Seven topics, one agenda item, and a fiscal impact line that reads “briefing purposes only.”
On Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, at 2:00 p.m., the San Antonio City Council’s B Session takes up a single briefing: an update on the proposed downtown Sports and Entertainment District, the plan built around a new downtown arena for the Spurs. Ben Gorzell Jr., the city’s Chief of Financial & Administrative Services, and Shanon Miller, the Chief Downtown Officer, are listed as presenters on the posted agenda.
According to the agenda memo (packet page 4), the update will cover:
- the Convention Center Expansion Program
- Alamodome Improvements
- the Proforma and Financing Plan
- the Cost of Services Study
- the Mobility Study
- the Reconnecting Communities Planning Grant
- Community Engagement
It is a briefing. Nothing is up for a vote. But the financing plan is on the list, and for a project of this size, that is the part residents will want to read. Ojo: the memo itself contains no dollar figures.
How we got here: the paper trail
The city’s own memos tell the story in a consistent paragraph that has now appeared, almost word for word, in three briefings. Here it is as a timeline.
November 2024. The city unveils the district plan. The memo describes eight pieces: an expansion of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, a new convention center hotel, a connection over I-37 between the east side and downtown, improvements to the Alamodome, renovation of the John Woods Courthouse into a live entertainment venue, mixed-use development, enhanced infrastructure, and a new NBA arena for the Spurs. The memo says the elements “will be completed in phases over time.”
Aug. 21, 2025. Council approves a resolution authorizing the City Manager to negotiate and sign a non-binding term sheet with San Antonio Spurs Holdings, LLC. The term sheet is signed that month. The same day’s agenda also listed a competing resolution, item 4, under which Council would not consider a term sheet until it received an independent economic impact study “by a firm with no association with the Spurs organization or ownership” and every Council member had hosted at least two in-person, publicly announced engagements with constituents. The agenda does not record what happened to item 4, and Puro SA has not found the outcome in a readable city record.
Nov. 4, 2025. The term sheet was conditioned on a Bexar County venue tax ballot measure. The memo says that passage “occurred on November 4, 2025.”
Jan. 14, 2026. Staff briefs Council on a work plan and approximate timelines for 2026.
May 7, 2026. The A Session agenda carries a district briefing (item 4), and Council approves two contracts, according to the June 17 memo. The May 7 agenda listed their terms:
- MuniCap, Inc. (item 5): a study of projected cost-of-service impacts, revenue forecasting and new revenue opportunities. Base cost $316,350 plus a $33,650 contingency, for $350,000 in all, through April 30, 2027.
- Accenture Infrastructure and Capital Projects, LLC (item 6): an Executive Program Manager for the district, up to $6,000,000 for Phase I, for services through March 30, 2027. The contract term runs to Sept. 30, 2031, with five one-year renewal options.
Both were listed as paid from the HOT Redemption and Capital Fund; the Accenture agreement also draws on the capital budgets for projects within the district.
June 17, 2026. A second B Session update.
Oct. 28, 2026. The third B Session update of the year, and the first of the three B Session memos to list the financing plan by name.
What the memo says about the money
The financing language is short. The arena would be built “on roughly the footprint of the former ‘ITC’ property,” and the memo says “guaranteed revenue from new mixed-use development is a critical component to the financing plan for the Arena as outlined in the term sheet.” That development would go around the arena site and on property the city expects to acquire from the federal General Services Administration.
Analysis: two things follow from the documents, and only two. First, the arena’s financing, as the city describes it, leans on development that has not been built yet, on land that has not all been acquired yet. Second, the city has paid for a study of what the district will cost in public services and what revenue it might bring: the MuniCap contract runs through April 2027, so its findings may or may not be part of Wednesday’s update. Which of those numbers will appear in the presentation is not stated.
The Austin angle, and the next one
The district is also one of the city’s four top priorities for the 90th Texas Legislature, which begins Jan. 12, 2027, according to the proposed State Legislative Program on the Oct. 29 A Session agenda (item 6, packet page 9). The memo does not say what the city will ask the Legislature for on the district.
The B Session agenda also lists closed-door executive session topics, including economic development negotiations (Texas Government Code Section 551.087) and real property (Section 551.072). The same standing topics appeared on the June 17 B Session agenda; the agenda does not say whether they concern the district.
How to follow it
The B Session agenda lists a briefing and executive session, with no public comment period. Accommodation requests, including translation and interpretation, go to the Office of the City Clerk at 210-207-7253 (Relay Texas 711), with at least 72 hours’ notice recommended. The presentation slides, if the city posts them, would be the first public document with the financing plan’s numbers. Puro SA will read them when they appear.
Jargon Jail
- B Session: a Council briefing meeting. This one is marked “BRIEFING ONLY”: staff presents, Council asks questions, no vote.
- Term sheet (non-binding): an outline of the deal’s main terms. The memo says it “sets out a nonbinding framework for the negotiation of future documents and definitive agreements.” The binding contracts come later.
- Proforma: a projection of a project’s costs and revenues over time. Here, the memo lists one as part of the update without giving its contents.
Ahí está. Read the agenda. — Val