Illustration by Ren Rader
Over the past few weeks, the Office of Residential Life promoted and sold tickets to the San Antonio Spurs home game on Oct. 26 at the AT&T Center against the Washington Wizards. Michael Logan, the housing assignments coordinator for Residential Life, explained that the event has been a tradition for the Trinity campus.
“Trinity’s Spurs Night has been going strong since 1988. The event was actually created by [David Tuttle, dean of students], who was working in Residential Life at that time,” Logan said. “The Spurs were still trying to establish themselves in the NBA after joining in the 70s, so they did a lot of group promotions and Dean Tuttle thought it would be a good program for students. One year when the Spurs were playing at the Alamodome, we sold 1,000 tickets.”
First-year Bailey Dueitt purchased tickets from Residential Life and attended the game with a group.
“I heard about the promotion through some friends. We all decided it would be fun to go and bought tickets at the Witt Center. I would definitely go to this event again because it was great experiencing the game with my friends and seeing other students from Trinity,” Dueitt said.
Logan believes that the event promotes campus culture and helps bring Trinity’s campus closer together overall.
“One of the cornerstones of Trinity is building a sense of community, both on campus and with the greater San Antonio area. This event gives students the opportunity to experience one of the culturally-defining elements of the city: the San Antonio Spurs.” Logan said. “There are a handful of staff and faculty members that also attend the game, which helps to emphasize the bridging of the campus community with the city community through the event.”
In terms of event organization, the San Antonio Spurs work closely with Residential Life to plan and execute the event.
“The Spurs have account managers that work with local groups to get seats together. Once the season schedule is finalized, one of their account managers reaches out to Residential Life to select which games we want tickets for. The Spurs have been consistently helpful in working with us to find games that do not conflict with other major campus events and that are reasonably priced,” Logan said.
Residential Life covers part of the cost of the ticket in an effort to make the event accessible to more students.
“Residential Life pays approximately half of the cost of the tickets. Each ticket costs about $20, so students are getting a discounted price by only having to pay $10. The intention is to keep the event as accessible as possible to all students, regardless of their personal financial budget,” Logan said. “There was a pretty steady flow of ticket sales during the two weeks they were offered. We sold all 200 tickets, with the final tickets purchased on the morning of the last day. It seems like a lot of students were excited to go to the game, even if they are not big basketball fans.”
First-year Cal Hunter purchased his ticket through Residential Life and also attended the pre-game court-side experience that was included with the game ticket.
“The court-side pregame experience was awesome. We were sitting two or three rows from the court and were able to watch the players warm up. The game itself was very exciting too. Our seats were a little higher up, but it was great being around my friends and other Trinity students,” Hunter said.
Students were treated to a 124–122 victory by the Spurs over the Wizards, giving the Spurs their second win in the early NBA season.
“The game was a nail-biter and came down to the final minutes. The arena got super loud when [DeMar] DeRozan hit a layup with under 10 seconds left to clinch the Spurs win,” Hunter said.
Residential Life already has another event with the Spurs planned for next semester for those who missed out or want to head back to the AT&T Center.
“Spurs Night is the only event that Residential Life hosts where we offer discounted tickets to community events. We do one game each semester; the next game is Jan. 26 at 3:00 p.m. versus the defending NBA champions, the Toronto Raptors,” Logan said.
