The San Antonio Spurs won the 2023 NBA Draft lottery, landing the opportunity to draft Victor Wembanyama with the first overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. While Wembanyama won’t take the court in San Antonio for months, he’s already having a massive financial impact on the team.
Wembanyama is a historically-great prospect, with evaluators viewing him as the best player to enter the NBA Draft since LeBron James. He’s received NBA comparisons to Hall of Famers, with NBA general managers and scouts believing the 7-foot-2 center will be the best player in basketball within a few years.
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While there is typically some uncertainty and intrigue surrounding the first pick in the NBA Draft, San Antonio will be taking Wembanyama. Even before the Spurs are allowed to sell his jersey and begin marketing him fully, the anticipation for Wembanyama’s arrival is already having a major influence on fan support for the Spurs.
In an interview with KSAT.com, Spurs Sports & Entertainment chief revenue officer Frank Miceli said there has been a massive influx in deposits and demand for season tickets since the NBA Draft lottery results
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“We were here until midnight last night working the phones and making sure people’s deposits, the website was working properly and everybody was back at it at 7:30 a.m. We’re projecting by the end of today (Wednesday), so a full 24 hours, we’ll have over 2,500 deposits.”
San Antonio Spurs chief revenue officer Frank Miceli on Victor Wembanyama’s impact on ticket sales
In, addition, the Spurs revealed traffic on their website is up 10 times what it’s normally at and the number of downloads of their team app has skyrocketed. Furthermore, per Axios, the team gained more than 2,000 new season ticket membership deposits as of Wednesday afternoon and the numbers are climbing even more.
The immediate gain from winning the NBA Draft lottery is already a boost for the Spurs, but there will. be far more significant economic gains in the months and years ahead. An NBA scout told HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto that early estimates projected Wembanyama to add “half a billion dollars in franchise value” to the team that picks him.
Not only are the Spurs landing a generational talent who many scouts and executives have called the best draft prospect ever, but they land a star to market for years. Wembanyama’s arrival will boost San Antonio’s economy and he could eventually turn the team into a perennial contender.
