Athletics President re: keeping the team in Oakland

[gonealookin]

FWIW I always liked the Coliseum.  It wasn't a looker but had great access to a BART station and tickets cost way less than attending a Giants game.

It's one of those awful round places with terrible sight lines, because it was built to house both baseball and football and didn't do a good job with either one.  St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Philly, Atlanta...these buildings were all the rage in the late 1960s.  And, with good reason, they were all blown up and replaced long ago with better stadiums whose seats weren't a mile from the playing field.

However, for many years it was the better baseball park in the Bay Area, because the competition was the ghastly Candlestick Park, possibly the worst stadium ever built in the United States.  The Coliseum was open above the outfield bleachers with a level of iceplant that bloomed in the spring and views of the Oakland Hills beyond.  Then Oakland made a horrendous deal with Al Davis to bring the Raiders back from L.A. that resulted in the construction of that godawful monstrosity in the outfield (that was so tall the Raiders couldn't even sell the seats in the upper level, and tarped those over in their last ten years or so in Oakland), ruining the aesthetics of the place for baseball.  And when the Giants, after their own new-stadium failures and threats to move out of the area (they had one foot in the place now called "Tropicana Field" in St. Petersburg at one point) got their basically-perfect new ballpark just south of the Bay Bridge, the Coliseum starting looking more pathetic than ever, and has since been allowed to deteriorate to its dismal state of recent years.

[Max Rockatansky]

FWIW I always liked the Coliseum.  It wasn't a looker but had great access to a BART station and tickets cost way less than attending a Giants game.

It's one of those awful round places with terrible sight lines, because it was built to house both baseball and football and didn't do a good job with either one.  St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Philly, Atlanta...these buildings were all the rage in the late 1960s.  And, with good reason, they were all blown up and replaced long ago with better stadiums whose seats weren't a mile from the playing field.

However, for many years it was the better baseball park in the Bay Area, because the competition was the ghastly Candlestick Park, possibly the worst stadium ever built in the United States.  The Coliseum was open above the outfield bleachers with a level of iceplant that bloomed in the spring and views of the Oakland Hills beyond.  Then Oakland made a horrendous deal with Al Davis to bring the Raiders back from L.A. that resulted in the construction of that godawful monstrosity in the outfield (that was so tall the Raiders couldn't even sell the seats in the upper level, and tarped those over in their last ten years or so in Oakland), ruining the aesthetics of the place for baseball.  And when the Giants, after their own new-stadium failures and threats to move out of the area (they had one foot in the place now called "Tropicana Field" in St. Petersburg at one point) got their basically-perfect new ballpark just south of the Bay Bridge, the Coliseum starting looking more pathetic than ever, and has since been allowed to deteriorate to its dismal state of recent years.

There is nothing at the Coliseum that is going to out dystopian watching games Tiger's Stadium.  No MLB park I've been to ever came close to matching the sight line obstructions, biker gang chaos and oddities like the ancient urine troths. 

Watching a game in SF is hardly perfect. Getting to the place is a huge pain in the ass unless you are a local or are willing to stay overnight somewhere nearby.  With the Coliseum I could at least jump on the BART back to Dublin and drive home in a reasonable amount of time.  I'll take ease of access any day over the niceties of modern aesthetics. 

Speaking of the Trop, that is another cheap MLB haunt that I frequent when I'm inclined to see a game while visiting family.  Maybe I just don't mind ugly sports venues?

[gonealookin]

There is nothing at the Coliseum that is going to out dystopian watching games Tiger's Stadium.  No MLB park I've been to ever came close to matching the sight line obstructions, biker gang chaos and oddities like the ancient urine troths. 
... 
Speaking of the Trop, that is another cheap MLB haunt that I frequent when I'm inclined to see a game while visiting family.  Maybe I just don't mind ugly sports venues?

I went to quite a few A's road games over the years.  I visited old Tiger Stadium in its declining years.  Sure it was worn out and obsolete, though not quite literally crumbling the way the old Comiskey Park on the south side of Chicago was when I saw games in that one a couple years before its demolition.  One day we sat in the first few rows of the upper deck at Tiger Stadium, directly behind home plate and above the press box.  Those were the greatest seats I've ever been in for a ballgame; it felt like we were looking right over the plate umpire's shoulder.  The radio announcers always talked about how foul balls coming into the booth could be lethal, and with that proximity to home plate it was easy to see why.

