Cameron County arena proposal defeated by largest margin yet

Despite Cameron County’s best efforts, voters once again have shot down a proposal to get the ball rolling on a 10,000-seat, mixed-use arena halfway between Brownsville and Harlingen.

“Proposition A” would have allowed the use of 2% of visitor/venue tax revenue generated by hotel room bookings and car rentals within the country to help finance the Cameron County Venue project, which would have anchored the Madeira residential-commercial development off I-69E just north of the South Texas ISD Medical Professions academy.

According to unofficial results from Cameron County Elections and Voter Registration, voters defeated the proposition 9,769 to 6,272 (60.9% to 39.1%) out of 16,041 votes cast among 101 precincts. The county had 232,671 registered voters in 2024, according to the Texas Secretary of State, which means that less than 7% of registered voters voted on the arena question. A total of 16,861 ballots were cast countywide, according to the department.

This is the third time the venue proposition has failed, though it nearly passed in November 2021 election, when 4,776 voted for it and 4,842 against (49.6% to 50.3%) out of 9,618 total votes. The margin in the May 2022 election was much closer as well, with 8,826 votes for and 9,038 against (49.4% to 50.6%) out of 18,830 total ballots cast.

The arena effort this time had a political action committee involved, Cameron County Now, which was behind the “Vote for the Venue” campaign leading up to the election. The proposition also had the backing of Brownsville Mayor John Cowen Jr. and the city commission, which approved a resolution March 4 proclaiming the arena a “quality-of-life project and a catalyst for economic development for the region.”

The project was also pitched as a means of bringing University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Brownsville campus graduation back to Brownsville, while also providing a home for other area graduations. UTRGV made the decision late last year to move graduation to Edinburg, ostensibly due to the lack of an adequate, all-weather venue in Cameron County.

In a letter UTRGV President Guy Bailey sent to Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. in February, Bailey described completion of the proposed arena as “not only a critical step forward for Cameron County but (it) would be welcomed and strongly supported by UTRGV.”

“As you are aware, we had to make the difficult decision to move the Brownsville commencement ceremonies to Hidalgo County due to the absence of a suitable venue in Cameron County capable of accommodating the scale of our commencement events,” Bailey wrote.

“Cameron County’s construction of a new multi-purpose arena would allow us to not only hold commencement ceremonies in Cameron County, but other events, such as athletic practices, clinics and some games.”

Proponents also pitched the facility’s potential as a venue for concerts, theater, conventions and other events.

None of it was enough to prevent “Proposition A” from failing by the largest margin yet. Treviño, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, said on Friday that he hoped voters would not be swayed by what he said was misinformation surrounding the issue.

“We’ve tried to explain and provide the accurate information, that this election is only to approve the use of the visitor/venue tax on this project,” Treviño said.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done. We’ve never said that the visitor tax or the venue tax would pay for the entire project, because it won’t. … We’ve made that clear many, many times. There are other avenues that we need to explore, but this is the county’s way to utilize the visitor tax.”

Many voters likewise assumed their property taxes would go up, though Treviño emphasized that would not be the case.

“This has nothing to do with with your property taxes,” he said. “This visitor tax will continue to be collected after this election, win or lose. But if we continue to delay taking advantage of this opportunity I think this community will regret it.”

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