San Antonio, Austin, and the short-term sacrifice for long-term growth
Bexar County commissioners gave the Spurs a unanimous go-ahead to play two games in Austin and one game outside of the United States in each of the next two seasons, and that's a good thing.
In a way, Austin was already familiar with the version of the Spurs that took the Moody Center floor in early April.
A headband-wearing Keldon Johnson cut his teeth as a G-Leaguer in Texas’ capital city. So did Tre Jones. Rookies Blake Wesley, Dominick Barlow, Malaki Branham and Julian Champagnie have already made plenty of trips up and down I-35 during their first professional seasons. This wasn’t a strange product, just a fancier presentation than the one they’d previously known in Cedar Park, where the Austin Spurs play.
And those guys got a ton of run during the newly minted I-35 Series, as neither contest featured the kinds of lineups fans may have hoped for when Bexar County commissioners agreed last summer to allow the Spurs to play the first-ever NBA games in Texas’ capital city. Johnson and Zach Collins only played in the opener against the Portland Trail Blazers, Jeremy Sochan and Devin Vassell were in street clothes both nights, and superstar Damian Lillard — who’s worth the price of admission by himself — was also unavailable. Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards showed up for a Minnesota Timberwolves team that needed to win in the second game of the series, but that matchup was unsurprisingly a blowout.
Still, the crowd didn’t seem to mind the lack of star power. It was electric in that building when the Spurs stormed back in the fourth quarter to beat the equally starless Trail Blazers; and during the Saturday game, as the star-laden Timberwolves rained down 3-pointers in an eventual 151-131 route, ‘The Wave’ made an always-funny appearance, followed by the entire building singing along to ‘Mr. Brightside’ by The Killers during a late timeout — millennials’ version of Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ or Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline.’
It was a college environment, in a college town. There were packs of kids running around the arena enjoying themselves, with no ushers chasing them down and reaching for ticket stubs. There were dudes being dudes, occupying a prominent spot in what is usually the student section at University of Texas games with their chests painted silver and black instead of burnt orange and white. The fans were behind the idea, the brand, the novelty and the spectacle. They didn’t seem to care who was or wasn’t playing.
These were technically NBA games, but they didn’t feel like it. They felt more intimate.
The normally stoic R.C. Buford became a bit emotional as he spoke to the media before the opening game of the series. He reflected on the season that’s been, and how despite the ups and downs of a rebuilding team, the response from the fans and the communities in which they live has been a touching element of the Spurs’ season-long 50th-anniversary celebration.
As San Antonio entered its new era of basketball, it also embarked on the ambitious mission to expand its footprint between Mexico and central Texas, one of the continent’s fastest-growing regions. Winning is the greatest unifier in sports, and because the Spurs aren’t doing much of that these days, extending organizational reach well beyond home base is a challenge with built-in roadblocks attached.
But so far, the franchise’s outreach efforts this season have been met with nothing but positivity, at least on location. From San Antonio’s early season game in Mexico City, to setting an NBA attendance record in the Alamodome, to playing its final two “home” games in Austin, the Spurs have made an early mark across the territory they hope to unequivocally call their own.
“I think the opportunity to meet our fans where they are and then to continue to build with our impact work — the court that was donated (in Austin) this week, the response to that from the people was really emotional,” Buford said. “I couldn’t be more proud to be part of the team that celebrated the relationship it’s had with people throughout our fan base across our whole season.”
And yet, for all the excitement expressed by the Spurs organization over testing the basketball waters in Austin, there has been an almost equal amount of consternation from loyalists in San Antonio despite assurances from practically every high-ranking team official this wasn’t some buildup to a relocation.
Initially, the Spurs’ request for additional “home” games away from the AT&T Center — on top of the two their lease with Bexar County already permits — was met with a sideways glance last spring. Motives were questioned, as was the team’s allegiance to the city that raised it. It was a strange ask met by understandable skepticism, especially considering the horror stories across sports of organizations wielding their corporate power to hold cities hostage in arena negotiations. The city of San Antonio wasn’t all that excited to enter into some kind of open relationship.
But even with the background noise, the Spurs went back for more, just as they planned to do all along. And if Tuesday’s vote from county commissioners was any indication, people may be warming to the idea behind the franchise’s plan.
The five-member court decided unanimously to allow the Spurs to play two “home” games in Austin and one international game (pending NBA approval) in each of the next two seasons. County commissioners were much more reluctant to grant the approval of the Spurs’ initial request last year around this time, when the first vote came back 3-2 in favor before eventually being massaged into a 4-1 vote after Peter J. Holt offered reassurances in a letter to the city. But it was only for a one-year trial run.
On Tuesday, the court showed it has fewer reservations about the Spurs’ agenda. And while five people is a small sampling on the surface, these are elected officials tasked with representing large precincts. One would hope they’re acting with the people’s best interests in mind.
Handwringing over this topic will continue to exist, but the Spurs remain steadfast and calm internally. They know this isn’t a preliminary maneuver designed to set up a move, but all the public can do is accept the team’s word it won’t eventually do so — a difficult proposition where hypotheticals are concerned — and avoid being sucked into the interminable discourse that exists online. But when one takes the emotion out of it, the benefits are easy enough to parse.
