The Coliseum

The exterior of the Oakland Coliseum, Aug-2009.

Looking down from halfway up “Mount Davis” in center field.

The view from directly behind home plate, which used to be of the hills but is now mainly of the football stand.

Chronological Tour: Stop 128

• Location: Off Nimitz Freeway (I-880) at Hegenberger Road, Oakland, Calif. (map it using Google Maps)
• Opened: 1966 (1968 for baseball) as Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum
• Alternate names: Network Associates Coliseum (1998), McAfee Coliseum (2004), Overstock.com Coliseum (2011), O.co Coliseum (2011), RingCentral Coliseum (2021)
• Home team: Oakland Athletics, American League (1968-2024); Oakland Raiders, National Football League (1966-80, 1992-2019)
• Capacity: 43,662 for baseball

Rating: 2 baseballs

What saves the Coliseum (which has had several naming rights sponsors in the last few years) are two things: grass, which is particularly important for a multi-purpose facility, and the perception that yes, this was a special place at one time. After all, there was some history here, particularly in the early 1970s, when the Athletics won three straight World Series. Unfortunately, upon my return trip in August 2009, the Raiders had already played a preseason game, and parts of the outfield grass which had been covered by football stands had turned yellow.

The Athletics had been talking about moving their act down the freeway a few miles, to Fremont, near San Jose, leaving the Coliseum to the Raiders. However, that proposal was officially terminated in early 2009, leaving the ultimate fate of the Athletics in doubt. As of 2021, the club was exploring the possibility of building near Jack London Square in downtown Oakland, but those negotiations were less than smooth and so the club has now announced a probable relocation to greater Las Vegas, where the Raiders moved in 2020. They would play three seasons in West Sacramento while waiting for their new park on the Strip to be completed. The Coliseum site (which also includes a basketball arena now abandoned by the Golden State Warriors, who moved across the bay to San Francisco in 2019) would likely be repurposed for industrial development.