In November 1999, in a special election, 61 percent of Bexar County voters overwhelmingly approved a partnership between the Spurs, Bexar County, the San Antonio Livestock Exposition and the Coliseum Advisory Board to build a $175 million community facility that would serve as the new home for the Spurs and the San Antonio Livestock Exposition. This project, being developed as the AT&T Center, is located on land immediately adjacent to Joe and Harry Freeman Coliseum, on the city's eastside.
Financing for the project stems from a direct $28.5 million contribution from the Spurs, plus an increase in the local hotel-occupancy and car rental taxes to support the sale of $146.5 million in County bonds. The Spurs will design, build and operate the AT&T Center. The Spurs and the Rodeo have 25-year lease agreements with the Coliseum Advisory Board, who serves as the facility landlord.
San Antonio's AT&T Center, whose parent company is Spurs Sports and Entertainment,
broke ground in August 2000 and opened its doors in October 2002. The staff
has committed to offer diversity, by tagging the AT&T Center with the slogan, "something
for everyone."
AT&T Center offers 18,500 seats for professional basketball, with 40 Terrace Suites and 16 Courtside Suites, offering premium seating as well as two superboxes consisting of 180 seats and two party suites. Half of all of the seats are accessible from street level, sitting 28 feet below street-level in the arena floor. Numerous sound and curtain configurations, along with an intimate theater configuration, allow the ability to host multiples types of shows. There is an upper deck configuration allowing the deck to be blocked off for more intimate seating of 13,000 or less.
Permanent tenants San Antonio Spurs, San Antonio Livestock Exposition and
two new teams: San Antonio Silver Stars (WNBA) and Florida Panthers AHL team,
the San Antonio Rampage, will keep the AT&T Center active.
AT&T Center is the first indoor arena to offer 10-pixel technology for video screens, the first building in South Texas to be 100% full service for clients and tenants, and the first time locally that private contributions have been used to finance a public, voter owned facility.
AT&T Center offers 2002 state-of-the-art technology in respects to acoustic and video amenities, including live action screens, 360º LED display, and a custom scoreboard. Various types and ranges of replays will be shown on the suspended four sided LED scoreboard and the 10-pixel, four-sided video screen with an ANC Sports control system and Video Toaster II computer software, provided by the San Antonio-based company Newtek. The video display screens provided by Lighthouse Technologies in Cary, N.C. Additionally, a 360º degree, 600 foot-long fascia screen will encompass the entire bowl of the arena between its upper and lower decks. The sound system is not your typical P.A. system, it was specially designed by Myers Audio to fit the arena's architecture. Myers Audio specializes in sound equipment for arena and stadium-sized facilities, bringing AT&T Center concert quality sound.
The Community Arena Project is a public/private partnership between Bexar County, the Coliseum Advisory Board, the San Antonio Livestock Exposition and the San Antonio Spurs, along with AT&T Communications, Inc., as naming rights sponsor. The participation of AT&T Communications allows over 5,000 tickets to be priced under $25.00 for Spurs games and $50,000 in scholarships for the Stock Show and Rodeo.
Hunt Construction Co. and locally based SpawGlass Contractors, Inc. are partnering as the AT&T Center General Contractor. Hunt Construction has quite a bit of experience building arenas all across the county. They have teamed with the AT&T Center's architect, Ellerbe Becket, who designed America West Arena and Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix and Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
KellMunoz and Lake-Flato, two local San Antonio architectural firms have partnered with Ellerbe Becket and contributed all of the design elements that personalize this building and gives it a unique South Texas flair. San Antonio's Project Control is the construction project manager.
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