On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho San Antonio is a fast growing, fast moving city with something new happening every day.

That's why each week we go on the record with Randy Beamer and the newsmakers who are driving this change.

Then we gather at the reporters roundtable to talk about the latest news stories with the journalist behind those stories.

Join us now as we go on the record with Randy Beamer.

Hi, everybody, and thank you for joining us for On the Record this week, I'm Randy Beamer.

And this week in San Antonio is all about the Final Four, an estimated $440 million impact this week on the city.

100,000 people expected to be in town.

Here to tell us all about it is Richard Oliver, communications manager for convention and sports facilities of the City of San Antonio.

Is that correct?

That's right.

Yeah.

I get paid by the letter.

Well, we're out of time.

So tell us about how big this impact is, because a lot of people don't realize that they want to stay.

Some people who live here want to stay away from downtown.

They think there's too much traffic.

But there's a lot of events for everybody, not just the games.

Yeah.

Right away.

I always encourage everybody download that.

The Final Four app, there's a great app that has everything.

Tickets.

You know what is in most everything that's going to be happening around the Alamodome.

As far as HemisFair and everything else, the Fan Fest at the convention center, it's all free except for a couple of.

You might have to pay a little ticket to get into the fan fest, but even that, there are ways around that.

I'll tell you, Randy, it's just a great time.

It's a party, and nobody throws them better than San Antonio does.

But when you talk about the music fest, all the bands are coming in and the acts are coming in for that.

The fan fest, which will draw thousands of people and of course the, the, the Tip-Off classic stuff that they're going to have at HemisFair itself, where you can watch the games, if you're not at the games, they're going to have them all showcase.

So all kinds of reasons to come downtown and enjoy yourself and enjoy the city at a time when it's always at its best.

When we just we clean up very nicely and we look great, and we invite people to come in and come in and enjoy what the city has to offer.

What about the teams from across the country this year in the Final Four?

How do they figure into the numbers?

Because certain teams travel better, you would say, than others.

A lot of people come in.

These are all number one seed is Duke, Auburn, Florida and Houston.

And that helps.

Oh it does help it because everyone's energized I mean, these these fan bases have been energized for a while and it's kind of cool I like this I like this Final four because you know, you've got your royalty with Duke, you've got Florida, which has been coming on so strong for so long.

Auburn, which was the number one team in the country for most of this season.

And then here's Houston with Kelvin Sampson.

Gregg Popovich his buddy.

And coming in with that.

The best defense that I've seen in college basketball ever.

And it's going to be a lot of fun.

And those fan bases I think are really going to travel to see these teams.

Well, now Houston, that's what people might be wondering about it because some people wanted Texas Tech to play Houston.

But do those is that going to be daytrippers from Houston that just come over, see the game, go home?

Well, you know, that's a great point because there's there's two different thoughts here is one is do you want Houston coming in because those folks are not spending the night.

They're driving in for the game going back.

I think the Final Four is a King Kong event.

It's so big that people come in.

Whoever it is, they're going to come in and watch the game.

So we're going to have traffic.

We're going to have hotel rooms full.

I don't think Houston being in there sways that one way or the other.

And I think everybody's excited to see what Kelvin Sampson is going to bring in with that.

Houston team and what they've done this year.

How is that broken down the $440 million impact?

How is that measured and where is most of the money going to locally?

How do they figure that.

Because some people might wonder really 440 million.

Yeah.

When when you think about the obviously the impact of of the of what it's going to mean for San Antonio as far as exposure and those kind of things, I think a lot of that plays into it $440 million, the spending, that's going to happen to all the different, venues, the number of people that are going to be here who all of them bring their wallets and they make an impact.

We always talk about it.

We joke about the idea of you drop a rock and one into the Riverwalk and just watch those ripples flow.

It's the same kind of thing.

I mean, somebody lands on the airplane and the minute they come down, the wallet comes out.

A lot of spending happens.

And so we talk about 100,000.

Those are unique visitors that are going to be here spending money while they're here, but also the locals.

I mean, you're coming downtown, you're eating at the restaurant, you're enjoying the Riverwalk, all the different things that we know so well.

And it adds up and it's seismic.

And I think that that's where it all goes.

And now people might not realize that 440 million is more than twice what it cost to build the Alamodome.

It was less than 200 million back in 93 when they built it, and it was barely, you know, they could scrape together the money there are still skeptics who say the dome was was a waste.

