Spurs’ newest owner: Atlanta investment firm CEO Paul Viera acquires stake in San Antonio’s NBA team

Paul Viera, founder and CEO of Atlanta-based investment firm Earnest Partners, is the latest out-of-town addition to the list of San Antonio Spurs shareholders as the organization continues revamping its ownership group — a process that’s sparked fears among fans and local officials that the team could leave the city.

Spurs Sports & Entertainment said Tuesday that Viera has joined the NBA team’s investor group as a strategic partner and member of its board of managers, and acquired an undisclosed equity stake in the franchise.

The news comes a week after Philadelphia-based food, facilities and uniform services company Aramark said it had sold roughly half of its ownership in the Spurs to an unidentified buyer for about $100 million. Aramark declined to disclose the current size of its stake, but it had owned 10.6 percent as of 2016.

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Viera’s investment comes after other chunks of the team have been sold to out-of-town owners over the past two years. San Francisco-based global investment firm Sixth Street Partners bought a 20 percent stake, and Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell bought a 10 percent stake in 2021. In 2022, Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia bought an unspecified interest.

“The San Antonio Spurs are a revered organization and I am honored to join Peter J. Holt and the other strategic partners as part of their investor group,” Viera said in a statement. “From the outset, I was drawn to the organization’s unique commitment to impact and building a more equitable community for everyone. The team’s leadership is elite, from their managing partner to the front office to the coaches, and I am thrilled to be joining such a winning organization.”

Earnest Partners oversees more than $40 billion in investments for municipalities, states, corporations, endowments and universities and has an office in China.

Spurs Sports & Entertainment did not respond to an inquiry about the size of Viera’s stake and investment in the franchise, which Forbes values at $2 billion.

His investment in the Spurs continues the organization’s efforts to diversify from the team’s longtime base of mostly local owners, a structure the late auto dealership magnate B.J. “Red” McCombs and stockbroker Angelo Drossos set up when they leased the team and moved it from Dallas in 1973. The group they led later bought the team.

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Today, the Holt family remains the largest shareholder, and Peter J. Holt, as managing partner, has full authority over team operations.

Spurs Sports & Entertainment’s effort to revamp ownership is aimed at simplifying decision-making and infusing new capital as the organization tries to expand its fan base in Austin and Mexico and builds a 45-acre Northwest Side campus dubbed “The Rock at La Cantera” that will include a training facility for the Spurs.

The ownership changes — along with the fact the Spurs are playing more games in Austin and internationally — has fanned fears the team could eventually move to Austin, though Spurs executives have offered reassurances that San Antonio is home.

Among those, it points to its investment at The Rock, which could surpass $500 million, with private investors expected to foot most of the bill for it. Spurs Sports & Entertainment is spending at least $100 million, and the city of San Antonio is kicking in $17 million. Bexar County is contributing $15 million in exchange for a 22-acre public park at the development, which will also have an outdoor event plaza, offices and medical space.

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Coach Greg Popovich put it this way last month: “The Spurs organization just wants to expand the territory,” he said at a news conference. “We live here in this region, all the way from Mexico all the way to up here, and we’d like to spread that experience we’ve had with the Spurs to another area.”

The Spurs’ lease agreement with the county calls for the team to play all but two of its homes games in the AT&T Center each season, but Bexar County commissioners a year ago approved a plan allowing the club to schedule two games in Austin, one in Mexico City and one at the Alamodome as part of their home schedule for the 2022-2023 season. Last month, commissioners approved the team’s plans to play two home games in Austin and host one international game in each of the next two NBA seasons. 

Holt has said the team sells $1.9 million in tickets per season to fans in Austin and would like to increase that. Spurs CEO R.C. Buford said further expanding the team’s geographic base by playing games elsewhere could move it from a bottom-third market to one that’s in the top third of the NBA.

madison.iszler@express-news.net