HemisFair '68 - Funding

Funding

The venture, which had an announced cost of $156 million, was financed by a combination of public and private funds. Public funding included $12.2 million from the U.S. Housing and Home Finance Agency for acquiring and clearing the site, $11 million in publicly approved city bonds for construction of the convention center and arena, $5.5 million in general revenues from the City of San Antonio for construction of the Tower of the Americas, $10 million from the State of Texas primarily for the construction of the Texas State Pavilion and $7.5 million from the United States Congress for the construction of the United States pavilion. Major corporate sponsors and pavilions were built by Eastman Kodak, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, General Motors, Humble Oil (now ExxonMobil), IBM, RCA, Southwestern Bell (now AT&T, Inc.), Frito Lay, Pepsi-Cola, Coca-Cola, American Express, Chrysler, 3M, the LDS Church, among others. Although HemisFair '68 attracted 6.3 million visitors and brought international attention to San Antonio and Texas, attendance never matched estimates and San Antonio's world's fair lost $7.5 million.