New A's President Dave Kaval "promises a new era of fan-friendliness" for a franchise that finished next-to-last in attendance with a 14% year-over-year drop, according to Ron Leuty of the S.F. BUSINESS TIMES. Kaval said that the A's are "not swinging away at a new, privately financed ballpark at the expense of building toward a contender." A new ballpark -- presumably with "more revenue coming in from naming rights, vending, seat licenses, media rights and the like -- would fill the gap left by the evaporation of revenue sharing." Kaval said that a new home will "help the A's 'win more World Series,' ... transforming the franchise from a bargain shopper to the upper half of the player spending." Kaval: "All that stuff together creates a stronger business. In the modern era, we're an entertainment property, and you have to have the latest state-of-the-art." The A's are working with HOK Dir Brad Schrock on "designs for an 'intimate' ballpark along the lines" of Fenway Park and Wrigley Field. At the Oakland Coliseum, the A's are "working with Spectra, the stadium's food vendor, to upgrade options, planning to bring in food trucks, increasing the number of places where fans can congregate and adding family restrooms to the second level." Kaval said of lessons learned from building the Earthquakes' Avaya Stadium, "Transit, traffic, ingress and egress -- we know how important these are from Avaya. You have to have a comprehensive traffic-management plan. You don't want something that gums up the works in the city and keeps people from getting into the stadium." When asked about how ride-sharing services changed how stadium planning works, Kaval said, "At Avaya, Uber gummed up the works -- they were like salmon swimming upstream. You have to be flexible in the way you design the space in and around the ballpark" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 12/14).
