SPURS STAYING PUT AFTER COUNTY APPROVES ARENA CONTRACTS

          Members of the Bexar County Commissioners Court and its
     Coliseum Advisory Board "voted unanimously" last Friday to
     approve six contracts related to the Spurs' proposed arena,
     "dictating how the team will design, build and operate" the
     $175M facility, according to Bower & Richelieu of the SAN
     ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS.  A deal was reached after the team and
     county agreed to a "compromise over the unusually strict non
     relocation contract the county will use to ensure the team
     stays" at the arena and in San Antonio for the next 27
     years.  Under the agreement, the county is entitled to
     damages ranging from $250M in the first year of the lease
     down to $106M in the 25th year if the Spurs move, and the
     deal "applies to all future owners" of the team.  The "only
     exception is that in certain narrow instances, the county
     will only have the right to sue team owners in violation of
     the agreement to force their return" (EXPRESS-NEWS, 6/18).