I'm a life-long Spurs fan from Houston who never left Austin after undergrad, and I still, til today, have no idea how I feel about the arena project. I feel like I don't believe either side as an observer. The Spurs skipping town at the first ballot loss on a new area seemed far-fetched. The Holts are Texans with a long history in SA who own a bunch of SA sports teams, not just the Spurs. Moving to Las Vegas seems like empty propaganda, and moving to Austin (to me), also seems far-fetched. The Spurs are still in prime position to take advantage of the burgeoning SA-Austin metroplex and don't need to plant themselves in Austin to do so. Packing up and moving goes against everything the organization prides itself on. Family. Loyalty. Trust.
I love SA as a city, and love to hang out around downtown and walk the riverwalk and Market Square. It feels like my Tejano home. Why updating a quiet, sleepy downtown to include a sports arena is a problem doesn't make sense to me. I've seen what the Rockets and Astros have in Houston, and although it's not perfect, there's ways to kill a couple hours before game time. I still don't get what the problem is in doing that for SA. And it seems to be mostly covered by taxes not imposed on residents, or paid for by the Spurs. I assume *if* there was overages they wouldn't amount to nearly the total cost and would hardly be an imposition on the residents anyway (which also assumes the Spurs just gave the middle finger to the city and went back on their word to pay).
Anyways. What a weird few months. I still don't understand why the org was so against independent monitoring, but hopefully I don't have to hear about it a decade from now. GSG. Can't wait to experience the new Spurs arena. I'll be at the old one on Saturday to hopefully see Sochan and Fox back. I'll be at an Austin game in February too. GSFG.