Life is not easy for expansion teams, and that was especially true for an obscure minor-league team that showed up in this sleepy South Texas town decades ago.

New teams or migrating teams usually enjoy great fan support, followed by a sudden drop-off when the game experience has lost its allure.

Not San Antonio. There was no drop-off because it never seemed to catch on.

Crowds here were abysmal, as they were for most other teams in the league. While big cities on the coasts drew 15,000 fans, San Antonio and other flyover cities would be lucky to get 7,000 on a good night. And locally, that number was even more precarious during special events, such as NIOSA or Fiesta, which could suck up more than half of normal attendance.

Some nights, said longtime stat crew member Dennis Smith, the team general manager ordered a game postponed to let late-arriving fans get to their seats. A packed seating section looked better on television, especially in the bottom tiers, which always appeared on screen.

Attendance was so bad, cynical crew members held a nightly betting pool on it, said Patti Larsen, who still works with Smith on the crew.

The team’s eccentric, easily angered assistant coach knew about the pool and participated, but never ponied up the cash.

“He would come over and say, ‘Put me in the there. But the smallest bills I have are 100s,’” Larsen said, laughing. “‘But I’m in, OK?’”

One night, a crew member showed up at the game with his infant son. The pre-arranged babysitter failed to show, so dad had to bring the baby to work.

The result was that crew chief Bob Howen ran the play clock with his left hand while holding the announcer’s infant in his right arm.

The game atmosphere bordered on absurdity.

San Antonio, which boasted of its small-town feel, spawned some of the rowdiest fans in pro sports. They yelled vicious things. They showered anyone they didn’t like — referees, opposing players and their fans — with beer and insults, but mainly beer.

The public address announcer began each evening with a strong admonition to fans about a smoking ban at the game. As soon as he made the announcement, he bent down to take a puff on a lit cigarette he kept under the desk.

Not only that, but the warning never worked. There was always a blue haze hanging over the court by mid-game.

During one game, for reasons still unknown to Howen, the eccentric coach took off after one of his own players, chasing him around the arena. No explanation was ever given.

By any measure of success, this was a team destined for perpetual minor-league status, even after its minor league was absorbed by the bigger league. Attendance did not pick up, despite the increased quality of competition. The San Antonio team went another decade or so with the same rowdy crowd vibe.

Things changed in 1987, however, when the minor-league team drafted David Robinson.

The Spurs played better immediately, setting an NBA record for a single-season turnaround. A new front office, led by executive VP Russ Bookbinder, cleaned up the notoriously rowdy stands.

Spurs attendance went up 3,000 fans in the year Robinson was drafted. It went up another 3,000 fans when he arrived two years later. Attendance continued to rise every year — at both Hemisfair Arena and the Alamodome — until 2002, when the team moved to the cozier AT&T Center.

George Karl, the eccentric assistant coach with a wallet full of imaginary $100 bills, could never have envisioned how that Podunk team would one day become the world’s standard for professional sports management.

All of this is worth mentioning because San Antonio FC begins its second United Soccer League season at the end of the month. And while the attendance was and continues to be underwhelming, club officials are confident numbers will go up.

I have never shared their optimism. Then I looked up Spurs historical attendance. And I spoke with Howen, Larsen, and Smith. Like today’s SAFC staffers, the Spurs’ longtime employees were always confident the team would make it big.

The lesson to take from the Spurs’ origin story is that a stable ownership will give SAFC longevity. If there’s an audience for soccer out there, SAFC will find it and grow it.

How long until soccer draws a legitimately large crowd to Toyota Field? I don’t know. But I now realize crowd size probably doesn’t matter in the short run. The Spurs have their eye on the long run.

If any ownership can make soccer grow in an organic and healthy way, it’s probably this one.

(An earlier version of this column incorrectly identified George Karl as the team’s head coach.)

rbragg@express-news.net

Twitter: @roybragg