The recent surge in the standings helped boost the A’s turnstile performance during the first week of the 12-game August homestand. As expected, attendance cooled somewhat with the weather and the arrival of the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals, but the average attendance for the homestand was still excellent, at 32,555 per game.

To date, that puts the A’s 4% down from last year. This season’s total attendance through 65 dates is 1,697,637. In 2004, it was 1,769,184. The good news is that the A’s should surpass last season’s pace (not total attendance) in the next series versus the Yankees. The following three opponents (Texas, Seattle, Minnesota) probably won’t make much of a dent. At least there are a Mark Kotsay bobblehead night (rare to have bobblehead giveaways on weeknights) on September 6, and a Fireworks Night on September 23 versus the Rangers. The last series of the year is a four-game mid-week set against The O.C., and while the last two games should be well-attended by default, attendance at the first two games may depend on the A’s relative playoff status. To beat last season’s total attendance mark, the A’s will have to draw around 31,500 a game for the rest of the season – not impossible, but a challenge because of the way the schedule is drawn up. If the A’s are in wild card or division championship contention during the final week of the season, they should be able to beat it. They’ll need 1,000 more than that per game to beat 2003’s total.