Article 6 of a 12-part series by the Urban Nerd (Lorenzo Gomez)
The first five articles in this series were all about cutting through the confusion. We talked about who’s really paying for what, why the city’s deficit is a different problem entirely, and why so many people get lost in the Marvel Garble. And if you take one thing away from all of that, it’s this: the San Antonio Sports and Entertainment District, a.k.a. Project Marvel, is not just a new Spurs stadium.
That’s the biggest misconception out there. People toss around “Sports District” like it’s a single building, but in reality, it’s seven different projects tied together. Starting today, we’re going to break those projects down one by one. This is Project 1 of 7: the Convention Center expansion.
Before we dive into square footage and funding formulas, let’s start with something we all know: San Antonio runs on tourism. Everybody knows someone in the hospitality industry, a bartender on the River Walk, a cousin serving tables, or maybe, like my nephew, a valet at a downtown hotel.
And it’s not small dollars either. Tourism pumps more than $21 billion a year into San Antonio’s economy and supports 147,000 jobs, paychecks that cover rent, groceries, and tuition for one in eight local workers. And at the center of all of it is the Henry B. González Convention Center. It’s the beating heart of the industry.
The Convention Center is where the city either wins or loses in the competition for major conventions. And make no mistake: every city wants those conventions. They bring higher-spending visitors, fill hotel rooms, and keep restaurants buzzing. Which is why this expansion matters so much. What got us here isn’t going to get us where we’re going. Other cities are already building, expanding, and chasing the same conventions we are. If we don’t keep up, we fall behind.
So let’s get into it: What exactly is this project? Who’s paying for it? And how does it fit into the bigger picture of the Sports District?
What is the Project?
Right now, San Antonio’s Convention Center can handle one massive event and a smaller one at the same time. What it can’t do is host two large conventions at once, and that’s exactly what the city wants to change.
The plan is straightforward: expand the Henry B. González Convention Center by adding 200,000 square feet of new exhibit hall space, boosting its total to 700,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit halls. That word “contiguous” is critical. Meeting planners want everything in one place. Austin is building a bigger center, but its layout won’t be contiguous, which makes it less attractive for the largest conventions. San Antonio’s competitive edge is about giving organizers one massive footprint under one roof.
The focus is on achieving 700,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit halls, but that footprint has to be supported by a full complement of meeting rooms, ballrooms, and the back-of-house space that makes the whole operation run.
The estimated price tag is between $700 and $900 million, making it one of the largest single pieces of the entire Sports District.
Who’s Going to Pay for It?
The expansion is not designed to come out of the city’s strained general fund or your household taxes. Instead, the bulk of the money will come from San Antonio’s hotel occupancy tax (HOT), the same levy visitors pay every time they stay in a local hotel room. In other words, tourists will be carrying much of the cost.
On top of that, the city expects to use the Project Financing Zone (PFZ), a state tool that allows San Antonio to capture a slice of state hotel tax revenue generated within a three-mile radius of the Convention Center. Every hotel night sold in that zone helps boost the pot, adding state dollars to the local tax base.
The political pitch is simple: this is still a “visitors pay, locals benefit” project. San Antonians’ property taxes, sales taxes, or the city’s general fund aren’t being tapped to cover the Convention Center’s new footprint.
How Does This Fit Into the Bigger Picture?
Zoom out, and the expansion is more than just bricks and square footage. It’s a linchpin in the Sports District strategy.
Here’s why: if the Convention Center can attract and host two massive conventions at the same time, downtown stays packed, hotels stay full, restaurants stay busy, and the ripple effect spreads across the city. Depending on the event, that could mean an extra 10,000 to 20,000 people downtown at once, a surge of visitors that fills every room, floods the River Walk, and creates a buzz locals can feel.
These aren’t abstract numbers. Conventions like the American Diabetes Association’s Scientific Sessions (which draws about 12,000 attendees) or the American Legion national convention (about 9,000 veterans and families) are the kinds of events cities fight tooth and nail to host. They bring in people who spend money, stay multiple nights, and make San Antonio the center of national conversations.
Of course, some locals worry about congestion downtown. But more conventions don’t just mean more foot traffic — they mean more jobs, more tax revenue, and stronger local businesses. That’s how you strengthen the core so the whole city benefits.
For San Antonio, this also means competing with our peers. Austin, Houston, and Dallas are all investing heavily in their convention centers. Las Vegas, Orlando, and Phoenix are national powerhouses. If we don’t expand, we risk getting knocked off the shortlist for the biggest events, and those are the ones that move the needle on hotel nights and tax revenue.
It also connects directly to the other six projects in the Sports District. Infrastructure improvements will make the district easier to navigate. The Spurs arena is part of the same ecosystem, conventions and sports events don’t compete, they reinforce one another. The more reasons to come downtown, the stronger the entire district becomes.
In other words, the Convention Center isn’t just another project on the list. It’s a cornerstone. Without it, the Sports District would be missing its main economic engine.
Conclusion
In one of the earlier articles, I was reading the comments online, and someone wrote something that stuck with me: they said, “Sure, the financing depends on tourists showing up, but look, tourism is down.” Implying that because fewer people might come, the project might not pay off.
My first thought: so what’s your plan? Shrink and wait for better days? Doing nothing is the worst option. If tourism is sliding, that’s exactly when we should invest — to make San Antonio more irresistible so visitors return in droves. That’s what this expansion is for.
The Convention Center expansion isn’t just about adding space. It’s about what San Antonio wants to be: a destination, not a fallback. It’s about being competitive. It’s about proving that when the country looks for a place to host something big, something that brings people, money, energy, San Antonio doesn’t just stay in the running. We finish first.
Citations & Links
Tourism and economic impact ($21.5B, 147,000 jobs):
San Antonio Tourism Welcomes 37.65M Visitors, Boosting Economy with $21.5B Impact in 2023 — Visit San Antonio
Visitor totals (35.6 million visitors in 2023):
Mario Bass Officially Takes the Helm of Visit San Antonio — TSNN / Visit SA press
Convention Center expansion / Project Marvel context:
What we know about Project Marvel … — KSAT
Expansion cost estimate ($700–$900M):
Project Marvel in Brief: A New Sports and Entertainment District — Modern in San Antonio
PFZ / hotel tax revenue capture:
San Antonio wrapping up final Project Marvel community workshops — TPR
Examples of lost visitor opportunities & planning:
San Antonio unveils first details about ‘Project Marvel’ — TPR
Infrastructure cost estimate (for ramp / streets / transit):
Project Marvel’s first phase upgrades — Express / Visit SA press
Convention attendance examples: