Down 3-1 in the NBA Finals, San Antonio is taking measures to maximize its home-court advantage when the city hosts its third game of the NBA Finals. After the Frost Bank Center turned orange and blue in Games 1 & 2, the Spurs enacted an aggressive ticket blockade for Game 5. This comes amid a very volatile off-court situation where Knicks fans have attacked Spurs supporters in New York and even pelted Victor Wembanyama with eggs outside his hotel. 

Learning from the 76ers organization, the Spurs have enforced a regional rule to block outside buyers from getting tickets to the San Antonio game. The mandate appeared directly on the official Ticketmaster event page for Saturday’s matchup as follows:

“NBA Finals: New York Knicks at San Antonio Spurs Game 5
Sat • Jun 13, 2026 • 7:30 PM

Important Event Info: Frost Bank Center is located in San Antonio, Texas. Sales to this event will be restricted to customers residing within a 150-mile radius of Frost Bank Center. Residency will be based on credit card billing address. Orders by residents outside of a 150-mile radius of Frost Bank Center will be canceled without notice and refunds given. Please note there is a 4 seat ticket limit for transactions through the venue.”

The Spurs are geofencing ticket purchases to the immediate vicinity of the Frost Bank Center. That gets around the problem the Sixers faced when they tried to block purchases to anyone in the New York zip code, and Knicks fans got around it by using the New Jersey zip code.

This, however, puts the Spurs fans outside the 150-mile radius at a disadvantage, too. But it could be a necessity to deal with Knicks fans to give the players a chance to not feel as though they are playing on the road.

With the Knicks sitting just one victory away from clinching their first NBA championship in 53 years, desperate New York fans have been scrambling for plane tickets, hotel rooms, and game admissions. Alarmingly for local organizers, reports indicate that Knicks fans have snatched up 54% of the available seats at the Frost Bank Center.

Desperate to prevent a loud, celebratory takeover on their home court, the Spurs are enforcing restrictions on ticket sales. However, they can still face the same problems that the 76ers did.

Even though they’re pushing last-minute measures, there are San Antonio residents on social media putting up their tickets for sale to cash in on the resale demand through secondary market prices. So it doesn’t look like these desperate measures are working.

Spurs desperate to prevent a Knicks invasion

Teams that have played against the New York Knicks have been trying desperately to preserve their home-court advantage. Besides the Sixers’ failed geofencing, the Cavaliers even tried to ban famous fans like Fat Joe from Game 4. San Antonio didn’t initially do anything until the tensions with the Knicks fanbase escalated.

The Spurs drew an NBA investigation when a group of their fans apparently tried to distract Jalen Brunson with aggressive heckling. In that game, a fan even ran across the court to grab a picture with Victor Wembanyama.

When the series moved to New York, the Spurs’ Game 3 win created a hostile situation for their fans in ‘The Big Apple’. After Game 4, videos surfaced online that seemed to show Karl-Anthony Towns telling fans to crowd Dylan Harper before an inbound pass. That last-second play would be the defining moment that concluded the Spurs’ historic 29-point collapse to a 107-106 loss. Now Spurs fans are demanding the NBA investigate KAT.

The ticketing crackdown comes amid this increasingly tense relationship between the two fan bases, aggravated by an ugly street incident where local New York fans pelted Wemby with eggs outside his Manhattan hotel. During Friday’s media availability, the 22-year-old addressed the viral hostility with trademark composure, downplaying the incident.

“I didn’t really think much of it,” Wemby responded calmly. “I just saw that one video of the eggs. I didn’t see any other one. But it’s okay. I don’t dislike it. Obviously, it’s not good at all. But it doesn’t bother me.”

The escalation in crowd tension stands out even more, given that Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, ahead of Game 5, promised to ensure the safety of Knicks players and their families. While calling out the NYPD for all the safety lapses of Spurs players and fans, Salazar had pledged to roll out the “red carpet” for traveling spectators from New York.

While law enforcement remains fully prepared to maintain the peace outside the arena, the Spurs’ executive decision to strip tickets away from out-of-state New Yorkers ensures that the environment inside the Frost Bank Center will look like home as much as possible.