Bexar County leaders on Tuesday granted the San Antonio Spurs permission to play four regular-season home games outside of the Frost Bank Center during each of the 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 NBA seasons — an increase from the three games the team played in other locations in the past two seasons.
The team declined to comment on where the games would be held, but they’re already scheduled to play two international games next season, against the New Orleans Pelicans in Paris, France and in Manchester, England.
Commissioner Justin Rodriguez (Pct. 2), who put the item on the Commissioners Court’s July 7 agenda, said the agreement would give the Spurs the flexibility to pursue international opportunities that have become popular within the NBA, while also playing some games in Austin during the San Antonio Rodeo season, when the Frost Bank Center is unavailable.
“It’s not guaranteeing [four games will be played elsewhere], but it’s up to [four],” Rodriguez said. “When the Spurs, for example, are gone during the Rodeo Road Trip, it allows [the team] to work with the NBA schedulers to potentially do a game or two in Austin during that time.”
The idea of playing more home games outside of San Antonio has been quite sensitive.
The county owns the Frost Bank Center, where the Spurs currently have an agreement to play their home games through 2032.
When the team asked to play some of those games in Austin during the 2022-2023 season, fans spoke out, perceiving the move as a signal the Spurs might consider moving to another city.
But county leaders agreed to test the idea for a single season, aimed at helping the team grow its business during tough times.
“When you’ve got a team that’s not winning, it’s probably expected,” then-Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said of the Spurs’ efforts to expand their audience in 2023. “You’ve got to build that fan base and draw a little bit more from other areas to make it work.”
Now the Spurs are in a very different situation.
They’re one of the hottest brands in the NBA, fresh off a playoff run, with valuable players commanding big salaries. They’re also expected to get a new $1.3 billion downtown arena with a non-relocation agreement that will keep them in San Antonio until at least 2062.
“This is about more visibility. This is about marketing,” Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores (Pct. 1) said of Tuesday’s decision. “I’m happy to support it.”
While commissioners were generally supportive of the team’s request, they faced some pushback Tuesday about letting the Spurs out of games that could pump money into the local economy.
“Using the Spurs’ own economic study, each home game represents roughly $3.8 million in direct local spending,” said Susan Strawn, a retired federal prosecutor who spoke against the change at Tuesday’s meeting. “There appears to have been no effort whatsoever to determine the value of what the county is giving up, or to negotiate compensation for it.”
Bobby Perez, chief legal officer and general counsel for Spurs Sports & Entertainment, disputed Strawn’s assessment of the per-game financial impact, but did not give another estimate.
He said there’s no revenue lost to the county under the new agreement, because commissioners had already agreed to four games for the 2022-2023 season, allowing the team to play two home games in Austin, one international game in Mexico, and one game at the Alamodome for the team’s 50th anniversary celebration.
Since then, the team has scaled back the number of home games played elsewhere.
The Alamodome was also not mentioned as a possible location for the games played outside of the Frost Bank Center in upcoming seasons.
But Perez pointed to the team’s post-season run as a major boon to local partners.
“We had an additional 23 games at the end of the season,” Perez said. “Our season didn’t end on April 15. Unfortunately it ended the first week of June — not the way we would like to — but we’re very proud of our relationship with the county.”
Commissioners voted 4-0 on the agreement, with Commissioner Tommy Calvert (Pct. 4) abstaining.
“I think that there needs to be a deeper look at the [return on investment] and what are the taxpayers getting in the loss of revenue,” said Calvert, who represents residents in the team’s existing home on the East Side.