McAfee Coliseum

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

McAfee Coliseum
The Coliseum, Oakland Coliseum
Location	7000 Coliseum Way Oakland, California 94621
Broke ground	1962
Opened	September 18, 1966
Owner	City of Oakland and Alameda County
Operator	Coliseum, Inc.
Surface	Bluegrass
Construction cost	$25.5 million USD; $200 million USD (1996 renovations)
Architect	Skidmore, Owings and Merrill; HTNB
Former names
Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (1966-1998) Network Associates Coliseum (1998-2004)
Tenants
Oakland Athletics (MLB) (1968-present) Oakland Raiders (NFL) (1966-1981, 1995-present) Oakland Stompers (NASL) (1978) Oakland Invaders (USFL) (1983-1985)
Capacity
34,077 (Baseball) 63,026 (Football)
Dimensions
Left Field - 330 ft Left-Center Power Alleys - 367 ft, 362 ft, 388 ft Center Field - 400 ft Right-Center Power Alleys - 367 ft, 362 ft, 388 ft Right Field - 330 ft Backstop - 60 ft

McAfee Coliseum is a stadium located in Oakland, California, United States that is used for baseball and football games. Commonly referred to as The Coliseum. It was formerly known as Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum and Network Associates Coliseum. It was referred to as The Net during the time it was named for Network Associates.

[edit] Stadium history

In 1966, the city of Oakland constructed Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (or Oakland Coliseum for short) for two reasons: as a new stadium for the Oakland Raiders football team and also in an effort to lure MLB baseball to Oakland. The Raiders played their first game there on September 18, 1966. In 1968, the Kansas City Athletics became the Oakland Athletics and began play at the new stadium. The Athletics' first game was played on April 17, 1968. The stadium complex cost $25.5 million to build and rests on 120 acres (0.5 km²) of land. The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Complex at one time consisted of the outdoor stadium and the indoor arena. The outdoor stadium was commonly called "the Coliseum", while the arena was called "The Coliseum arena." More recently, only the stadium is called the Coliseum. The arena is now called Oracle Arena, and is home to the Golden State Warriors basketball team of the NBA. The outdoor stadium features a unique underground design where the playing surface is actually below ground level. Consequently fans entering the stadium find themselves walking on to the main concourse of the stadium at the top of the first level of seats. This, combined with the hill that was built around the stadium to create the upper concourse, means that only the third deck is visible from outside the park. This gives the Coliseum the illusion of being a short stadium from the outside.

In its baseball configuration, the Coliseum has more space between the foul lines and the seats, especially near first base and third base, than any other major league ballpark. Thus, many balls that would reach the seats in other ballparks are caught for outs at the Coliseum.

In 1972, the Athletics won their first of three straight World Series championships, and their first since their years in Philadelphia. In 1982, the Oakland Raiders moved to Los Angeles, leaving the A's as the only remaining tenants of Oakland Coliseum. The 1987 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was held at the Coliseum. From 1988-1990 the venue saw three more World Series. In 1989, the Oakland A's won their fourth Series since moving to Oakland, as "Bash Brothers" José Canseco and Mark McGwire of the A's defeated the San Francisco Giants in the earthquake-interrupted "Bay Bridge" Series or "BART" Series.

In July 1995, the Los Angeles Raiders agreed to return to Oakland provided that Oakland Coliseum underwent renovations. In November 1995, those renovations commenced and continued through the next summer until the beginning of the 1996 football season. The steeply-pitched stands that now span the outfield (and face the setting sun late in the day during NFL games) acquired the derisive nickname Mount Davis, after the ever-controversial Raiders owner Al Davis, from those who considered the view of the Oakland Hills over the center-field bleachers valuable. The new layout also had the somewhat peculiar effect of creating an inward jog in the outfield fence, in left-center and right-center. There are now three distance markers instead of one, at various points of the power alleys, as indicated in the dimensions grid. The Raiders return also heralded the creation of the Black Hole, a highly recognizable group of fans who occupy the Raider's endzone seating during football games.

The Bill King Broadcast Booth; note the tarp on the third deck.

Along with the since-demolished Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, the Coliseum features the unusual configuration of laying the football field on a line from first to third base rather than laying it from home plate to center field, or parallel to one of the foul lines, as with most multi-purpose facilities. Thus, a seat behind home plate for baseball is behind the 50-yard line for football. The Coliseum has the distinction of being the last multipurpose venue in the United States that hosts both Major League baseball and an NFL team. (Note: Although the Metrodome and Dolphin Stadium host both, these facilities were designed as football stadiums that can adjust to host baseball.)

