Spurs leaving SA?

[mudyez]

WWWOOOWWOOOOWWWooooowoooooo...calm down!

There are no rumors about them leaving and I'm not a troll hoping for them to leave or trying to scare you with "...for a road game"

...nor am I a bitter Sonics fan.

After reading some stuff about the Spurs nearly leaving in the 80s (I remember reading a lot about that, but it came back to mind on the Timmy-draft threat, coz of the Sactown thing and so on), we have to say that we got very lucky with the Robinson thing (getting the 1st overall in a year, that a HoF is sitting there) and it probably made the team stay.

But that was a franchise, that didnt achieve a lot of stuff and while they had some history, its not like they had a very glory history.
Since I'm not from SA, but still care for them to stay (I'm a fan since 94 and hope to visit your city some day), I want to ask you how sure the Spurs are now to stay even if they would suck for 10-15 years(not that likely with our great front office)?
They are the only big sports franchise in the city and the arena situation is just fine. Furthermore they wont leave the next few years with glory days still in mind. But for how long our 4 ships make the team a safe bet to stay, without worrying at least a tiny bit?

Thanks for your insight!

[spursfaninla]

Yeah right.

[xellos88330]

I can't see them moving anywhere. The Spurs are so deeply embedded in San Antonio culture, that it is unfathomable to think that they would ever move. They didn't move before the championships and now it would seem even more impossible now that they have won not one, but four. I doubt that San Antonio would ever let go of its 1 professional sports franchise. I think the economy of SA would take a huge hit should it happen.

[timvp]

They will be in San Antonio for a while. Their deal with the county is too good to leave anytime soon, even if the fans abandon the team. But one day, if the Spurs are last in attendance like they were prior to the lottery balls bouncing their way, they could move. But that's far down the line.

It's amazing to think of all that has had to happen to keep the Spurs in San Antonio.

-They had to basically steal a skinny kid from the Virginia Squires who turned into not only a Hall of Famer but also one of the funnest players ever to watch play. Plus, George Gervin had to embrace San Antonio.

-They had to have an owner in Angelo Drossos who was more loyal to San Antonio than he was loyal to money. He could have moved to a bigger market. He also didn't have to fight to keep the franchise alive during the merger.

-They had to not only land David Robinson in the lottery, they had to convince him to sign even though he was basically a free agent. (Logically, there was no reason for Robinson to sign with the Spurs. I still don't know why he did, tbh.)

-They had to not only land Tim Duncan in the lottery, they had to win a championship in one of his first two seasons or else the arena vote wouldn't have passed.

Pretty amazing series of events, tbh.

[Sec24Row7]

Red Mccombs basically ensured the Spurs weren't going to go anywhere by selling to the current ownership group.

[Beanzamillion21]

It's been discussed before and I would like to believe it will never happen. More than likely won't ever happen.
If it did though, think any other sports markets would swarm in to the 6th largest city in the country?

[Rob123]

The Spurs may have been a threat to move earlier but since then San Antonio has become a huge city, and it is only getting bigger.

The Spurs arent going anywhere probably ever, San Antonio and Austin will one day be one huge metropolitan area and it is completely unfathomable that the Spurs would ever be last in attendance with the current growth of the city.

I cant foresee the only pro sports team in South Texas and Americas 7th biggest city leaving.

When the Sonics left, Seattle still had the Mariners and the Sea Hawks.

If the Spurs leave San Antonio will have nothing, and that's not a great way to attract business, or labor, and all signs point to the City wanting to continue it's impressive growth.

[Juggity]

The luster of four championships will take a very long time to fade. Decades.

[baseline bum]

-They had to not only land David Robinson in the lottery, they had to convince him to sign even though he was basically a free agent. (Logically, there was no reason for Robinson to sign with the Spurs. I still don't know why he did, tbh.)

Because the Spurs gave DRob the sweetest contract in the history of the league: every single year his salary would be recomputed as the average of the top 2 yearly salaries in the league, and it was for 10 years.

[timvp]

Because the Spurs gave DRob the sweetest contract in the history of the league: every single year his salary would be recomputed as the average of the top 2 yearly salaries in the league, and it was for 10 years.

It was actually an eight year contract worth $28 million, IIRC, and the average salary of the top two players clause only became active after the fifth season of the contract. However, Robinson reworked his contract before that clause ever kicked in and signed that $66 million over six years contract. His first couple years in the league, he wasn't even in the top ten in salary ... unless I'm remembering wrong.

And besides, imagine the contract Robinson could have gotten if he would have just waited become a free agent. A top ten all-time prospect as an unrestricted free agent? Add in the endorsement deals from signing with a bigger market and Robinson could have easily gotten double or triple what the Spurs gave him, tbh.

