SPI Hopes Spurs Link Nets More Visits & Business

By R. Daniel Cavazos

Blake Henry, the CVB's chief executive officer. speaks during a Nov. 2 event announcing a new partnership with the NBA's San Antonio Spurs. (Courtesy)

The South Padre Island Convention & Visitors Bureau entered into a marketing partnership with the San Antonio Spurs in what is being described as one step in redefining SPI as a year-round destination.

"It’s just the beginning," said Blake Henry, the CVB’s chief executive officer.

Henry described the strategy as a process tied to expanding the convention center to attract more events and meetings to the Island. The CVB’s focus is on bookings during non-peak tourist months of the fall and winter. Henry, whose background includes working for the LA Kings of the National Hockey League, has a particular interest in bringing more sporting events to the Island.

"We have the ability to redefine our destination with the development of this convention center and to rethink our marketing plans," he said. "In going through this process and having a big name like the San Antonio Spurs is going to help us get more events."

The SPI Convention & Visitors Bureau hopes a new partnership with the Spurs will grow business during the fall and winter months. (Couresty)

Raising Awareness

The CVB announced its partnership with Spurs on Nov. 2 during a late morning event at the Convention Center. It included splashy decorations, specially designed cookies declaring SPI as the Spur’s "Official Island Escape," and a raffle that gave away game tickets.

Partnering with a professional sports team was a goal Henry sought to achieve for months. In securing an agreement with the Spurs, he hopes to connect the Island with a surging interest in the team and its recent addition of Victor Wembanyama. He is a 7-3 Frenchman who at only 19 years old is already a major NBA star. Henry sees the Spurs partnership as putting the SPI name and brand at the forefront of one of its best tourist markets – San Antonio – while giving the Island more exposure in general to sports fans outside of the state.

"Our destination deserves a professional team to partner with," he said. "It gives us another level, a national level, to get more Spurs fans here and more fans in general to come down in the process. It gives us another outlet to tell our story and raise awareness about the Island."

Commemorative cookies touted SPI as the San Antonio Spurs' "Official Island Escape." (Island Matters)

The agreement with the Spurs and their parent company – Spurs Sports & Entertainment – will give South Padre:

• Signage throughout the Frost Bank Center, the arena where the Spurs play their games.
• Floor-level images visible to television viewers while games are being played. Nineteen Spurs games will be broadcast nationally this season across platforms like ESPN, TNT, and ABC due to the excitement Wembanyama has generated.
• Access to the Spurs social media programming and "special sweepstakes opportunities for Spurs supporters."
• Tapping into the Spurs’ "huge database," said Henry, which in the Rio Grande Valley includes nearly 200,000 fans who have attended Spurs games and/or purchased team merchandise.
• Likely visits to the Island during the basketball offseason from Spurs fans.

Plugging In New Business

A key goal for the SPI Convention & Visitors Bureau is making the Island more of a year-round destination with economic activity extending through the fall and winter months.

A Nov. 2 event featuring splashy decorations announced a new marketing partnership between South Padre Island and the San Antonio Spurs. (Courtesy)

Expanding the size of the convention center is one piece to making that happen, Henry said, as is developing CVB staff to recruit more company and group meetings during the offseason tourist months.  The Island has hosted some high school and college basketball tournaments during December holiday weeks and having more of those events at the convention center is a CVB goal.

"Economic development starts with a visit," Henry said. "The more visits we can bring to our destination the more impressions we can create and spur economic activity down the road."

He said new business and additional visits are ones "we’re going to plug in after the summer all the way to February to keep economic activity flowing to our destination."

The new partnership with Spurs, Henry hopes, will bolster all of those efforts.

"Our destination deserves grand recognition like we’re getting with the San Antonio Spurs," he said. "I can’t think of a better partnership than the Spurs."

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