It's a big white elephant.

What do you tell those people?

$4 billion plus an economic impact for the city?

Since 93.

Since 93 for what, $180 million facility built at the time?

You know, we had a 30 year anniversary last year, and we and that kind of as a kind of a microcosm of what the dome has been throughout its history.

When you talk about the concerts that came in the Spurs 30th anniversary or their their game that came in and drew 68,000 people, it's a differentiator, I think.

Is that a word or any differentiator?

Yes it is.

It's.

For the city of San Antonio.

This is what sets us apart from an Austin or a lot of cities.

And everything is to have a stadium like this that could be as diverse.

And as the Alamodome is concerts, you know, meetings of, of kinds, just the different events that we have coming in, all of them.

Economic impact events for San Antonio that the Alamodome has paid for itself over and over and over again.

And each and every year when we see these kind of events, like a Final Four come in with $440 million of economic impact, in addition to a Shakira concert and a post Malone and the weekend and all the different UFL football and UTSA football, all of those things happening.

Not to mention what the Alamodome means for the quality of life for San Antonio.

You know, if you're if you're a business or a corporation or anything and you're you want to live in a city where there are things for your employees to do, and I think the Alamodome helps provide.

How about the final Four now we've had that's, 98 was the first one we've had at, what, three times since then?

People are talking about, well, this is going to be the last time it looks like, unless, or unless until the Alamodome is improved.

But we have done that to the dome every time because the NCAA, or partly because the NCAA has asked for that.

Right?

Yeah.

The NCAA for a for instance, we put in 18 new luxury suites this time to bring it up to 70 suites in the dome.

They're beautiful.

And that's something that the NCAA has required.

Let's say we need at least 70 suites when you host a Final Four.

So the city committed to that and they did it.

I think every time you have an opportunity in a bid process to go after a Final Four or any of the NCAA championships, they're going to come back and say, here's some things that we'd like to see improved at your facility in order to be able to host this event.

The city does that.

The city is committed to it every time.

And I tell you, Randy, the NCAA notices that they've always mentioned that the fact that this city responds time and time again to what needs to be done to be able to host one of these marquee.

So we're not written off in the future by the NBA as opposed to, you know, there's some billion dollar plus stadiums out there that they could choose, but they're not in cities that maybe are as friendly to a Final Four in San Antonio.

Well, and it's a great discussion.

You know, what is the future for San Antonio?

The next window for bid process is 2032 to 2036.

There's those those years are available.

That bid process will be this summer.

So there are only 13 stadiums around the country, or there will be when Nashville comes on board that have enclosed stadiums that can host the Final Four.

San Antonio is one of those facilities, and the one thing that sets us apart, along with Indianapolis, there's no other city in the country that has walkable, easily accessible downtown.

All the different things that San Antonio offers around the Alamodome and the Alamodome.

Again, the commitment made to the Alamodome to keep it to where it needs to be to be able to host these events.

Plus, the NCAA loves again the walkability, all the attractions, all the different things that folks can have.

So will we bid then in the summer?

Absolutely.

How does that work?

Absolutely.

The San Antonio Local Organizing Committee is already putting together their their process to bid for those, those next, I think they're going to keep bidding whenever they have the opportunity and say, listen, we have a history with the NCAA.

And don't forget, we've got the NCAA women's volleyball championships coming here in a couple of years.

We've got the, another regional basketball event coming in as well.

And the women's Final Four will be here in 2029.

Project marble a lot of people think that's just the Spurs, new stadium downtown.

And whether or not the city or county injects tax money, that will happen or not.

But it's more than that.

And one of the things is renovating the Alamodome in the convention center.

Right.

And and so do you think that will help convince people to go ahead and approve this larger project?

If it is partly for the dome?

I really think San Antonians appreciate the fact that we host these kind of events, that a lot of places don't have the opportunity to do.

And I think that probably will play into it.

The idea that if we make an Alamodome, as a facility, that could continue to be appealing to these, you know, and I think we're dreaming bigger even than the Final Four, although the Final Four is maybe second only to the Super Bowl as far as popularity.

But the college football playoffs, you know, World Cup soccer, you know, the kind of things that we could do with a with a new facility downtown.

And I think the project Marvel, that whole idea, that whole concept and landscape plays into an NCAA saying, look, this is a city that's investing in itself.

