Arena Funding and Taxpayer Subsidies
San Antonio taxpayers paid the entire $258 million (in 2006 dollars) cost of construction for the Alamodome which was completed in 1993. In 1999 a referendum was placed on the ballot for a second arena. This ballot measure passed. Taxpayers contributed $175 million, while the Spurs added $28.5 million, to the SBC Center (now the AT&T Center). In 2011 the Spurs were ranked the 9th most valuable NBA franchise, worth an estimated $404 million .
Read more about this topic: Peter Holt
Famous quotes containing the words arena and/or taxpayer:
“[I]t forged ahead to become a full-fledged metropolis, with 143 faro games, 30 saloons, 4 banks, 27 produce stores, 3 express offices—and an arena for bull-and-bear fights, which, described by Horace Greeley in the New York Tribune, is said to have given Wall Street its best-known phrases.”
—For the State of California, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“[The Republicans] offer ... a detailed agenda for national renewal.... [On] reducing illegitimacy ... the state will use ... funds for programs to reduce out-of-wedlock pregnancies, to promote adoption, to establish and operate children’s group homes, to establish and operate residential group homes for unwed mothers, or for any purpose the state deems appropriate. None of the taxpayer funds may be used for abortion services or abortion counseling.”
—Newt Gingrich (b. 1943)