The city of El Paso can proceed with plans to build a $180-million multipurpose center in the CBD. However, the one caveat is that it can’t be built as a sports arena, according to Austin’s 201^st Civil District Court Judge Amy Clark Meachum. What this means is that the city can’t use proceeds generated from bond sales to “construct, improve, renovate or equip” the downtown El Paso facility as a sports arena.

The ruling ends a contentious argument concerning a quality-of-life bond issue passed by voters in 2012, for a multipurpose cultural and performing arts center. Though the implied assumption of the center was that it would include a sports component, critics argued that city officials misled voters by trying to spend bond monies for an arena that would house sporting events, rather than performing arts events.

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