Voter Input May at Last Determine the Future of El Paso’s Long-Planned Multi-Purpose Arena

In an effort to reignite a project that has been bathed in legal challenges for the last eight years, members of the El Paso City Council want to put the future of a proposed multi-purpose arena in the hands of city voters.

In a 5 to 3 tally, council members have determined to put on this November’s ballot a question that could revoke the City’s authority to issue bonds for the project.

A vote in favor of that revocation would most likely finally put to rest a project that was first aired with the 2012 passage of the city’s Quality of Life bond package, but then given reality four years later when the downtown Duranguito neighborhood site was chosen for the project, sparking years of court challenges.

In determining to put the question before voters, council members also agreed to hold a series of community meetings in each of the eight councilmanic districts between mid-August and mid-September.

The 2012 bond package committed $180 million in funds for the building of the arena. Various studies have since underlined that owing to the project’s ongoing legal challenges and the rising cost of construction materials, the price tag to build the project might easily now cost at least another $50 million.

It has additionally been reported that the City has spent around $18 million of that original $180 million, buying land for the arena and paying for the Duranguito litigation.

​By Garry Boulard

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