Now that I've teased you into this diary with buzzwords, let me tell what it's all about:  The Oakland Coliseum.

Please, I know we've been through the objections and adulations on a couple of occasions.  And, the Athletics ballclub has made no secret that they're "heading South" or, to anywhere away from here in Oakland, away from the edifice near the Coliseum BART station, near the airport, near 880 freeway.

A Nobel prize winning physics professor once remarked, "The way to get a good idea is to have a lot of ideas."  Since we just had fan fest at the Coliseum (forget the sponsor, I've received no money) and the season is fast approaching, I'd like to hear some "wacky" ideas about improving the current ballpark. Not fantasy, but semi-realistic. I know the $$$ part really belongs to Alameda County, but...

Here's my "wad" to get the commentary going:

1. Do the interior walkway areas have to look like a parking garage?  Concrete on concrete, painted with a realistic "concrete" coating?  How about surgical white?  So's there's more light, more bright.

2. Can't parking be cheaper than $11, $12, whatever it is?  Sometimes I'd like to stop in, spontaneously, but, when you see a HUGE abundance of something (like hundreds of parking places, bare) it really bugs me to shell out good money. So, no stop.  How about freeway onramps and offramps that lead directly out onto the freeway?  (<< there's a good name for a music group, "The Offramps".)  Going through a couple of traffic signals to enter and exit the parking area... why?  Bridges and overpasses?  Really really expensive, or???</li>

3. They did Mount Davis.  So what about giving the old "arc" of seating going from foul pole to home plate to foul pole, a clean wipe off with torches, wrecking balls, and bulldozers, and recasting the concrete with seats closer to the field and parallel to the rectangle formed by the third-base-left-field line, and the first-base-right-field line?  Circular stadiums are "out".

4. Instead of "pulling a tarp over the dead" area formerly known as the third deck, how about putting a gazillion potted oak trees up there?  After all, this is "oak-land", not "tarp-land"!

5. Ownership complains about football games ruining the field.  What about moveable turf?  Don't they have that in Phoenix, where they just played the Superbowl?  Don't they have big trays of grass they roll-in, roll out?

6. Not sure much about "South" of the stadium, but "North" and "East", it's so so ugly!  Can't the city get smart and do some urban redevelopment in the blocks surrounding the complex?  Heck, bulldoze all those eyesores, and plant even more oak trees!