SAN ANTONIO – You’ve probably seen them circulating the San Antonio area all week before the 2025 NCAA Men’s Final Four at the Alamodome.
As part of the Capital One sponsorship, the Charles Barkley and Magic Johnson blimps have been gracing the San Antonio skies, leading to fun social media clips and photos.
KSAT had the chance to speak with one of the blimp pilots on Monday and ask him what it’s like to view the Alamo City from around 1,000 feet above.
“We’ll be flying today for the majority of the day, so we’ll go fly for about six to eight hours, return, probably refuel,” blimp pilot Cesar Mendez said. “We have a generator that gets fixed behind the gondola, and that basically feeds our two 1,000-watt bulbs that are on top of the airship so that’s what’s going to illuminate the airship and it’s just going to look like a giant light bulb so you can see Charles and Magic overhead at night.”
Knowing that Barkley has mocked the size of San Antonio residents, seeing him as one of the biggest objects in the sky has made things a little sweeter.
“Well, that’s why we brought Magic on board just to kind of diffuse the tension in San Antonio,” Mendez said jokingly. “But no, it’s all good fun, you know everyone’s had a good laugh over it. Obviously that’s not the case, but it’s just you know, funny comments.”
The blimps will be roaming around the Alamodome during Monday night’s NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship game between the University of Houston and the University of Florida.
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