The Spurs, and Victor Wembanyama, Now Belong to Your Kids
SAN ANTONIO - Perhaps you've heard that in the days following the San Antonio Spurs winning the NBA Draft lottery in May there's been an increase in season ticket sales.
Landing the right to draft Victor Wembanyama, the most heralded kid to enter the league since LeBron James, no doubt had half of San Antonio fist pumping right along with team governor and majority stake-holder Peter J. Holt, who's reaction went viral.
It hasn't been just the fists that have been pumping. The wallets have been pumping money into the organization too. Spurs sales officials said in the two weeks after that fateful night in May they saw 4,000 new season tickets bought. Not a bad haul for an organization that's seen sparse crowds by usual standards at the AT&T Center for a couple of years. The bump in ticket sales isn't surprising but what stood out to me was news this week that according to the Spurs, 51 percent of the new season tickets had gone to millennials or GenZ'ers. Now that is something.
In a time in which you can't turn on the news without reading how bad things are for younger Americans, it warmed my heart to see that at least some of them not only can afford Spurs tickets but they are now actually buying them up. This is only a good thing for an organization in transition, that has lost a ton lately and has seen at least some apathy among older fans who have longed for the days of 60 wins and two rounds deep in the playoffs being the minimum expectation.
The NBA markets itself as a league for young, hip people, so to see half the new season ticket sales in San Antonio going to the pretty ones must be not only exhilarating for the front office but must also bring a needed sigh of relief.
As the club heads off into the future with Wembanyama, it's a nice feeling to know that a whole new group of fans are coming along for the ride. Some of the new ticket holders were in grade school when the title was last won in 2014. Many were in diapers when Tony Parker was drafted. Some weren't even born when Tim Duncan won his first championship.
With more home games to come in trendy Austin and down in Mexico, the Spurs are a rising organization again. They are just about finished with the state of the art new practice and training center on the North Side. The new star player called Wemby is only 19 years old. Holt himself hasn't yet turned 40. General Manager Brian Wright was born in 1983. These new season ticket holders with no crow's feet or bunions or AARP memberships will walk through the turnstiles this season as fans not only of the old school Spurs but of whatever this new version is morphing into.
The future is bright. The future is here. That's worth another fist pump no matter how old you are.
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