DAZN Deal Raises New Questions About Who the Spurs Are Building Their Future For
Spurs Sports & Entertainment has described itself as a “community-centric” organization, a label rooted in a franchise that has built its identity around the culture, loyalty and community of San Antonio.
Beginning this season, however, following that franchise from home will come with a new cost.
Spurs fans will no longer be able to access a majority of the team’s regular-season games through their existing cable packages. Most locally available games that are not carried exclusively by national broadcasters will instead move to DAZN under the team’s new direct-to-consumer streaming agreement.
The standard subscription will cost $19.99 per month or $119.99 for the season, while a premium plan will cost $24.99 per month or $139.99 for the season. Twenty-two games will remain available free over the air.
That still leaves fans who want to access most of the local schedule paying $119 for the season or subscribing monthly. The change comes as watching professional basketball has already become increasingly fragmented across traditional television and streaming services.
According to reports, the Spurs needed a new distribution model after the collapse of FanDuel Sports Network, their former regional broadcaster. DAZN gives the team a single streaming platform for most games that are not nationally televised.
The agreement also preserves some free access, with 22 regular-season games expected to remain available over the air through a local broadcast partner.
The deal arrives as Spurs Sports & Entertainment is also pursuing a new downtown arena and entertainment district, the project first introduced publicly as Project Marvel. Both developments affect different parts of the fan experience. DAZN changes how people watch the team, while the downtown arena project could reshape how people attend games, park, work and spend money around Spurs basketball.
Spurs’ Business Moves Test Its Community-Centric Promise
The DAZN deal follows more than a year of debate over Project Marvel, the proposed downtown sports and entertainment district anchored by a roughly $1.3 billion Spurs arena.
That debate flared again this summer when Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones pushed to let San Antonio voters decide whether the city should contribute up to $489 million toward the arena. Bexar County voters had already approved the county’s separate $311 million contribution in 2025, but the city’s share had never been placed on a citywide ballot. City Council ultimately voted 6-5 on Aug. 17 against holding another election, allowing the arena project to continue under the existing financing framework.
Related: San Antonio City Council Rejects Vote on $489 Million Spurs Arena Ballot Measure
The Spurs have also committed $75 million over 30 years toward community benefits, with city officials and residents still working through how those dollars should be used.
Spurs Sports & Entertainment describes itself as a “community-centric” organization with more than 1,000 full- and part-time employees. However, being community-centric cannot only describe the jobs a community performs for an organization. It should also reflect whether that community can afford to remain part of the experience.
As political, economic and socioeconomic concerns mount across the community, San Antonians are increasingly being asked to sustain the Spurs’ next era through both public dollars and their own disposable income, even as more of the fan experience appears geared toward those who can afford to spend.