It’s just good business for a small-market team like San Antonio to make a concerted effort to attract more fans from a growing, vibrant community only an hour down the road. On the flip side, it would be bad business to launch these types of growth initiatives only to leave and potentially alienate the area that represents the largest portion of its fan base for a smaller, more transient city in the same market. Say what you will about corporate cash — and Austin has stacks of it — but money travels just fine these days, and the Spurs’ ownership group has the resources and connections necessary to ensure financial stability right where they’re currently situated.
But a team must grow its base in order to make the logistics of these types of business dealings more navigable. Winning a bunch of games used to take care of that all-important element of the equation on its own in San Antonio; but for now, with a losing team, a lack of true star power and an inconveniently located arena, the Spurs have to get creative and aggressive. It would have been irresponsible to maintain the status quo.
Beyond that, the concerns over playing a couple of games in Austin at the expense of local businesses in the San Antonio area will all be washed away should the organization meet its goals both on and off the court. Any growth in popularity among new and old fans alike — whether by the team returning to its winning ways, a positive response to its outreach efforts, or both — would bring back the customary packed houses in the AT&T Center, and still more visitors to the downtown area.
Besides, this is the perfect time to reach out and build relationships, because let’s be honest: How much is relocating a three home games really impacting folks’ finances on the River Walk these days? Attendance at the AT&T Center this season was up from last year but still among the worst in the league, and the stands were not packed with people traveling to watch the Spurs. So perhaps the better question would be, how much future business will these efforts eventually bring to town?
It should be noted: Many AT&T Center employees worked the games in Austin, and certain season-ticket holders had their customary seats brought to the Moody Center for the weekend. Beyond that, the price of full-season tickets was lowered this year in order to account for the absence of the four “home” games played away from the AT&T Center. There were measures taken to ensure wages weren’t cut and ticket stubs were honored.
I truly do not mean to sound unempathetic toward the people who hold these concerns, but this is a short-term sacrifice for healthier long-term growth. There may come a time when it no longer makes financial sense to leave the AT&T Center for a college arena up the road, when the Spurs are once again winning games and the hometown arena is full every night. But for now, for a couple of games a season, it does.
Austin is a city full of transplants and young people who may not have allegiances to other teams, or are so far from their home market that they’re looking for something new or different. And while there are many Spurs fans in the capital city, it’s also packed with Longhorn fans who have never really cared much for any professional franchise. There is a market that hasn’t been fully tapped, and the Spurs are wise to make the effort to become part of that community.
There was nothing sinister about the inaugural weekend of the I-35 Series — no clever signs in the crowd or rebellious heckling from any onlookers trying to poke fun at the possibility of a move. It was just one big welcoming party, excited to have a new visitor in town. And the Spurs are banking on more of that in the coming years.
“People must have wanted to see it … and it feels good that we have that interest. So it has worked out well, and I am sure we will do it every year,” Gregg Popovich said. “More games in Austin, if they are being sold out like this and people love it? Sure.”
This type of plan takes commitment. One or two exhibitions in Austin won’t do the trick, but a consistent presence could do wonders. Typically speaking, constant exposure to a team is what drives people to become fans in the first place, and entertaining environments like the one the Spurs and the Moody Center created in early April play a huge role in attracting new customers. If more Austinites start spending money to watch the Spurs play basketball, more businesses and corporations will want their names attached to the product. There are places all over the country where people travel for an hour or more to go watch a game, and in time, the Spurs hope their dedication to making the trip and meeting the fans where they are is reciprocated.
San Antonio has an advantage no other small-market team in the NBA possesses: multiple large cities nearby that aren’t homes to other professional basketball teams. Sacramento has San Francisco, which has the Warriors. Milwaukee has Chicago, which has the Bulls. Salt Lake City is in the middle of nowhere. Memphis has Nashville, but it’s more than 200 miles away and is home to multiple professional sports franchises; Cleveland and Cincinnati are in a similar boat. Seattle will never be a Blazers city, especially once it gets another team of its own. Indiana, Charlotte and Orlando? All pretty much by themselves.
But the Spurs have Austin, as well as Monterrey, the second largest city in Mexico. The more they establish their brand in those cities, the more likely it is people will make the short trip to San Antonio in the future, especially as the on-court product improves.
The idea of sharing the Spurs with other cities may be uncomfortable and frustrating at times, and asking fans to withhold emotion, think analytically and trust explicitly is borderline unreasonable in many cases. It’s not their job to do so. But the organization believes the proof will eventually be in the pudding, that this will be a temporary inconvenience. Over the long haul, these forays toward the boundaries of the team’s market should create a more solid foundation in San Antonio, built for longevity.
“The commitment is there, continues to be there, and will always be there to San Antonio,” Buford said. “I think if you see our new human-performance campus at The Rock at La Cantera — that is a financial commitment and an emotional commitment to our community. And we hope to impact our communities that we continue to be engaged in, in so many places.
“I don’t know how we can say it any stronger, San Antonio is home.”
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