From a business perspective, signing with the Spurs was an astonishingly dumb move by David . . .

[Man In Black]

It was actually an eight year contract worth $28 million, IIRC, and the average salary of the top two players clause only became active after the fifth season of the contract. However, Robinson reworked his contract before that clause ever kicked in and signed that $66 million over six years contract. His first couple years in the league, he wasn't even in the top ten in salary ... unless I'm remembering wrong.

And besides, imagine the contract Robinson could have gotten if he would have just waited become a free agent. A top ten all-time prospect as an unrestricted free agent? Add in the endorsement deals from signing with a bigger market and Robinson could have easily gotten double or triple what the Spurs gave him, tbh.

From a business perspective, signing with the Spurs was an astonishingly dumb move by David . . .
Perhaps from a religious and civic perspective, it afforded him all that he ever needed?

[crc21209]

They will be in San Antonio for a while. Their deal with the county is too good to leave anytime soon, even if the fans abandon the team. But one day, if the Spurs are last in attendance like they were prior to the lottery balls bouncing their way, they could move. But that's far down the line.

It's amazing to think of all that has had to happen to keep the Spurs in San Antonio.

-They had to basically steal a skinny kid from the Virginia Squires who turned into not only a Hall of Famer but also one of the funnest players ever to watch play. Plus, George Gervin had to embrace San Antonio.

-They had to have an owner in Angelo Drossos who was more loyal to San Antonio than he was loyal to money. He could have moved to a bigger market. He also didn't have to fight to keep the franchise alive during the merger.

-They had to not only land David Robinson in the lottery, they had to convince him to sign even though he was basically a free agent. (Logically, there was no reason for Robinson to sign with the Spurs. I still don't know why he did, tbh.)

-They had to not only land Tim Duncan in the lottery, they had to win a championship in one of his first two seasons or else the arena vote wouldn't have passed.

Pretty amazing series of events, tbh.

They were meant to happen timvp, meant to happen....:toast

[Beaverfuzz]

WWWOOOWWOOOOWWWooooowoooooo...calm down!

There are no rumors about them leaving and I'm not a troll hoping for them to leave or trying to scare you with "...for a road game"

...nor am I a bitter Sonics fan.

After reading some stuff about the Spurs nearly leaving in the 80s (I remember reading a lot about that, but it came back to mind on the Timmy-draft threat, coz of the Sactown thing and so on), we have to say that we got very lucky with the Robinson thing (getting the 1st overall in a year, that a HoF is sitting there) and it probably made the team stay.

But that was a franchise, that didnt achieve a lot of stuff and while they had some history, its not like they had a very glory history.
Since I'm not from SA, but still care for them to stay (I'm a fan since 94 and hope to visit your city some day), I want to ask you how sure the Spurs are now to stay even if they would suck for 10-15 years(not that likely with our great front office)?
They are the only big sports franchise in the city and the arena situation is just fine. Furthermore they wont leave the next few years with glory days still in mind. But for how long our 4 ships make the team a safe bet to stay, without worrying at least a tiny bit?

Thanks for your insight!


You are a bitter Sonics fan.

[rascal]

The future is St. Louis Spurs

[baseline bum]

It was actually an eight year contract worth $28 million, IIRC, and the average salary of the top two players clause only became active after the fifth season of the contract. However, Robinson reworked his contract before that clause ever kicked in and signed that $66 million over six years contract. His first couple years in the league, he wasn't even in the top ten in salary ... unless I'm remembering wrong.

And besides, imagine the contract Robinson could have gotten if he would have just waited become a free agent. A top ten all-time prospect as an unrestricted free agent? Add in the endorsement deals from signing with a bigger market and Robinson could have easily gotten double or triple what the Spurs gave him, tbh.

From a business perspective, signing with the Spurs was an astonishingly dumb move by David . . .

Wow, the SA media at the time reported it as the average of the top 2 every year. What you're saying definitely jives with the salary numbers on basketballreference. Damn, David's agent must have been Master P or something if he wasn't pulling a top 10 salary.

[baseline bum]

Perhaps from a religious and civic perspective, it afforded him all that he ever needed?

I don't think DRob was all that religious early on. I know his autographs didn't start having bible verses until around 93 or so.

[JWest596]

-They had to have an owner in Angelo Drossos who was more loyal to San Antonio than he was loyal to money. He could have moved to a bigger market. He also didn't have to fight to keep the franchise alive during the merger.

