participating, and so I think the feedback that we\u2019re getting will be invaluable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most who attended the session in the university library said they came just to listen and learn more about the plans for a sports and entertainment district first unveiled as Project Marvel.<\/p>\n

They also summed up, in one word, their hopes for the Spurs\u2019 new home downtown.<\/p>\n

\u201cPromise,\u201d said downtown San Antonio resident Barbara Mycka, adding it heralds something better, something like what other cities have built.<\/p>\n

Faces of the Spurs listening tour<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what others had to say:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWhen the Spurs played at Hemisfair \u2026 this really was a place the whole family would go. Those were fun times \u2014 to be able to have my son being around the game when he was little. When they moved to the Frost Bank Center, a lot of that was lost. It was a mistake to leave [downtown]. We lost a lot of what is San Antonio by breaking away from it. It would be nice to [be] able to enjoy the downtown area, the community, and everything. That\u2019s one thing I\u2019m very excited about. \u2014 Ravi Ganeshappa, who\u2018s lived in San Antonio since 1983 and attended the session to learn more about how traffic into and out of the district would be managed<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Ravi Ganeshappa attended a listening session for the downtown sports and entertainment district at Our Lady of the Lake University on Wednesday. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe Sisters came from France and other countries to begin what we enjoy in education, healthcare and social outreach, and if there\u2019s any way to acknowledge that [in the district] as part of the history and the inheritance of San Antonio \u2026 right now I don\u2019t see that anywhere. We\u2019re old, and we would like very much to have something that recognizes the heritage, the inheritance of this city. I don\u2019t want to die having people forget, or not know.\u201d \u2014 Sister Rose Kruppa, a member of the Congregation of Divine Providence, a religious order that established OLLU and other San Antonio institutions<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Sister Rose Kruppa with Our Lady of the Lake University\u2019s Congregation of Divine Providence shares her input on the downtown sports and entertainment district during a listening session held at Our Lady of the Lake University on Wednesday. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity to really change the entire environment of downtown \u2026 and give all of San Antonio a new place to be, and people who don\u2019t normally come downtown to come downtown and experience the Spurs in a whole different way. We live very close to there and we\u2019re big Spurs fans so we will be there a lot.\u201d \u2014 Reagan Mycka is a downtown San Antonio resident who said he attended the session with wife Barbara Mycka to share his own vision for the district<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Barbara and Reagan Mycka live near Hemisfair and the future site of the downtown sports and entertainment district. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been hearing the same promises since I was in high school so it\u2019s hard for me to hear another promise. But I won\u2019t be here when it fails or succeeds, so I just want to witness the circle. I don\u2019t want to bring things down but I\u2019ve lost hope. I love the Spurs \u2014\u00a0I wish they had an arena but the city shouldn\u2019t have to bear the burden.\u201d\u00a0 \u2014\u00a0Leticia Vela lives in the South Texas Medical Center area and writes stories about the West Side of San Antonio<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Leticia Vela is an Our Lady of the Lake alumna who now resides on the Northwest side of San Antonio. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

\n

\u201c[The district should have] affordable \u2018everything,\u2019 [including housing] because at Hemisfair they already have the stuff that they\u2019re proposing. Like when I go downtown, they already have the shops, the restaurants, the green space. So I don\u2019t want to duplicate what it already has. It should be affordable, so everyone can go use it.\u201d \u2014 Newman Wong is originally from Hong Kong, works as director of institutional research and analytics at OLLU and has lived in Hemisfair for two years<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Newman Wong works at Our Lady of the Lake University. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited about the arena, but I\u2019m not excited about how they\u2019re going to pay for it. Where is the money coming from. I got some answers [tonight] but I don\u2019t know if those answers are final. I\u2019m looking into it.\u201d \u2014 Gloria Garcia is a lifelong San Antonian who resides in a Westside neighborhood<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Gloria Garcia attended a listening session for the downtown sports and entertainment district at Our Lady of the Lake University on Wednesday. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About three dozen people snacked on complimentary platters of sandwiches and guacamole cups topped with crabmeat Wednesday evening…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":954372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,384019,126702,31388,42269,13123,7202,7203,81534,358,7453,3187,7815,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-954371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-america","tag-arena-district","tag-bobby-perez","tag-david-robinson","tag-our-lady-of-the-lake-university","tag-project-marvel","tag-san-antonio","tag-sanantonio","tag-spurs-sports-and-entertainment","tag-texas","tag-top-story","tag-tx","tag-typedaily","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=954371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/954372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}