C’s owner says club can surpass this year’s record attendance

Jake Kerr wants even more. The owner of the Vancouver Canadians insists that his club can draw even bigger crowds to Nat Bailey Stadium, even though they set yet another attendance record this year.

“Andy Dunn can do it,” Kerr said, pointing to the club president and part-owner. “The people we have can do it.

“We have some initiatives that we think will bring more people out. We’re not ready to announce them quite yet, but we think they will work.

“It’s great to see that the fans in Vancouver have adopted us as the thing to do in the summer time. We think it’s our combination of fun at the ballpark [and] a reasonable price.”

The C’s wrapped up the home portion of their regular-season schedule on Sunday, beating the Boise Hawks 5-1 before a crowd of 5,157, their 13th sellout of the short-season Single A Northwest League campaign.

That pushed their season attendance at the Nat to 164,461, which bettered last year’s record-setting mark of 162,162, despite missing one of the 38 scheduled dates due to a rainout.

They could have at least one more game at the Nat.

Vancouver remains in the playoff hunt, duelling with the Eugene Emeralds for the Northwest League West second-half pennant. Best-ofthree round playoff tickets go on sale today, at 9:30 a.m., at Nat Bailey Stadium.

Going into Monday, the C’s and Emeralds were knotted at 20-14 each.

Vancouver was idle Monday and starts a five-game set against the host Yakima Bears on Tuesday night. The Emeralds began a five-game set with the visiting Spokane Indians Monday.

Vancouver won the Northwest League crown last season and Kerr insists that helped with attendance for this year. “It really added a buzz,” he said. He also said that their affiliation with the Toronto Blue Jays has helped at the gate. It’s Vancouver’s second year with the Blue Jays. They had been with the Oakland Athletics since 2000.

“I think it’s good for an extra couple hundred fans a game,” said Kerr.

Vancouver was home to a Triple A team from 1978 to 1999 and Kerr has talked openly in the past about trying to bring that level back. He didn’t sound nearly as sure about that Monday, saying that the rainy weather in April and May would wreak havoc.

“We’re really debating what to do with Triple A,” said Kerr.

Kerr and Jeff Mooney were approved as C’s owners by Major League Baseball in October, 2007.

The attendance has increased five straight years, starting with 129,073 in 2008.