Spot on....Angelo Drossos has never really been given the credit he genuinely deserved for keeping the Spurs afloat.. He was the poorest financially in relative terms of all the Spurs owners past to present. He did a lot for SA and its great that you mentioned him. Drossos was also one the the loudest proponent in getting the then NBA 'tradition bound' owners to put in the three point shot after the merger in 1979. It was reported that Red Auerbach fought the loudest to keep it out. People also forget that San Antonio was the least desired of the four ABA teams by the then current NBA owners that were allowed in the NBA largely because of its small TV market and demographics. Drossos won out.


Red Mccombs basically ensured the Spurs weren't going to go anywhere by selling to the current ownership group.

I think Red could have kissed his car dealerships away if it was thought he was responsible for the Spurs leaving. He also was one of the very early Spurs backers and a close friend of Drossos. He was always looking in SA's best interest as well. Dan Cook wrote some really wonderful articles about the inner dynamics of early Spurs owners. Robert McDermott deserves honorable mention as well. All of them could have probably made more money trading away the Spurs but didn't.
Thank God we didn't have a greedy Howard Shultz of Starbucks who sold the Sonics to out of town owners (OK) owners ensuring that the Sonics would inevitably move away. He still claims he had no idea that it would happen.
"Shocked that there's gambling going on here"

[Beaverfuzz]

I don't think DRob was all that religious early on. I know his autographs didn't start having bible verses until around 93 or so.

My 1992 USA Basketball jersey begs to differ.

[baseline bum]

My 1992 USA Basketball jersey begs to differ.

I have some autos from Dave's first few years where he didn't put bible verses. I'm not sure what year he started doing it; perhaps 92 was it.

[mudyez]

You are a bitter Sonics fan.

not the last time I checked!
but you have to feel sorry for them.

so again thanks for all your insight!

btw.: seeing military day I was wondering three things:

1) was it just me, or have there been very few military people (it didnt seem they where running out of coins for people in military clothes in the broadcast)
2) I know the USA are very high on their military and sports are a part of it, but can you say SA is one of the (if not THE) nba team with the biggest pride in doing that (especially with Davids and Pops history and the military bases)?
3) may that have been a part of Davids choice to stay in SA?

[Maddog]

The Spurs may have been a threat to move earlier but since then San Antonio has become a huge city, and it is only getting bigger.

The Spurs arent going anywhere probably ever, San Antonio and Austin will one day be one huge metropolitan area and it is completely unfathomable that the Spurs would ever be last in attendance with the current growth of the city.

I cant foresee the only pro sports team in South Texas and Americas 7th biggest city leaving.

When the Sonics left, Seattle still had the Mariners and the Sea Hawks.

If the Spurs leave San Antonio will have nothing, and that's not a great way to attract business, or labor, and all signs point to the City wanting to continue it's impressive growth.
Hard to predict the future-
I wonder if the Sours are unable to remain competitive what will happen. As TIMVP pointed out there have been some remarkable events.


Yes San Antonio city is the 7th largest, but the metro area is only the 25th largest in the US. In television market size SA falls to 37th. TV Market is reflective of metro population and indirectly per captia income (among others). This is Representative of another problem SA has- although a top 30 metro area it's not exactly wealthy.
SA, Portland Orlando and Sacramento all have similar populations and several teams have smaller metro areas.
Some of the big markets like LA have regional TV contracts that will give them huge amounts of revenue. (LA with a substantially higher player payroll made a profit last year- the Spurs lost money- LA has since inked a deal to rake in even more money).
Of course population and income are no guarantee of success. I currently live in Atlanta- a top ten metro area/Tv market- coporate money large number of households with high incomes, but the Hawks struggle. Why? Well one problem is a lot of people here are from somewhere else. I go to one Hawks game a year on average (I wonder which game). This is SA one hope is that the Spurs are part of SA culture now.

[bigfan]

I doubt the Spurs would ever move but I do think one dumb move was building the Arena out at Joe Freeman (yeah, I know they had to to get county money) was a big mistake. The Spurs should be playing downtown and all the local businesses would be on the bandwagon to keep them in SA. Hemisfair was a perfect place for the Spurs actually.

[LongtimeSpursFan]

I doubt the Spurs would ever move but I do think one dumb move was building the Arena out at Joe Freeman (yeah, I know they had to to get county money) was a big mistake. The Spurs should be playing downtown and all the local businesses would be on the bandwagon to keep them in SA. Hemisfair was a perfect place for the Spurs actually.

This. Even though the Alamodome sucked as a basketball arena I loved the experience of going to a game and then enjoying the attractions downtown had to offer. I HATE going to ATT Center then having to go home afterwards.