We want to be a part of that kind of community, you know, come back.

And you're going to get me tickets.

What what's the average?

You need them now or price now?

Not that I haven't looked, but, I guess down in front we're talking thousands.

It's it's Randy Beamer money.

That's all I could tell you.

It's, It's you.

No, that's kids college money.

All right.

Thanks very much.

Richard Oliver, our communications manager for the convention and sports facilities department of the city of San Antonio.

We're out of time.

Just saying your name.

Thanks very much for coming in.

My pleasure.

This month, San Antonio made another top 25 list, this one for the seventh straight year.

One of the top places to film in the country.

Joining us to talk about this is Crystal Jones, the director of the city's arts and culture department.

Thanks for coming in.

Thanks for.

Having me.

Tell us about, MovieMaker magazine and what they say about San Antonio.

Yes.

So MovieMaker magazine every year does a top 25 list of best places to live and to work as a movie maker in North America and Canada.

And we made the list, and we actually moved up this year to the 20 spot and along with a lot of other Texas cities, which really speaks to Texas's investment in the film industry.

Why?

Because I know years ago there was a there's always been a controversy of how much should the city and the state, support film industry.

And they have they have gone up and down.

Where are we right now, how much we're supporting.

Film right now on the state level, we have $200 million in the state's incentive, and that's a rebate program.

So for every dollar spent, what really ends up happening when a an organization gets a dollar of the rebate program, they spend $5.75 an hour on our Texas community.

So it's really an economic generator.

So $200 million funded at the state level.

And of course, this legislative session will be looking at the same amount or more advocating for that.

But on the city's level, we have the largest film incentive on a municipality level in the state of Texas.

We have a 7.5% film incentive, and it pairs with the state's incentive, or it can be used independently.

And again, it's a rebate.

So you spend over $100,000 and you start to get that 7.5% back on what you spend in San Antonio.

And specifically, people might have heard recently about 1923, the TV series streaming.

They shot here and, made some money.

They did.

City made some.

Money.

Yes, yes.

So they filmed, for one day in San Antonio on historic Broadway between PyCon and Houston Street.

And in that one day, the investment in San Antonio was about $1 million for filming.

So if you think about over 200 cast and crew, we had a lot of locals on that film production, and they're interacting with businesses.

The businesses along that corridor got paid for the days or the times that they had to close down.

But then also coffee shops along the way were open where cast and crew could come and get coffee, all paid for by the production.

So it's really an investment in small business and an investment in our local cast and crew.

And the reason it's important also is nationally in different states and cities have even more, incentives, very competitive, trying to get people away from Los Angeles where it's even more expensive.

But New Mexico, for example, the Carolinas.

How do we compare to those?

Well, with this $200 million investment, we compare very well.

I mean, we're getting a lot of productions coming back to Texas, which left when, production, the incentive wasn't so strong.

So it's not only that economic generator, but there's also a big film tourism business.

People want to see where films are shot or where even commercials are filmed.

And so a lot of states are starting to see the reason why we need to invest in film.

And when you, try to get people to come to San Antonio to film, what do you tell them about locations and things like that?

Here it is all about location, location, location in San Antonio.

One of the things that really benefits us in San Antonio is that we have many different looks, where other cities may just tear down historic buildings to have, new development.

We are committed as a city to making sure that we still have historic areas of our city, and that has been a huge difference for us.

We've had productions that go to other cities that shall not be named.

And they say, oh, we don't have that look.

And then for days they call us, they say, we have to film in four days.

Do you have anything that looks like this?

And we do so in four days we can shut down streets.

We can make sure that businesses are informed and get the production done.

And not everything needs to be the big production to get some incentives.

I went to film school in LA.

You see, you didn't really like it at the big stuff, but now you have guerilla filmmakers.

You shoot in smaller, films, just a few people, and you also have grants that support that kind of film as well.

Yes.

So if you haven't made that $100,000 threshold, do not fret, especially if you're a San Antonio filmmaker.

We have a grant that's open to all artists, but in particular, there is a multimedia section and it provides, between seven, $7500 or $15,000, depending on how complex your, your project is.

They are competitive grants.

But, we have a number of filmmakers who have applied and received those grants for their projects that might not be hitting that incentive threshold yet.

What do we see coming up?

I know you can't always talk about what's coming up until it's confirmed, but are you you're working on things.

We are at any given time, I'll tell you.

