Oakland and L.A. Firms Are Rooting for 7-Game Series

Dodger fans would like nothing better than watching their favorite team beat the Oakland A’s in four straight games to win the upcoming World Series. But to firms banking on the Fall Classic to boost business, a seven-game series sounds like a grand slam home run.

At NBC, which is broadcasting the series and collecting a minimum $250,000 for each 30-second commercial spot, a longer series means more commercials to be sold.

In fact, a network spokesman said NBC will not make money on the 85th World Series until the fifth game: “All we hope is that one team wins in the ninth inning of the seventh game. That’s how we make money. “

The World Series not only means fame and fortune for the Dodgers and A’s. Their respective home towns and a slew of businesses--from hotels to supermarket chains--also stand to cash in on the hoopla.

“It’s going to be party time and there’s going to be a lot of World Series parties--that will stimulate food and drink sales at supermarkets,” said economist Jack Kyser at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. “And a lot of those people (from Oakland) would be tempted to come south. That’s going to be very positive.”

And up in Oakland, the Chamber of Commerce is counting on Dodger fans to pump $1 million a day into the local economy. “We anticipate that people will come up for the games and stay overnight,” said chamber President Connie Shapiro. “We don’t think they will be on a starvation diet, they will be in restaurants, eating and drinking.”

A baseball series, however, might not be as big an economic windfall as, say, hosting the Super Bowl, says David Simon, head of the Los Angeles Sports Council, which woos athletic events to the area. “There are more out-of-towners during a Super Bowl,” he said. “In a Super Bowl, fans know two weeks in advance that their teams are playing,” giving them more time to prepare.

Showcase for Oakland

Still, Los Angeles--which will host the first game of the series on Saturday--and Oakland stand to reap plenty of national publicity. “The Goodyear blimp will shoot down and get great shots of the downtown Los Angeles skyline and that’s great,” Kyser said. “It might be what we need to give a jolt to the tourist industry,” he said, noting that tourist spending in Los Angeles County was flat for the first six-months of this year.

“This is just a golden opportunity to showcase Oakland,” Shapiro said. “It’s an opportunity to show that Oakland as a city on the rise.”

While civic boosters contemplate the prestige associated with a World Series, many business people were occupied with more bottom-line concerns.

At Vons supermarkets, Advertising President Larry Davis was busy preparing a strategy to take advantage of baseballs fans in search of beer and snacks. “We are just putting together plans,” Davis said. “We will try to merchandise our stores to the party crowds with the snacks and the beers and the colas and easy to prepare items.” A hot seller: bread for sandwiches.

Some airlines expect the terminals at Los Angeles and Bay Area airports to be a bit more busy than usual. USAir spokesman Larry Pickett said “the passenger loads from Los Angeles to Oakland seem to be filling up pretty fast. So, people want to get up there.” But, he said the airline has no plans to add flights between Southern California and the Bay Area.

Newspapers, including The Times, have sold additional advertising connected to the World Series. The Oakland Tribune is publishing a 20-page advertising section on Sunday.

Bonaventure Full

The series means additional business for area hotels. However, large hotels are normally brimming with convention goers this time of year. At the 900-room downtown Los Angeles Hilton, executives had to turn down a request by the Dodgers to reserve a large block of rooms. “We were able to take some reservations,” said hotel sales director Jim Perrin, “but not huge blocks. We were sold out before the Dodgers won.”

At the nearby Westin Bonaventure, the A’s will occupy 100 rooms but will have plenty of company: the rest of the 900-room hotel will be full with members of the American Trucking Assn. convention and fans in town for the University of Washington-USC football game on Saturday. “We squeezed in a few rooms for the A’s,” hotel spokeswoman Cathy Boire said.

There is some speculation that an all-California World series--the first since the A’s and Dodgers’s faced off in 1974--would reduce national interest in the match, and as a result, television viewership.

Charles Bachrach, an executive at Western International Media, which buys commercial time on television for clients, said he doubts that it will make much difference. Based on past World Series, a match between teams hailing from different parts of the nation has not always ensured higher ratings, he said.

Networks, he said, surely “would have preferred to see an East-West Coast (match-up) so you have more of a national view. But I think the numbers will do just fine out here.

“The World Series is the Fall Classic,” he said, “and it doesn’t really matter who is playing.”