SPURS TO OFFER $28.5M TOWARD $175M COUNTY ARENA DEAL

          The Spurs agreed to pay Bexar County $28.5M as "part of
     a tax-financed" arena next to Freeman Coliseum, according to
     Richelieu, Bower & Briggs in a front-page story in the SAN
     ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS.  The agreement "guarantees" the Spurs
     will sign a 25-year lease at the proposed $175M facility,
     but "provides the team with a buyout clause" after 20 years.
     The Spurs would make annual lease payments of $1.3M. 
     Richelieu, Bower & Briggs report that the "contribution is
     large enough to reduce" a proposed .2% increase in the
     hotel-occupancy tax from 15% "needed to help pay the debt." 
     A .2% increase would tie the county with Houston "for the
     highest rate" in the country (S.A. EXPRESS-NEWS, 8/17).