We typically in the past had about 200 film permits that we issue on an annual basis.

Last year we had over 400, so filmmaking is really increasing here in San Antonio.

So on an on an active week, about 6 to 7 productions that are active from, you know, small music videos for our musicians or commercials, we are scouting about 30 projects on average, and we got some big ones that are in the works.

But I'm really excited about seeing some of our local, directors and producers starting to work on their own projects.

So I think coming up, you'll start to see some of that news on our website.

And our social media handles, casting calls for projects.

The website is for people that are on.

Our website is Saga Arts.

You can find everything there and we'll put cast and crew calls if you want to be an extra or if you're an active cast or crew member, you can get a job with those productions.

We talked about the impact of, Taylor Sheridan and his, projects on Texas, just maybe coming more to San Antonio or a little bit.

We don't.

Know.

Yeah.

1923.

Right.

I mean, do they.

Like it.

Here?

Oh, they loved it.

I mean, they loved it.

Not only did they have, so much access to our city, we're very easy to work with.

The fact that our film commission actually controls our permit system helps because it allows us to prioritize them.

We had some, folks say we wish we would have shot the entire season here, and that's what we're aiming to do.

We always know that just like any average visitor that comes to San Antonio, they see it for the first time.

They want to come back.

We find that with productions all the time.

1923 did you pitch them on 1718 or 1836?

Anything they have coming up, coming up?

If Land Man wants to take a vacation to San Antonio, they can come and take a vacation.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

Crystal Jones, director of the city's arts and culture department.

Appreciate you coming in and talking about the film in San Antonio.

I'm a big fan.

Thank you.

On reporters roundtable this week, the Texas legislature is looking at banning all THC products.

Lieutenant governor Dan Patrick is pushing for that, at least in the Texas Senate has passed a bill.

Joining us to talk about this is a reporter who's done a very deep dive on the numbers, in terms of the hemp industry in San Antonio.

Jalen Lopez, digital reporter for the San Antonio Business Journal, thank you very much for coming in.

Thank you for having me.

Now, you looked into, a whole bunch of numbers from some reports about how big hemp overall is in San Antonio.

What what are those numbers?

People would be shocked, I think.

Yeah.

So across Texas, there's over 8000, businesses that have a hemp license, meaning they can sell these products.

It's worth knowing that includes businesses like Walmart, CVS and Walgreens because they do so CBD and stuff like that.

In Bexar County, there's over 1100 of them.

So we have a substantial amount of those business here in our own neighborhoods.

And I think it jumps up to 1200 when you include the eight counties in the San Antonio, New Braunfels MSA.

And these are CBD.

And THC licenses through the state.

Correct?

Yes, sir.

And tell us what Ben Patrick is looking at in the Senate and has been talking about for months now.

Dan Patrick wants to have a ban on THC across the board in Texas, claiming there are products that are dangerous to minors and children that can potentially poison them.

So, instead of regulating them, he wants to just get rid of them across the board, except for products that have CBD, which is what was legal before this THC came about in 2019, in 2020, in Texas, I believe.

And now what about hemp?

A lot of people are confused with, okay, this product is from hemp or it has THC, it doesn't have THC, it has CBD.

Kind of break that down for us.

Yeah, absolutely.

So the distinction is that marijuana and hemp are two different classifications.

Anything with 0.3% THC or more is classified as marijuana.

That is the, chemical part that associates with the high that you associate with, traditional weed in Texas.

Anything with 0.3 or less is classified as hemp, and you can legally produce that and sell it.

So people are growing that to match that distinction with other chemicals that are stronger to provide those same effects.

For example, the popular one, it's THC a, which is completely legal to have in Texas, but once you light on fire, it becomes THC.

So it's essentially a loophole to have legal weed in Texas.

That's following the stipulation that are currently on the law.

And as I understand it, also, there's at least concern through Dan Patrick and others that are supporting this ban that it is hard to regulate point three and over and under.

And who regulates that?

Exactly.

Who measures that?

Though it is regulated through a license, the products are hard to keep track of.

Is that right?

Yes.

It's, it's such a booming market that it's hard to make sure that everything on shelves is aboveboard.

For example, popular term is bad actors, which is true sometimes walk to a gas station.

There's products there that follow that stipulation, but they might be synthetic products, and it might not be, just a regular plant.

There's always I've added to that.

