[will101]

My thoughts exactly. I personally view the Coliseum to be better off as a football stadium and its life as a baseball park died when Mt. Davis was built. I just don't think getting rid of the newest part of a stadium is a good idea. But since that "annoying baseball team" has signed a lease to keep them there a bit longer, what can you do?

It's easy to break a lease if both parties are in agreement. Just tear up both copies of the contract, and roll in the moving vans. And if the City of San Jose wins the court case against Selig and Major League Baseball, the whole situation gets a lot simpler.

Edit: Hit the button without thinking. Mt. Davis does need a minor amount of work. An elevator, a couple of escalators and a bit of work on the concourses. But that's peanuts compared to the rest of the project. And who knows? Maybe the nickname will go away, In time.

 

[slipperydog]

Pre-Mount Davis Coliseum

 

[will101]

^^ That's pre a lot of things. I'm guessing the pic dates from around 1970. The outfield scoreboards look clean and shiny, and after installation Finley (the notoriously cheap A's owner at the time) never spent a dime on cleaning or repainting them.

 

[WesTexas]

So was this a good baseball stadium before Mt Davis was built? Is it still a good baseball stadium?

 

[theskythelimit]

Like other stadiums that started off as a Baseball only stadium and then converted to a Multi use Baseball/Football stadium, it is lacking as a Baseball stadium. The stadium has issues, overflowing sewers is one of the bigger ones.

 

[will101]

Like other stadiums that started off as a Baseball only stadium and then converted to a Multi use Baseball/Football stadium, it is lacking as a Baseball stadium. The stadium has issues, overflowing sewers is one of the bigger ones.

Not even. Even though it was designed as a multipurpose venue, it was specifically created as a home for the Raiders, who were at the time playing in 22,000 seat Frank Youell Field (below).

The condition for the Raiders not moving away in the early 60s was the now familiar refrain of "build us something better". What they got was, at the time, one of the best football fields in the country. As you can see below (pic taken just after the complex opened in 1966) the football field was shoehorned in quite nicely, even though the permanent part of the seating was basically a circle. 54,000 chair seats, and all close to the action. The Raiders had their fancy home, Oakland now felt it belonged on the map, and everyone was happy (except the Niners and San Francisco, but that's another story).

The sharp-eyed among you will notice that they hadn't even bother to plant grass in what would be the baseball outfield. That's because there was no actual team on the horizon. That changed in late 1967, when an assistant to Charles O. Finley, owner of the Kansas City A's (basically "Athletics" was completely dropped while he owned the team) paid a visit. The assistant said 'this is nice, can you do baseball?', and Oakland said 'sure, we can do baseball, look at these plans', and the deal was struck. The Raiders were slightly less than overjoyed, but a rent reduction shut them up. The A's moved to Oakland for the 1968 season.

But the problem with the baseball layout has always been the huge amount of foul territory, and how many of the fans are a long distance from the action. For a long time the A's made the best with what they had, but when the Raiders came back, and they built Mt. Davis to accommodate them, the relationship between the A's and the Coliseum management soured, and has remained sour.

 

[will101]

Ok, now it's not gonna happen.... obviously. I thought I'd just get that out of the way.

But I made a crude and slightly off, but identafiable Sketch Up representation of what I thought a renovation to the O.com Coliseum would look like. So....

Basically, the sidelines would match in the Mount Davis configuration. The endzones on the other hand would be more modern.

One of the endzone sections would be a bowl section and suites (you can probably tell, I was a bit inspired by The Carter @ TCU).

The other endzone (like The Carter) is a bowl and 2nd tier with an open concourse.

New facade for the sideline sections of the stadium.

This is the direction I'd think the Raiders would go if they decided to renovate instead of build a new stadium if and when the A's left.

But this is just fantasy, of course....

I know that I'd seen this before when it was posted a couple of years ago, but had forgotten about it. Examining it again makes me thing that this is about what the Raiders should be thinking about. It could have 60,000 seats, the requisite amount of suites and club seats, in the familiar location, and for well under a billion.

 

[theskythelimit]

Not even. Even though it was designed as a multipurpose venue, it was specifically created as a home for the Raiders, who were at the time playing in 22,000 seat Frank Youell Field (below).

The condition for the Raiders not moving away in the early 60s was the now familiar refrain of "build us something better". What they got was, at the time, one of the best football fields in the country. As you can see below (pic taken just after the complex opened in 1966) the football field was shoehorned in quite nicely, even though the permanent part of the seating was basically a circle. 54,000 chair seats, and all close to the action. The Raiders had their fancy home, Oakland now felt it belonged on the map, and everyone was happy (except the Niners and San Francisco, but that's another story).

The sharp-eyed among you will notice that they hadn't even bother to plant grass in what would be the baseball outfield. That's because there was no actual team on the horizon. That changed in late 1967, when an assistant to Charles O. Finley, owner of the Kansas City A's (basically "Athletics" was completely dropped while he owned the team) paid a visit. The assistant said 'this is nice, can you do baseball?', and Oakland said 'sure, we can do baseball, look at these plans', and the deal was struck. The Raiders were slightly less than overjoyed, but a rent reduction shut them up. The A's moved to Oakland for the 1968 season.

But the problem with the baseball layout has always been the huge amount of foul territory, and how many of the fans are a long distance from the action. For a long time the A's made the best with what they had, but when the Raiders came back, and they built Mt. Davis to accommodate them, the relationship between the A's and the Coliseum management soured, and has remained sour.

Thank you for you detailed information. I incorrectly assumed the A's came before the Raiders.

On a side note, in 1961 the Raiders payed at Kesar and Candlestick their first season in the AFL. They moved to Frank Youell Field in 1962 and finally the Coliseum .