Tropicana Field feels too claustrophobic with that low-hanging roof, and there's the ensuing stupidity of all the ground rules required for fly balls hitting off the support rings.  It seems dark and gloomy.  I've thought it wouldn't be all that bad if they would take a can opener and remove the roof, but being Florida the roof is kind of essential.  The Rays have been trying to get out of that place for a long time and various plans were floated in both St. Pete and Tampa with the concurrent threats to move entirely, pretty much the same as the A's story, and just recently they have made the agreements with the City of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County for financing and construction of a new ballpark and related surrounding development.  Re the above comments about the capacity of new baseball stadiums, the Rays' press release states that "The neighborhood ballpark will have a capacity of 30,000 for baseball, with at least 25,000 fixed seats in a variety of options over three levels."

[Max Rockatansky]

I'm trying to think back.  Was Tiger's Stadium the only MLB ballpark where the upper deck clearly was the superior place to sit?  I want to say that some of the older parks had a similar element, but it wasn't universal like Tiger's Stadium.

[DTComposer]

Watching a game in SF is hardly perfect. Getting to the place is a huge pain in the ass unless you are a local or are willing to stay overnight somewhere nearby.  With the Coliseum I could at least jump on the BART back to Dublin and drive home in a reasonable amount of time.  I'll take ease of access any day over the niceties of modern aesthetics.

We've been going to 3-4 Giants games and 1-2 A's games per year the last several years. For both ballparks we've both driven and taken the train (BART to Oakland, Caltrain to SF).

Driving is certainly easier for the Coliseum - once you're off of 880. That said, I know the area around Oracle well enough that parking has never been a huge hassle (never more than 3 blocks away, never in the ballpark parking lots, and only had to pay "full price" about half the time) - although the kid likes to get there early for batting practice, so parking's not as crowded.

I prefer Caltrain to BART, only because (partly because of the teams' fortunes) the atmosphere with the fans is more fun on the way up. Sometimes we take it all the way from Diridon, sometimes we drive up to Redwood City or San Mateo for a meal, then take the train from there.

[gonealookin]

I'm trying to think back.  Was Tiger's Stadium the only MLB ballpark where the upper deck clearly was the superior place to sit?  I want to say that some of the older parks had a similar element, but it wasn't universal like Tiger's Stadium.

Old photos make it look like certain ballparks like Ebbets Field in Brooklyn were built so that the front of the upper deck was very close to the foul lines, because it overhung most of the lower deck.  Ebbets Field and a number of similar ballparks were demolished in the 1950s and 1960s so the fathers and grandfathers of posters on this forum would have to answer that.

Some of the newer ballparks have tried to emulate that effect to some degree, and while they are much better than the round multipurpose places in that regard, they also have to allocate premium space for hugely profitable luxury box seating, which relegates the riffraff like me to seats more distant from the field.

[1995hoo]

Old photos make it look like certain ballparks like Ebbets Field in Brooklyn were built so that the front of the upper deck was very close to the foul lines, because it overhung most of the lower deck.  Ebbets Field and a number of similar ballparks were demolished in the 1950s and 1960s so the fathers and grandfathers of posters on this forum would have to answer that.

....

My father grew up about two miles from Ebbets Field and attended games there, but unfortunately I can no longer ask him what he remembers about the aspect you describe. In general, though, I've read that the "Jewel Box" era ballparks (including Ebbets Field) did indeed have the upper levels much closer to the field because they used pillars to support the stands, which in turn meant more obstructed seating in the lower level.

[SEWIGuy]

I'll take a nice, modern ballpark over Fenway or Wrigley any day. They're nice for nostalgia sake, but the overall experience is nowhere near as nice in my opinion.

[gonealookin]

I'm pleased that the late-game disruptions (running onto the field, throwing crap onto the field, etc.) were pretty minimal and that my fellow A's fans saw this to the end with class.

A's radio announcer (for the last 29 seasons) Ken Korach capped it off with "It is over, after 57 years of thrills, of heartbreak...but always a sense of community."

[Henry]

I'm happy to see that they ended their last-ever Oakland game with a win. After losing the Raiders and Warriors, the A's will be the hardest loss for the city to take since they had the longest continuous tenure of the three. So sorry that the Howard Terminal ballpark could not get built, since we saw it as the last great chance for them to stick around longer.

[bing101]

https://apnews.com/article/las-vegas-casinos-tropicana-mirage-artifacts-955677275c676a629bd303dc17c0e61f

Here's one as the Tropicana is being cleared out for the new A's stadium.

[Henry]

With the Raiders and A's now gone, is it safe to say the Coliseum is going to be demolished soon? Or will it spend an extended period unused, like RFK Stadium in DC?

[Rothman]

With the Raiders and A's now gone, is it safe to say the Coliseum is going to be demolished soon? Or will it spend an extended period unused, like RFK Stadium in DC?

A soon to be great place for monster truck rallies...

[Max Rockatansky]

With the Raiders and A's now gone, is it safe to say the Coliseum is going to be demolished soon? Or will it spend an extended period unused, like RFK Stadium in DC?

A soon to be great place for monster truck rallies...

With fantastic BART access.