So it is tough to make sure everything you're buying is safe to consume, but it's not staying there.

A lot of these places are operating aboveboard with products that are perfectly safe.

And following this law.

Now, it's a bill that would do this as passed in the Senate.

Or Dan Patrick is, presiding officer.

We don't know yet about the House.

Where where do you think that is?

And if it doesn't happen now, a lot of bills die in the last days of the legislature, but we still have a couple of months.

Correct.

Do you expect it to happen or have you looked into that?

Is that really just, a crapshoot with the House because they're so different than the the Senate.

For my understanding, the House is a little bit more lenient on this whole idea.

So I'd be very surprised if the full ban makes it through that as well.

The lobbying, if there's a $5.5 billion impact, as you outlined, in the article, it's going to be a lot of lobbying for, or against this bill.

From what I understand, there is there's definitely people with a lot of investment in Texas trying to get this bill not passed.

As far as their success, I couldn't tell you.

It doesn't seem like they're doing very well.

It seems like the lieutenant governor is kind of dead set on getting this bill across the board.

And in the past, you've said 2019 is where the hemp was legalized.

And there are a number of industries that have come out of that.

People would think, okay, rope him, that kind of thing.

Is that going on in Texas or is that grown out of that still growing?

Absolutely.

I've spoken to a few farmers who produce hemp for both retailers with the THC products as well as industrial hemp.

I will say that has less of an economic impact as the retail of hemp for, medicinal or recreational purposes.

So there is potential there for a large amount of money to be made in Texas.

But I think that's kind of secondary right now to this whole topic.

And this is, really going against the grain of what other states have been doing across the country in legalizing recreational, if not medicinal or just medicinal marijuana.

Correct.

We've kind of found a way to have that here, but by jumping through a loophole.

So instead of making it legal for recreational marijuana, we've created a hemp.

There's legal distinction to have it.

So we're getting there, the same outcome, but we're going through it a very convoluted way.

That's now at risk.

And they've been pointing to any specific cases of harm that's been done to individual people, kids, things like that, to get something, safe from a gas station and have a bad reaction.

The example that I see a lot is THC beverages, which is tougher to regulate the amount of THC in it.

Some drinks do go up into the hundreds of THC per serving, which is not deadly, but it can significantly impact you mentally and physically for a while.

So those are the examples that they say you can buy on the shelves, which is the case in some gas stations.

And, you know, these bad actors with these kind of fly by night stores.

But the regular retailers try to avoid that by having 2mg to 10mg on average.

Now, are these products some of them coming from out of state?

Because gas stations across the country have similar items?

Are they Texas items mostly?

That's hard to say.

From the report from Winning Economics, they found that most retailers in the states source locally in Texas.

Now, it doesn't mean that drinks are naturally produced here, but there probably is a chain leading back through the stuff being made in Texas.

And it's hard to say really, but it's a national product.

So there is definitely cross state trade going on.

And you went through a couple of reports with a lot of data that are in the article.

What is, where are those from and what surprised you when you looked at all this data?

I think the biggest surprise me is the lack of data we have right now.

It is such a gray market in the sense that there's not a lot of data being collected outside of independent companies, like when you economics do things on their own.

So it's tough to say how much is actually being produced, how much is being made.

These are all estimates.

If the estimate is 5.5 billion in revenue, that could be much greater because as an account for gas stations or these smaller stores that aren't part of it doesn't.

It does not.

It's only those that participated.

And then they did an estimate based on those responses.

So there could be even more money to be made from this.

And I think that's the most surprising thing is we really don't know.

It's kind of the Wild West right now in this whole market.

And employees, that are making a living off of this, is that also hard to gauge in terms of what in Texas, it's directly from that.

So the estimate is 53,000 workers are tied to this industry across the state.

With the 2.1 million in wages, I believe they have seen an increase in wages over the past 3 or 4 years.

So there's tens of thousands of people depending on this market, both retail, manufacturing and wholesalers.

Well, I'd say this gets closer to the end of the session.

I'm sure we'll hear more about some of those numbers, that you brought up.

Thank you very much for coming in.

It's fascinating.

Jalen Lopez, digital reporter of the San Antonio Business Journal.

Thanks very much.

Thank you for having me.

And thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can watch this show again.

You can watch any of our previous shows.

And you can also download this as a podcast.

Just go to KLRN.org I'm Randy Beamer and we'll see you next time.

On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho