(Part three of a three-part series)

Stan Kasten is a people person – he absolutely loves people and it shows. The Dodgers president and CEO is, hands down, the most visible member of the Guggenheim Baseball Management Group and very approachable. While Earvin “Magic” Johnson may be ‘the face of the franchise’ and clearly the most popular member of the new ownership group, Stan Kasten is clearly the brains behind the operation; and with his tremendous experience, he well should be. And where Magic Johnson isn’t always at Dodger Stadium, Stan Kasten pretty much always is.

Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten
(Video capture courtesy of the Dodgers Media Network)

Since taking over the Dodgers on May 1, 2012, I have had the pleasure of hearing Kasten speak in a variety of platforms – as a fan, as a blogger, and as a member of the electronic media; and each time, I have been extremely impressed with his enthusiasm – enthusiasm that was certainly not found in his predecessors, if you get my drift.

Stan Kasten also loves to be in front of a camera, and while this may be a concern for some, it isn’t for me because, simply put, he has delivered on just about everything he said he would while in front of said cameras.

Kasten was the third member of the Dodgers brass to meet with reporters on Thursday afternoon at Dodger Stadium for a Q&A session. Here are some of the more important questions that Kasten fielded:

Q: Your team didn’t finish first after spending a zillion dollars…

Kasten: Roughly.

Q: …roughly a zillion dollars. Explain why you manager and general manager did a good job.

Kasten: From the start when I got here… what I expected out of this team is that it was roughly a .500 team, the same as last year. That’s what I saw as a civilian. I was impressed and heartened by the play in April, May where I thought like they were overachieving. I think in retrospect we really can see that they were overachieving.

Then some of the injuries caught up with us in June and July and we saw how that team was playing. It seemed to me that perhaps that was closer to the real type of team we were and I don’t think that team would have gotten to game 161. And that’s why I was glad to do what we did when Ned (Colletti) started seeing these opportunities, so that was number one.

Number two, as we looked to build this in the way that we talked about, we looked forward to the (2012-2013) off-season and we didn’t see a way that we’d be able to get a Hanley Ramirez, an Adrian Gonzalez, a Josh Beckett, a Carl Crawford, so what was most important was just being an opportunist and take advantage of the opportunity when they present themselves and not waiting to when we thought it was convenient and then seeing what was available. I’m glad that we did (the blockbuster trade) and wish we’d gone farther than 161, but frankly I have to tell you that my expectations from now on is that we will go farther than 161. But we know the job is not done yet, we know we need to do more.

Which brings me to the final point, one that I never want to overlook and is important to me and all our owners and everyone in the front office – making this, over time, a scouting and player development organization; back to the days of the classic Dodger system where year in and year out we’re providing a pipeline to the major leagues.

I wasn’t ready… prepared to tell the fans to just sit and wait for that to happen because it takes a while… it takes a couple years, two years, three years or more. So we need to do the things that we can do now to add players to make us more competitive this year and next year and years after. So we did that, at the same time we have been equally aggressive but in a less highly public way in scouting and player development.

Now that the season is over, we have plans to do more of that, particularly internationally where we really have lagged significantly over the last few years for whatever reason. We’ve changed that… clearly emphasis on that going forward is a brand new one and we have very high hopes for that.

Q: You did trade some of the bigger prospects, right?

Kasten: Different people have different opinions about different prospects, as you know. That’s never a sure thing. I do think that we retained a lot of what we really wanted to retain (in prospects) and we thought the price we paid was very reasonable for what we were getting back. We were getting proven major leaguers, proven all-stars, proven Gold Glove players and we thought the price was something we were happy to do.

Q: You mean the price in players?

Kasten: Both players and money, and if we didn’t feel that way we wouldn’t have done it.

Q: Ned feels like he already had his free agent off-season in July and August.

Kasten: Well, you can look at it that way for sure but we’re going to keep looking for opportunities. That’s the thing, you can’t say we’re going to go to the winter meeting and sign a player then because what if there’s an opportunity in November. Or what if the opportunity doesn’t present itself until February? We think that’s how we found ourselves in July and August. We took advantage of the opportunities that were available at that time and not let the calendar dictate when we were going to make the move.

Q: Are you happy with the attendance this year?

Kasten: Thrilled with the attendance. Let me tell you, for reasons that I don’t really want to get into, it’s a brighter picture than even you all realize because of the way arithmetic was done this year versus how arithmetic was done in the past… it was really odd. I’ll tell you that what looks like a 12 or 15 percent bump this year I think in reality was greater than that.

The season ticket sales that we started with on opening day was fairly low for season tickets and that skyrocketed over the course of the year. Now, that doesn’t mean anything until all of those people renew their season tickets. No point bragging about season tickets right now, but I think we’re going to start from a much higher place than where we began this season.

We got into the top five again this year in baseball and I have every expectation that we will climb a few more spots again next year. I absolutely am expecting that… back to where the Dodgers have always been.

Q: What’s priority one with regards to stadium improvements?

Kasten: It all has to get done. Obviously fan stuff is important but the players will tell you that the clubhouse is important. And because of the way that this stadium operates, differently from most stadiums where you can go up and down and change levels, this stadium doesn’t encourage that or even permit it, so we have to be mindful that when we’re doing something that helps fans on one level, can we replicate that or do something for fans on another level at the same time. Does it have to be put off for a year? I’m reluctant to say anything is number one in terms of numbers.

Q: Are you limited on how many short-term things you want to accomplish because you have some longer-term things that are going to impact that?

Kasten: Let me differentiate the things we’re talking about. I know what we need in this ballpark, or what I can do during this off-season. Now if I also knew that I was going to be here for the next 50 years like Wrigley or Fenway, then we’d also be doing probably other 50-year things… I’d be announcing a 5-year building plan, and that may yet happen. I haven’t had time to think about the second stuff yet… all I’ve been able to think about this past season is what I can do now, today, get done now by opening day for the fans that I know are here for the next five years. I mean I know nothing’s happening (such as building a new stadium) for that period of time. I suspect… my guess is that we’ll be here long-term permanent, but all I’ve been focused on this season is what can I do now… what can I get done this off-season. I’m not going to build lots of buildings and museums; I’m not going to build extra outdoor concourses. When I think about the 50-year plan I might do those kinds of things. I’m not there yet, Steve (Dilbeck)

All I’m doing is what I can do with this stadium without lots of massive demolition and lots of massive construction… how to beautify and modernize this stadium as it stands today was my principal task for this year’s analysis. We have the plan in place by enlarge, we think it will get completed by opening day, and then I’ll expand my attention to what’s next.

Q: So long-term, say going downtown or demolishing and rebuilding something new, that’s not off the table?

Kasten: I haven’t thought of it is the truth.

Q: But it’s not off the table?

Kasten: It’s not off or on, I just haven’t thought about it is the answer. I haven’t had the time to think about that, you know, where we play four years from now has not come into my head. But I know these are fair questions… there will be a time for me and us to think about that, we just haven’t had that time yet. We’ve spent all our time observing, learning, and planning for what we can do now for this generation of customers who are coming to Dodger Stadium.

Q: Does this stadium and the land around it allow for a 50-year plan?

Kasten: Again, as I just said, I haven’t thought… I don’t know the answer to that question, I haven’t thought about it. Let me get past this year’s fixes to opening day next year and I know you’ll asked me those questions again and maybe I’ll have an answer for them. I just don’t and that’s the truth, I just don’t.

(Editor’s note: With the recent announcement that AEG is up for sale and being that AEG currently owns L.A. Live, Staples Center [i.e. the Lakers, Clippers and Kings], and has received approval from the City of Los Angeles to proceed with plans to build Farmers Field for a future NFL team, and the fact that Guggenheim Management Group (who own the Dodgers) having publically announced that they are in on the bidding for AEG, the thought of building a new downtown stadium for the Dodgers has taken on a lot more credibility, hence the nature of these questions and what sounds like a bit of evasiveness by Kasten to give a better answer than ‘we haven’t had time to think about it yet’ – just my opinion).

Q: You mentioned that attendance was up this past season but the ticket prices didn’t go up. Do you expect ticket prices to increase next season?

Kasten: No I do not. In general, we’re going to be tweaking for reasons of seat classifications, I’ll explain more when we tell you, but in general prices aren’t going up. Some may while others go down but in general they’ll stay the same. And again, I will have a full breakdown for you very soon.

Q; Are you trying to sell more sponsorships to cover the costs of the upgrades and if so, will that mean more signage next year in the ballpark?

Kasten: I think we’ll have different signage, not necessarily more at all. Will we be able to generate more sponsorship revenue? I absolutely expect that (we will), both next year and even more so beyond as we get some better things, cooler things in here. In all the new ballparks that you see, areas have names and sponsors and that’s a thing that largely we haven’t tapped. We think that we will be able to tap that and that (it will) help us with a lot of those expenses. But we’re going to do them anyway whether we get sponsorships or not, but I do expect to get them.