 

[JJG]

I know that I'd seen this before when it was posted a couple of years ago, but had forgotten about it. Examining it again makes me thing that this is about what the Raiders should be thinking about. It could have 60,000 seats, the requisite amount of suites and club seats, in the familiar location, and for well under a billion.

Seems all but too late for it, now.

 

[will101]

Seems all but too late for it, now.

That's only true if Mark is going to literally follow in his father's footsteps, and do nothing but wait for someone to give him things for free. He has been owner for just under three years, and has done exactly two things: hire Reggie McKenzie (to take over most of his dad's old work load) and fire the Raiders' public relations director, after Sports Illustrated ran an article in 2013 criticizing his dad. This isn't exactly a guy who hits the ground running every morning. Just visiting the Alamodome garnered headlines, because he doesn't do (or say) anything. I'm starting to think that Mark will just sit there until a convenient stadium falls from the sky. Or the ground opens up beneath him.

 

[Lakeland]

https://twitter.com/dtvblimp/status/521381067207766017

 

[SJAnfield]

Interesting tidbit I found this morning:

http://ballparkdigest.com/2014/10/20/new-coliseum-city-investor-emerges-in-oakland/

Seems Coliseum City has found a new investor, and has had conversation with the Raiders, and not A's.

 

[SJAnfield]

Coliseum City investor named: Floyd Kephart, Chairman of the Renaissance companies, a hedge-fund consulting company.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/my-town/ci_26771915/new-investor-named-coliseum-city

As a Nor-Cal Raiders fan, I hope it actually leads to something, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[MidnightRaider]

 

[will101]

The bottom one looks like the place just just opened. The landscaping hasn't been placed yet, and the paving doesn't even look finished. It looks so unfinished that this could be the absolute first game, on September 18, 1966. You can still see scaffolding around the edge of the arena at the bottom.

The middle one looks like the next season, with the parking lot painted, and a little bit of iceplant growing around the stadium berms. The now-completed arena shows the sleek styling that won it several design awards. From the capacity crowd and the late summer shadows, this might be the first meeting between the Raiders and Niners, a preseason game played September 3, 1967.

The top picture is harder to date exactly. The Diamondvision screen can be seen in center field, and that was installed between the 1986 and 87 baseball seasons. The construction for Mount Davis has not started, and there are no football lines showing on the field, so this is before the end of the 1994 season. The large crowd and early fall shadows suggest that this is a post-season game, but during that period the A's played post-season games in 1988, 89, 90 and 92. So that's as close as I can come.

 

[MidnightRaider]

 

[RMB2007]

Mark Davis: We're trying everything to get Oakland stadium deal

In a phone interview Wednesday, owner Mark Davis said another extension without a firm plan is less than ideal: "What I don't want to do is get caught up in an endless cycle of one-year extensions. Those lease extensions, they tend to give comfort."

What does Davis want? Simply, a new stadium right where the old stadium sits. And a decision soon.

A few days after Davis told the Los Angeles Daily News that Los Angeles would be a "great option" for the Raiders, he told me the paper didn't offer proper context to his remarks. He insists he made clear to the reporter how his main goal is a stadium in Oakland. So just to be clear, he reiterated.

"We are trying everything possible to get something done in Oakland right on the same exact site we're on right now," Davis said. "And I'd say 99 percent of my interests and energy are going towards getting something done there. That's really the crux of it right now. People want to know about the other sites and there are always options. But we want to get something done in Oakland."

A league official deferred to the club when asked to comment.

The political situation is complex in Oakland, and having to deal with the city and the county on all stadium issues makes it more complex. New Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf only adds an unfamiliar face to the mix, though she has begun working to keep the Silver and Black home. Oh, and the A's just signed a new 10-year lease for the stadium the teams share, though Davis points out that their agreement says the A's will leave within two years if the Raiders get a new deal on their site.

As far as how it would work, The San Francisco Chronicle has reported the Raiders would receive the land from the city and county on which the stadium sits in the event of a new stadium, and the Alameda County taxpayers would handle the $120 million still owed for the last construction in the 1990s. Davis adds that "we're not asking for public money" to actually build the stadium.

Instead, the only public investment would be for infrastructure such as improving the BART station at the stadium. Davis said the Raiders would put up half the money, while the land developer would "help fill in the gaps," he said. Part of all of that construction would be a Raiders Hall of Fame.

The next step, according to The Chronicle, is for New City Development LLC to use their 90-day extension of the exclusive negotiating window with the city and try to strike a deal.

"We'll see if anything is live there," Davis said, "and hopefully there is."

What about Los Angeles or San Antonio? Davis said both are "viable" options if Oakland doesn't work out as a permanent home.

"We want to stay here in Oakland," Davis said. "There's other opportunities that would be much more lucrative for us, to be real honest. But we are really trying to get something done in Oakland. We want a stadium the fans and the team can be proud of."

www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300000043...trying-everything-to-get-oakland-stadium-deal

 

[will101]

Phone interview, huh? I bet he was reading from a script. His handlers hate it when he tries to think for himself. There's a big difference between what he says in person, and the press releases and phone interviews.

 

[pesto]

May be time to let them all go and build midscale housing and office there. Grab the employed, tax-paying crowd who can't afford SF. They aren't going to be looking to be near a football stadium. Baseball park maybe.

 

[skaP187]

Pre-Mount Davis Coliseum

I think this is how I remember it when me and my dad were watching the world series in the middle of the night, but that's at least 25 years ago I guess...
In my memories the outfield stand was smaller, but maybe I am wrong.
This was a great (but simpeler/smaller in my memories) baseball venue, a shame what they did to it.