Home Away From Home
San Antonio Spurs shoot into Austin's Moody Center for 2 games this season
Most Spurs get pretty rusty after 50 years, but the NBA team is going strong and keeping things fresh by making a push for more fan engagement at "home." For the 2022-23 season, the San Antonio Spurs have announced four special home games, two of which will be held at Austin’s new state-of-the-art venue, the Moody Center.
The Austin games are scheduled for April 6 and 8, 2023.
“We are honored to host the San Antonio Spurs for two games in Austin and help the organization celebrate their 50th anniversary season,” said senior vice president Jeff Nickler of the Moody Center and its investor, Oak View Group, in a press release. “Events like these not only generate significant economic impact for our community, but also further elevate Austin’s reputation as a world-class destination for sports and live events.”
So far, the Moody Center mostly hosts large music events, including another 50th anniversary tour in 2022, celebrating Roxy Music. The only other sports events on the docket as of August are three days of Professional Bull Riding (PBR).
The team will also play a home game at Arena CDMX in Mexico City on December 17, further strengthening its international fanbase. And on January 13, a 50th anniversary celebration will bring the team home to San Antonio, but this time to the iconic Alamodome. The dome holds more than 65,000 spectators, which means the game may break records for the NBA regular season. That’s about 50,000 more than The Spurs’ 2021-2022 average, which was 15,014 guests per game.
The Spurs represent an especially wide region for an NBA team, reaching up to Austin and all the way down into Mexico, the edges of what the release calls a “mega-region.” The team is getting creative with outreach, and just made the first NBA partnership with hiring platform Indeed. But the fans still come first.
“Hosting these four games is part of our vision to purposefully engage and celebrate our entire Spurs following from Mexico to Austin, while fostering the next generation of fans,” said Spurs sports and entertainment CEO RC Buford. “Playing in front of our Austin fans for the first time ever during the regular season, returning to Mexico City, and the Alamodome will each be historic and special moments for our entire organization. We are grateful for our loyal supporters throughout our entire region and are thrilled for the opportunity to play in front of them as part of our 50th anniversary season.”
General tickets for the Moody Center games will be available September 28 via nba.com and the Spurs App. Subscribers to various Spurs and Moody Center memberships will receive first access to presales starting September 21.
