Victor Wembanyama is already from Spurs. The Frenchman was chosen at number 1 in the draft. Just by putting on the San Antonio franchise cap, it’s worth half a billion dollars more. The team’s website collapses due to the high demand for season tickets and the NBA store does not guarantee the arrival of Wemby items until September due to the large number of orders.
Since the San Antonio Spurs won the Draft Lottery on May 16, each of the franchise’s departments has had more than enough time to prepare for the ‘Tsunami’ that is expected from draft night. of this past Thursday.
The Spurs, for example, could not sell Wembanyama’s shirt in all this time as his choice was not yet official. But in ‘stock’ they had enough units ready to meet the enormous demand that was expected once Adam Silver announced his landing on the Texan team.
Sale of t-shirts and season tickets
The economic impact, once the sale of ‘Wemby’ t-shirts and related merchandise takes hold, is going to be impressive. A few minutes after being chosen by the Spurs, the pre-sale of everything related to the player and his number one number was activated in the NBA Store.
From a jersey with sleeves for $39, going through a replica at $79 or the authentic one for $119, to a ball signed by Wembanyama that amounts to $549. The NBA store is committed to getting the items in before mid-September, which speaks volumes about the huge demand they are already experiencing.
The sale of season tickets has become a real madness on the night from Thursday to Friday, the web does not support so many accesses and it crashes frequently, but once inside, they ask for a deposit of 100 dollars to choose a seat. The Spurs offer tickets for the entire course, simple and also packages of ten games, it seems that the 19,000 locations will remain small.
While they waited for this ‘hurricane’, they already felt the first winds… On the night of the Draft Lottery, visits to the website increased tenfold, downloads of the team’s app skyrocketed, and there were 2,500 new deposits to reserve the annual pass for the following season.
A player capable of revaluing the franchise
In terms of business, what puts this arrival on another level is that the value of the franchise itself has risen by half a billion dollars for the simple fact of having the young Frenchman in its ranks, today it is estimated that if someone wants to buy the Spurs should shell out around 2.7 billion dollars, going from the 19th most expensive institution to the 14th.
The executives who run the sporting part have had to change the planning when it comes to reinforcing the squad to surround Wembanyama with competitive men who complement the Frenchman. Time will tell who will arrive but for now, given the impossibility of adding his partner in the Metropolitans, a Bilal Coulibaly chosen by the Pacers, the Spurs added Frenchman Cidy Sissoko in their second choice.
The Spurs, again a very competitive team
Departments such as communication must also adapt to the increase in requests for accreditation that is coming their way, starting with the first home games in the preseason, in October.
The San Antonio press officers were already in New York accompanying the young man, the journalists who regularly follow the Spurs had traveled en masse, and the NBA had “accidentally” chosen the guard of the Texan franchise, Jeremy Sochan, as ‘ VIP reporter’ to interview the boys who were selected.
Media such as Le Parisien or L’Equipe have already passed through San Antonio to carry out the first reports, without even the player having set foot in the city. Likewise, the role of the team’s French veterans, such as Tony Parker and Boris Diaw, changes from now on, since the franchise has asked them to be closer to day-to-day life.
The NBA prepares the ground
The league itself has done during this last season something that had never been seen before, broadcasting each of the games that the Metropolitans played in the French league through the NBA TV signal. The balloon of enthusiasm and hope for the player has been growing to such an extent that whoever knows more or less how ‘Wemby’ spends it.
This action is very reminiscent of what happened in 2002, when ESPN offered a national match between two schools for the first time in history, the St. Vincent-St. Mary of LeBron James and Oak Hill Academy.
With the French it has gone further, and even ESPN sent its journalist Brian Windhorst to France to connect live at three in the morning in the preview of the broadcast of the Draft Lottery and be the first to appear on screen next to the player.
In two months the NBA will publish the schedule for the new season, and an increase in the number of Spurs games that will go on national television is expected. Something inappropriate for a team that hasn’t reached the postseason for four years and that in the last year barely won 22 games.
This season, only four Spurs games were shown on national television, and only one was on ESPN. But the demand has changed and everyone wants to see the young Frenchman, the fever for Wembanyama has only just begun.
2023-06-23 13:48:57
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