On a recent episode of Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective, reporter Tim MacMahon paused a discussion of the Spurs’ future and said, "I wish (Tim) Duncan would have picked a better neighborhood," referring to the Frost Bank Center and the downtown area that surrounds it.
MacMahon’s throwaway line landed during live debate about where the Spurs might play next and, in the weeks since, has become shorthand in local conversations about a possible move to a new arena at Hemisfair. The comment has bubbled into public view at a moment when the Spurs’ deep playoff run has already pushed arena plans back onto the front burner.
The concrete proposals at issue are part of Project Marvel, the city’s long‑term plan to reshape part of downtown around Hemisfair; the package under discussion includes a new Spurs arena, a mixed‑use development, an expansion of the Henry B. González Convention Center, possible Alamodome upgrades, hotel projects and transportation work.
Supporters who want a downtown arena argue that moving to Hemisfair could help keep the franchise in San Antonio and knit new development into the city’s center. Critics worry about how bond money would be divided and whether voters can be asked to approve so many different kinds of projects in a single proposition — a practical tension that has outlasted MacMahon’s comment.
District 4 Councilman Edward Mungia has proposed separating infrastructure projects tied to Project Marvel into different ballot items, an approach backed by Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, Ric Galvan, Jalen McKee‑Rodriguez and Teri Castillo. Mungia’s plan aims to let voters approve discrete pieces — for example, convention center work in one measure and arena‑adjacent streets or parks in another — rather than an all‑or‑nothing bundle.
City staff have cautioned that the ballot structure may not be simple. Bond lawyers have warned there are legal limits on how improvements of different types can be grouped; they advised the city may not be able to create a single Project Marvel proposition that covers everything city leaders would like to include.
The legal and political knot is the practical tension that turns a media quip into a policy debate. MacMahon’s remark — blunt and public — sharpened a question residents were already asking: does downtown need a different identity to carry a new arena, or can the Frost Bank Center neighborhood be retooled around upgrades and investment?
That question has already produced one nearterm calendar item: the next city bond election could come as early as May 2027. How the council packages projects for that ballot will determine whether voters are asked to approve a comprehensive downtown redevelopment, a piecemeal set of infrastructure measures, or nothing at all related to the Spurs for another year.
The remark has also pulled local memory toward the arena itself on gameday: celebrity sightings and big crowds at the Frost Bank Center — moments such as when David Robinson turned up for a playoff opener — are part of what residents and fans weigh alongside parking, transit and neighborhood amenities.
What comes next is procedural and political, not rhetorical. City leaders must decide whether to follow Mungia's narrower bond strategy, whether bond counsel can legally engineer a bundled package, and whether the council wants the political fight over Project Marvel to play out in a May 2027 election. Those choices will determine if MacMahon’s jab becomes a footnote or a flashpoint in how San Antonio designs its downtown and secures the Spurs’ future.
