Update: The A’s ticket office has told me that there are no plans to sell any season tickets in the View level, because they say it is difficult to provide the same level of service there as they do in the lower two levels. No decision has been made on whether single-game seats will be sold in the View level. It’s possible they might open the View level for select games (Yankees, Giants, fireworks). They might leave it open all season as the “walk up deck.” They might leave it closed for the entire season. I can say that as a season ticket fence-sitter, the likelihood of me going for season tickets has increased. It appears that this move is meant partly to motivate fans like me. We’ll find out if they get people like me in enough numbers to counter any backlash they may get in the coming months.

Posters on Athletics Nation are reporting that the View level (euphemism for upper deck) will not be sold next season. I’ve confirmed that as of now, this only affects season ticket sales. There is no set policy with regard to regular single-game tickets, but if the A’s choose not to sell the View level at all, there are serious ramifications:

• The upper deck held around 12,000. That should knock capacity down to 34-35,000
• No more View level promotions like “BART Double Play Wednesdays” or “Pepsi can weeknights”
• No need to staff the upper-upper concourse behind sections 310-325.
• Far fewer walkup seats for every date

Consider this a trial balloon for Lew Wolff’s ballpark plan. If the ticket supply can be constrained enough to force fans to buy season tickets, then a good business model will be in place for the new ballpark with the demand far less elastic than before. There are definite risks with this new pricing plan. Depending on what promotions are planned for 2006, there will be no tickets priced below $10, and the only tickets at $10 will be the bleachers and plaza bleachers.

There is the risk of backlash. Fans may not respond well to the disappearance of cheap walkup seats in the View level. The walkup situation has become something of an institution, and if A’s marketing doesn’t properly inform fans of this change, they may find fans either confused by the new ticket offerings or even turned away for certain games. The task for the A’s is to handle this with as much diplomacy as possible. There are plenty of fans that think the seats in sections 315-320 are perfectly fine (including me). How do the A’s convince them that those seats aren’t good?

The upshot of all of this is to find out if the season ticket base can expand. If it does, the A’s will have a good subscription base from which they can start marketing a new ballpark. If not, it becomes a reason to leave Oakland, since the lack of season ticket sales will “prove” that Oakland is not a ripe market. It’s not fair to Oakland, since the Coliseum is not the same as a new ballpark, but Wolff needs some data upon which he can create a business case for a new ballpark, and that makes us guinea pigs.