Early votes offered encouraging signs for those eager to see the San Antonio Spurs basketball team move back downtown.
While Election Day ballots are still being tallied, so far 53.05% were in favor of Proposition B, while 46.95% were against.
Meanwhile plans to turn the Spurs’ existing East Side home into a year-round rodeo district, known as Proposition A, were more decisive, with 57.47% in favor and 42.53% opposed after early votes.
Roughly 148,000 people voted early or by mail this year in Bexar County, but nearly 100,000 more ballots were cast on Election Day, meaning results could change throughout the night as more votes are counted.
Tuesday’s election carries tremendous weight for the Spurs’ ownership and local business leaders who funneled more than $7 million into a PAC supporting both ballot initiatives.
If Prop B passes, San Antonio city leaders have already agreed to chip in another $489 million in funding for the $1.3 billion arena — money from sources that don’t require a public vote.
Prop B’s failure, on the other hand, means both the team and local elected officials have to decide what compromises are worth it to bring the team back downtown.
“I think what’s important is to make sure that folks know that there’s going to be a San Antonio on Nov. 5 — regardless of the outcome of the propositions,” Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said on a recent panel discussion hosted by the San Antonio Report. “I think it’s really important that we continue to negotiate.”
San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones speaks with Spurs Managing Partner Peter J. Holt during the Spurs’ Win Together election night watch party at River North Icehouse on Tuesday evening. Credit: Amber Esparza / San Antonio Report
Both Jones and Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai were in attendance at the Spurs’ election watch party at River North Icehouse.
Spurs Chairman Peter J. Holt publicly welcomed them and vowed to keep working with Jones on an arena deal regardless of how the Prop B vote shakes out.
“Great partnerships sometimes have disagreements, and so we are excited to welcome Mayor Jones, and we’re so happy she’s here,” Holt said. “We’re so happy to work together with her on the future, no matter what that looks like.”
A return to downtown?
The Spurs currently play their home games at the Frost Bank Center on San Antonio’s East Side, an arena built with county venue tax dollars and first opened in 2002.
But development that was expected to follow the arena construction into nearby neighborhoods never materialized, leading the team’s leaders who have a lease there through 2032 to consider the venue incompatible with their vision for the future.
The Spurs are now among dozens of professional sports teams, including the Dallas Mavericks, seeking to create more modern accommodations, in which arenas and stadiums are surrounded by mixed-use development, like apartments, restaurants and retail.
San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo CEO Cody Davenport, right, chats with voters outside of the Brook Hollow Library voting location on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. Credit: Amber Esparza / San Antonio Report
So-called sports and entertainment districts like the Spurs have in mind for a newly built Hemisfair arena are part of an evolving business model for professional sports, which are expanding to nontraditional revenue streams and bringing in more money than ever.
At the same time, voters nationwide have grown more skeptical about helping teams pay for their venues.
Public funding is expected to cover about two-thirds of the new Spurs arena’s cost, and polling in early October showed support for the county’s portion was underwater.
If Prop B succeeds, City Manager Erik Walsh said the City Council will come back in early 2026 to hammer out the remaining details of its agreement with the Spurs.
Those negotiations could include figuring out parking arrangements now that a land bridge over Interstate-17 has been scrapped, how to spend a $75 million community benefits agreement the team agreed to give back to the city and who profits from concessions and naming rights at the arena.
Walsh projected a 60-month timeline for designing and constructing the arena.
He hoped that other parts of the overall vision known as Project Marvel, like updates to the Henry B. González Convention Center, would happen concurrently to minimize disruptions downtown.