Spurs arena deal hits potential snag over public funding

The Spurs’ push for a new arena has encountered something every big-money stadium project eventually seems to find: a fight over public money.

San Antonio’s city council previously approved $489 million in municipal bond funding toward construction of a new arena. But with the city now facing a projected budget deficit over the next two years, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones wants voters to have another say.

According to Jared Weiss of The Athletic, Jones wants residents to reauthorize the city’s portion of the funding this fall. The deadline to put the issue on the November ballot is Monday, and the city council is scheduled to meet that morning to decide whether to do so.

If the council declines, it can instead fall back on its previous approval of the municipal bonds. But that wouldn’t necessarily end the matter.

Under the project’s term sheet, San Antonio residents still must eventually vote on whether the city can issue bonds for the first phase of construction.

So the arena project isn’t dead. Not remotely. But with nearly half a billion dollars in city funding involved, the question of who gets the final say has suddenly become a little more complicated.

And the Spurs will be watching Monday’s vote closely.