The Oakland Coliseum – Facts, History and Future

Congratulations Oakland A’s for winning the A.L. West title and making it to the playoffs!
Sadly they couldn’t make it all the way to the World Series but it was a valiant effort.

Oakland Stadium Facts:

1. The Oakland Coliseum, built in 1966 is currently the 5th oldest MLB stadium and 4th oldest NFL Stadium.
2. It houses both the Oakland A’s MLB baseball team and the Oakland Raiders NFL football team.
3. It seats 63,000 in full attendance for the Raiders but only 34,000 for the A’s due to the tarp on the upper deck of the stadium.
4. The switch from Baseball Field to Football Field cost about $250,000 each time.
5. The first game was a Raiders game on September 16, 1966.
6. The Athletics moved to Oakland from Kansas City in 1967 and played their first game on April 17th 1968.
7. The Raiders left for Los Angeles after the 1981 season and returned to Oakland for the 1995 season.

This is a news clip on the conversion from Oakland A’s Home Games to Oakland Raiders Home Games.

Coliseum City New Stadium

Buy Moneyball
Oakland has approved $3.5 million and the first steps towards a new “Coliseum City” project that will include new sports venues for all 3 teams. Which is good because Oakland is in trouble right now with all three teams trying to move to other cities. It will also focus largely on surrounding retail such as hotels and entertainment but will also include huge improvements and upgrades to the Oakland Airport Business Park. This in return should attract more jobs(as many as 32,000) and more retail to Oakland as well as provide new sports arenas for the Oakland A’s, Oakland Raiders and Golden State Warriors.

Golden State Warriors Moving?
In May of 2012 you may have heard that the Golden State Warriors are planning a move to San Francisco. While this is sad it will not stop Coliseum City from being built.
This is a quote direct from Oakland Mayor Jean Quan’s facebook page.
Here is the press release.

Regarding the Warriors pursuing a new venue in San Francisco: Coliseum City is a long-term development project that was never dependent on any one tenant. It was always a larger project than just one sports team. This is the largest transit-oriented development project in the state, with entertainment, sports, retail, office, hotels and a convention center, and is one of the centerpieces of Oakland’s economic renaissance.

You can see it will be tied into Coliseum BART.

And a grand look at the proposed New Coliseum City Complex from above.

Overstock buys signage at Oakland Coliseum
Well you have it, on April 28th, 2011 the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority made a deal with the Utah based online retail behemoth Overstock.com today to display their name for 6 years at a rate of 7.2 million dollars. It will be dished out in increments starting with 1.2 million the first year and a 3% increase each year after that. However Overstock has the option to leave the contract early if either teams leave Oakland. Which is a high risk possibility. Currently both teams are leased to play in Oakland till 2013, at which point it is unknown because the Oakland A’s have been trying to leave for Fremont or San Jose and the Oakland Raiders have been having problems selling out since they built Mt. Davis back in 1996.

50% of the income generated by the deal will go to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority while the other 50% will go to the Oakland Raiders. The Oakland Athletics were left out of the deal because the team already receives income from the billboards and signage inside of the stadium.

The stadium has been brandless since 2008 when McAfee did not renew their 10 year advertising contract.

Overstock plans to have signs up within 30 days and can change the name at anytime since the company is currently working on re-branding their image to O.co. In which case they say they don’t mind the nickname “The Big O” for the coliseum. And The City of Oakland is already referred to as “The O” or “The Biggity Biggity O“. Next door to the A’s Stadium you already have the “Oracle Arena” where the Golden State Warriors play.

Oakland A’s Stadium photos

Old Oakland Athletics Stadium before the Raiders moved back and installed Mount Davis.

New Oakland A’s Stadium after Mt. Davis was built. Oakland Hills view blocked.

Oakland A’s home game.

Raiders Oakland Coliseum

Mt Davis Oakland Coliseum.

Mount Davis during an Oakland Raiders football game.

Coliseum Night time. McAfee had a 10 year contract which expired in 2008.

Stadium Day Time McAfee sign.

Scoreboard where the Oakland A’s get their advertising money.

Day Game by Amanda Fletcher.

Tarp on the upper deck to limit crowd thinning at Oakland Athletics games.

Oracle Arena where the Golden State Warriors play basketball.

The best way to get to the game is BART! And you get off at Coliseum BART station and walk over the pass.

At the Raiders Game up in the end zone.

Taken before entering a game. Oracle Arena parking lot.

1989 World Series Battle of The Bay Poster from Chevron.