San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg Says City Will Have NFL Team Within 10 Years

Paul Sancya/Associated Press

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg believes the city will be home to a NFL team at some point in the next 10 years. 

In a recent interview with KSAT's RJ Marquez, Nirenberg laid out his reasoning for why San Antonio will get a professional football team:

"There's nothing specifically that relates to the Chargers and San Antonio, but what I will tell you is that this is increasingly a story. NFL teams per usual in waves look for places where they can find success in American cities. San Antonio to this date has not been an NFL city before but I think those days are coming to a close. 

"I really believe the momentum that San Antonio has experienced over the last few years, most recently with the announcement of major jobs coming to Brooks City Base as well as the downtown UTSA campus and the rise of Texas A&M, the community college districts as well, you will see an NFL team in San Antonio in the next 10 years."

The city has been trying to get into business with the NFL for years. 

Former Spurs owner Red McCombs was at the forefront of trying to bring the Raiders to San Antonio before they decided to relocate to Las Vegas when their new stadium opens in 2020. 

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"The good thing about our program is that we have the place for them to play like today, and then we have five years in our proposal to get a new stadium built for tomorrow," McCombs told ESPN Radio in May 2016 (h/t the Dallas Morning News). "There will be no city, regardless of a relocation, there will be no city that will be up to date to the point that we are."

If the Raiders don't sign a stadium lease in Oakland for next season, San Antonio has been mentioned as a potential temporary home. 

"Anytime there is an opportunity to prove a point that San Antonio is one of the elite cities of the world and one of the elite cities for professional sports, we're going to take that opportunity if it's in the best interest in our community, if it makes sense economically and for our community we will do that," Nirenberg said.

San Antonio has five professional sports teams, but the NBA's Spurs are the only ones playing at the highest level. 

The Alamodome hosted three home games for the New Orleans Saints in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina forced them to evacuate their home city.