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Old Posted Apr 8, 2018, 11:30 PM
ThePhun1 ThePhun1 is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Houston/Galveston
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Quote:
Originally Posted by llamaorama View Post
I'd be surprised if the Spurs move.

1. Nothing indicates Austin will build an NBA quality arena any time in the near or even medium term future . UT is eventually going to tear down and replace the Erwin Center with something else that's smaller, more college-oriented, and use that existing site to expand their medical school. That means there's nowhere in the central city where you could put a pro arena. I wouldn't be surprised if a private investor proposed building a big pro sports facility in a place like Round Rock, but would there be enough momentum?

2. The Spurs are too popular and too good and too established(the team started way back in 1967, its one of the oldest pro teams of any sport in the sunbelt). It would be really distastful if they left their home and there would probably be major political backlash. The City of San Antonio has sunk a LOT of money into luring and then retaining pro sports(see Alamodome), the Spurs are their only success so far. Local leaders would freak out if the Spurs threatened to leave and they'd bribe them with arena improvements.

3. Austin and San Antonio are basically one market. It's only a short drive from one city to the other. Eventually they are likely to become a single CSA.

.....

To be honest I don't see Austin getting a pro sports team anytime soon unless its MLS, and that would sooner go to San Antonio. My impression is that the city's political culture makes it unlikely to spend public funds on a pro sports facility, and while it is a wealthy city none of it's elites are interested enough in sports to buy a team and build a stadium or arena for it. And geographically, there's no great place to put a big stadium or arena, unless it went out in the suburbs.
Eventually, you mean after we're all gone? It's pretty empty from the Northside to New Braunfels to San Marcos to Austin.

That said, if anyone in Austin, especially if they live in or south of the city, wanted to be a Spurs season ticket holder, it would be no big deal. So it'd be virtually pointless to move a team from San Antonio to Austin. The best idea would be to move them as far north as possible, so they could make it easier for Austin fans to commute.
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