On December 21, 2005, the Athletics announced they had reduced the seating capacity of the Coliseum to 34,077 by closing the third deck of the stadium permanently. The closed seats will be covered by a tarp during baseball season featuring retired numbers and other A's history. The closing of the third deck made the coliseum the lowest capacity baseball stadium in the MLB. On April 2, 2006, the broadcast booth was renamed in honor of the late Bill King, a Bay Area sportscaster who was the play-by-play voice of the A's, Raiders and Warriors for over thirty years.

[edit] Naming rights

In September 1997, UMAX Technologies agreed to acquire the naming rights to the stadium. However, following a dispute, a court decision reinstated the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum name. In 1998, Network Associates agreed to pay $5.8 million over five years for the naming rights and the stadium became known as Network Associates Coliseum, or, alternately in marketing and media usage as, "the Net."

In 2003, Network Associates renewed the contract for an additional five years at a cost of $6 million. In mid-2004, the Network Associates company was renamed McAfee, and shortly after that, the stadium was renamed McAfee Coliseum accordingly.

Despite the different name changes, locals generally refer to the stadium as "The Coliseum." This fits the trend of older stadium renamings being rejected by the general public. This is especially true in the San Francisco Bay Area where changes to the name of nearby Candlestick Park have been wholly rejected by voters, and changes to the names of both Pacific Bell Park and the San Jose Arena were received with much negative criticism and widely ignored by fans and media alike.

[edit] Cisco Field

On August 12, 2005, the A's new owner Lewis Wolff proposed to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority the Athletics first official plan for a new ballpark in Oakland. The new stadium would be located across 66th Avenue from the Coliseum in what is currently an industrial area north of the Coliseum. The park would hold 35,000 fans making it the second smallest park in the major leagues. Plans for the Oakland location fell through in early 2006 when several of the owners of the land proposed for the new ballpark made their wish to not sell known.

Throughout 2006 the Athletics continued to search for a ballpark site within their designated territory of Alameda County. Late in 2006 rumors began to circulate regarding a 143 acre parcel of land in Fremont, California being the new site. These rumors were confirmed by the Fremont city council on November 8 of that year. A's owner Lewis Wolff met with the council that day to present his plan to move the A's to Fremont into a soon to be built ballpark named Cisco Field[1]. Wolff and Cisco Systems conducted a Press Conference at the San Jose, Calif. based headquarters of Cisco Systems on November 14, 2006 to confirm the deal, and showcase some details of the future plan.

Under any such replacement proposals, the Oakland Raiders would continue to play football in the Coliseum.

[edit] Mount Davis

The Mount Davis structure; during baseball season the seats are not sold and are covered with a tarp.

Mount Davis is the contemptuous name given to the over 10,000 upper deck grandstand seats at McAfee Coliseum in Oakland, California by fans of Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics.

The term applies to sections 335-355 of the stadium, used only during football games (though it had been made available for expected high-attendance baseball games). The addition was constructed prior to the 1996 football season in order to accommodate Al Davis, owner of the Oakland Raiders, in a successful attempt to induce Davis to move the team back to Oakland from Los Angeles. The new stands block a spectacular view of the Oakland hills that had been a feature of the Coliseum for almost 30 years. It has been criticized as an area which has made the McAfee Coliseum look ever more like a football stadium, and not at all one for baseball [2]. Since the 2006 season, the Athletics have covered it with a tarp, and have announced that no seats in the area will be sold under any circumstances except for a World Series appearance.

Current prices for "Mount Davis" during Raiders games range between $26-$46. The relatively narrow and steeply-pitched structure has 6 levels of seating, bringing the back row of its upper-most tier to a height rarely seen in stadiums, thus inspiring its nickname. Unfortunately for the patrons of "Mount Davis", many of them find that they have to shade their eyes from the setting sun, just as the game might be reaching a dramatic juncture; thus perhaps learning why the original layout of the stadium had only a single level of bleachers in that area, with most of the seats positioned with their backs to the sun.

Another nickname for this area is "the AL-ps," also after Davis.

[edit] External links

• Visit to McAfee Coliseum
• History of McAfee Coliseum
• Official Coliseum website
• USGS aerial of Coliseum-Arena complex
• More Aerial Views, and of other stadiums.

Coordinates: 37°45′5.08″N, 122°12′3.20″W