Yesterday was Part I of the Athletics Nation exclusive interview with A's managing general partner Lewis Wolff.  Today is Part II.

Enjoy!

Blez:   Would it be fair for the fans to give up on the A’s for a couple of seasons since most of them seem to think, probably rightly so, that the team won’t truly compete?  These are hardcore fans that are saying this. 

Wolff:  Do I think it’s right?  I think it’s their privilege.  I would hope they wouldn’t.  The fan we need is someone who understands us and feels like we did the right thing.  The fan that wants to see Gio Gonzalez have a good game and then a bad game and a good game and to see where he’s going.  But that’s a sophisticated fan.  I’m not saying they need a Harvard degree.  Also our venue is such that there is really no scarcity of seating.  Even with the tarp.  We have not filled up very often.  Even during our playoff run.  So the fans in Oakland have the luxury of going to the game if they want to and they don’t have to worry about getting a ticket.  That luxury is nice for the fans and not so great for the owner.  (laughs)

Blez:  I’m going to get to the tarp and the Coliseum a little later, but how do you sell a team that is in rebuilding mode to a market that at times can be ambivalent?  The Coliseum wasn’t even selling out when the A’s were the class of the AL a few seasons back.  Does it take a World Series victory or even two to motivate these fans again?  Or is this just a dead market?

Wolff:  I do think that the proximity between us and the Giants hurts.  They’ve actually moved closer to us.  The six years prior to the year 2000, the Giants outdrew us by around a half a million on average per year.  In 2000 they opened the new ballpark and the attendance has jumped and pretty much has stayed there.  The difference is now about a million and a half although I haven’t checked it this year.  That (the new venue) has something to do with it.  Maybe not 100 percent.  Secondly, Barry Bonds was a big attraction there and we didn’t have Barry Bonds.  The other side of it is the demographic.  Both the Giants and ourselves have a lot of water in front of us so there isn’t anyone else living there.  A couple of other owners tease us that we may be the only inelastic demand team in baseball.  That means that if you won the World Series, the next year would you have two and half or three million out there?  In other words, our band of attendance has been approximately 1.7-2.1 million, win or lose that’s where we’ve been.

Blez:  Does that make you feel helpless as an owner?  It has to be really frustrating that no matter the product you put on the field you’re in the same range.

Wolff:  It’s a very helpless feeling.  It’s been the saddest thing.  And I want to be careful here because the people who do come, they deserve whatever we can give them and we’ve tried to do that.  I always laugh because we have $2 Wednesday night and dollar hot dogs with a limit of 10.

Blez:  I was thinking I could go over that, easily.

Wolff:  (laughing)  I want to be able to drive the person home who eats all 10.  But I don’t know too many ballparks that offer that opportunity.  That’s just our current market.  It’s challenging.  All I would like is to have more fans and we have to earn that.  We can’t ask them to just voluntarily show up.  So our players when they go out on the field are stimulated by a full stadium.  We have to earn that though.  We can’t ask the fans to do our players a favor and come to a game.  I’m not suggesting that.  We have a 40-year-old facility which we share with a football team and we’re in a market that is somewhat lesser than the market 16 miles away.  We have our challenges.  We bought the team knowing that.  But we did buy the team with the idea that we’d get a new venue in the general area.  If we can produce that, we’ll do everyone a favor even though some say, well you’re moving to Fremont that’s like you’re moving to Las Vegas or something.  We don’t consider it that way, but fans might.  We’re not looking to have a huge increase in ticket price, we’re looking for a huge increase in attendance. 

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