Austin Spurs Game Experience
- Kimi's Travel Thoughts
- 23 hours ago
- 5 min read
January 2026 Monthly Adventure
For this month's adventure, I went to an Austin Spurs game. The Austin Spurs are the G League affiliate of the San Antonio Spurs. Even though I'm a dedicated Miami Heat fan, the Spurs organization is closest to Austin and I love watching basketball. I was in search of a local activity that I hadn't experienced before that I knew I would enjoy. That led me to attending an Austin Spurs home game in Cedar Park, TX.
Background
Attending an Austin Spurs game has been on my bucket list of things to do in the Austin area for at least 3 years up to this point. When I didn't initially see other events in the area that I wanted to experience this month, I knew I had the Austin Spurs in my back pocket and decided to go to the first game in a back-to-back against the South Bay Lakers. I've been to multiple NBA games, including to San Antonio Spurs games in San Antonio and in Austin (for the I-35 Series), but had never watched a G League game in person before and was excited to check it out!
Buying Austin Spurs Tickets
Those local to the Austin area will be pretty quick to mention that tickets for these games don't really sell out when you mention an interest in going to an Austin Spurs home game. However, I don't think it has anything to do with ticket prices. Tickets generally range between about $25-40 for upper and lower bowl seating with floor seats under $100 -- these prices include marketplace fees. Those are pretty cheap prices for tickets at any level of professional sports that aren't baseball. I wanted to be able to sit a little closer but away from where most people were sitting and chose a ticket that was roughly $30. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster or the Spurs app.
Parking at the H-E-B Center in Cedar Park
The H-E-B Center has a large surface lot that surrounds the building and is most easily accessed via the Highway 183A Service Road. For Austin Spurs basketball games (and Texas Stars hockey games), parking at the H-E-B Center is FREE! All you have to do is follow the cones to guide you to the correct area of the parking lot that cars are expected to flow in and out of and find an open spot. With a smaller number of attendees, everyone gets a chance to park pretty close to the entrance of the building and it's not a hassle to find a spot or exit the parking lot after the game ends.
Note: Parking is only guaranteed to by free for Austin Spurs and Texas Stars games. If you're going to other events, you likely will have to pay for parking, so check the H-E-B Center website and be prepared to purchase parking in advance.
Austin Spurs Game Experience at the H-E-B Center
I arrived at the H-E-B Center approximately 10 minutes before tip-off and stood in a slightly long line that was steadily moving for security at the entrance. There is a clear bag policy in place at the H-E-B Center, so that helped speed up my time going through the bag check and metal detector since I had a clear bag with me. I got my ticket scanned immediately after that and quickly looked for the entrance to the section I would be seated in before finding something to eat and then finding my seat.
H-E-B Center Food
There are many food options with great variety at the H-E-B Center. While I opted for an always reliable chicken tenders basket and fountain drink, there are other types of food available throughout the main concourse. Along with more traditional concessions, there is a coffee bar, Mexican food, a barbeque, several other choices to select from. I noticed that there was a sign about getting McDonald's delivered to the H-E-B Center, so I guess that's another food option fans have available to them.
Austin Spurs Game Seating
Only seats in the middle sections of the venue were available given the placement of the basketball court. With the H-E-B Center being a small arena, every seat is generally a good seat and it's sitting closer to the court is recommended for those who like to be up close to all the action and may be a bit more invested in the game. I chose to sit in the lower bowl of section 120 which was slightly off to the side behind the home team bench. It ended up being a good spot for me because I had a mostly clear view of the game which was the Austin Spurs debut of Carter Bryant, the first round draft pick who had just been sent down to Austin from San Antonio for further development!
Austin Spurs Mid-Game Entertainment
The game I attended as a "throwback night" and the Austin Spurs were throwing it back to 20 years ago when they were the Austin Toros! They had a special add-on item for ticket sales that was an Austin Toros branded t-shirt and the team store was selling additional Toros gear. The team wore Austin Toros uniforms and the team was referred to as the Toros for most of the night. The DJ played a lot of fun throwback songs throughout the game that kept fans happy and dancing with plenty of opportunities to appear on the jumbotron.
Like any other minor league sporting event, there is a lot of mid-game entertainment at Austin Spurs games to keep the crowd engaged. The teams occupying the H-E-B Center are well-connected to communities in the Austin area and have a solid relationship with Texas Athletics at UT Austin. Kids were pulled from the audience for mini games during timeouts and local children's dance groups performed during halftime. A special guest for the evening was Hook 'Em, one the Texas Longhorns mascots, who joined Da Bull (Austin Spurs mascot) to help hype up the fans and do some TikTok dances in a choreographed mashup during one of the first timeouts of the game.
One thing that stood out to me the most about how the Austin Spurs kept fans engaged was mimicking fan engagement activities at San Antonio Spurs games. There were regular "defense" chants along with the ever popular "Go Spurs Go" chant to drum up some extra energy in the room. Over the past few years, the Spurs organization has made a concerted effort to connect with fans in the Austin area and gain new fans as the city continues to grow. Increasing familiarity of the San Antonio team through the Austin team is one way to achieve this. So, when anyone ends up at a San Antonio Spurs game for the first time but had previously attend an Austin Spurs game, they already know all the chants!
Wrap-Up
Even though I'm not a Spurs or Lakers fan, I had a great time at the game! I went alone and it was a very chill experience for me as a fan of the game. It's always a little weird for me to watch a basketball game in person with zero emotional investment in one of the teams or players on the court, but I really enjoy the game from a technical perspective. Whether you want to go to a G League game alone, for a cute date night (many people at the game were there for that), or a fun family outing, it's a great option to have some fun without spending a ton of money to attend a live sporting event. Will I ever go back to another Austin Spurs game? The answer is yes, particularly when they play the Sioux Falls Skyforce which is the G League affiliate of my Miami Heat!
On to the next adventure!