Our Beloved Coliseum

If you were to rip down Mount Davis I would nostalgically agree that I have always enjoyed attending games at the Coliseum—-even now after living in SF I prefer it to PacBell…it feels less gimmicky. No fake brick for false history—-just rugged bones and a playing field. Kill Mount Davis, give me back the Oakland Hills in the the outfield and perfecto!!!

(and maybe while you are it reduce foul territory to league norms….)

I don’t know too many people that think the Coliseum is good as is.

I love the Coliseum and cannot imagine loving another stadium as much. Being able to go to games without planning or spending alot of money on tickets shaped my childhood so much. It is a very comfortable place to watch a game. For any A’s fan there have certainly been many cherished moments and beloved teams and I would lose some of those memories if we were to leave. I too would not care if the A’s stayed indefinitely and one of my dreams would be to take my kids to games at the coliseum.

I am an A’s fan, and there’s no team I’d rather see than the one that plays 81 games at the Coliseum, (or even 79 at the Coliseum and 2 in Tokyo.) On the other hand, as someone who grew up on the North Side of Chicago and knows what a park that’s kind of dumpy-looking on the outside but on the inside is a great place to watch a ball game REALLY looks like, I’ve gotta say no, the Coliseum is not at all a good park for a Major League ballclub.

Sight-lines are terrible, half the seats point towards the outfield, and even the first-level seats tend to be really far back from the field of play. Plaza level at the coliseum is as far away as the upper deck at most baseball parks. Also, you and I might not give a damn that there isn’t a thriving restaurant-and-bar scene right outside the Coliseum, but the casual fans who will push a team above 20K attendance do.

But the memories that I have of the games played there are so dear to me. I love going there and I will always remember it with the fondest of feelings. I will truly miss going there.

It is funny how critical Giants fans suddenly became of the Coliseum once the added all the amenity doodads at their own new upscale venue.

I love the Coliseum. I moved to Oakland from Pennsylvania in 1984. I was used to watching games at Three Rivers Stadium. I immediately thought the Coliseum was a gorgeous ballpark. I still think it’s a fine ballpark, though I miss the iceplant.

’nuff said.

It has a great baseball environment compared to Pac Bell AT&T park.

I don’t want a new stadium. Like others have stated, I grew up in the Coliseum (and it’s still the Coliseum to me, not McAfee nor Network Associates) and I love it for what it is: simplistic. The vendors haven’t changed much over the years and there haven’t been many, if any, fancy additions. Everything is easy to find inside, not to mention that the park itself is easy to get to from BART.

However, I realize that the only way the A’s will ever draw enough fans on a consistent basis is by building a brand new, doodad-filled ballpark. That’s how we will be able to become a (relatively) higher spending franchise and keep our homegrown talent.

But I will truly miss all the memories that the Coliseum has provided in my lifetime, which is not a lot in the history of the stadium since I was born in ‘90. But I remember the time when the umpires exited the field through a door in the backstop and handed game balls to the fans above them (and that’s how I got quite a few balls in my younger days) and of course The Streak. To me, the Coliseum is not a dump although of course its lacking all the sparkles and amenities that a new stadium provides. I can live without that stuff.

This park needs to go. It was totally ruined to accomodate the Raiders. The
foul territory is like the continental divide, you are so far away from the action.
This is not a modern fan friendly baseball only facility and it shows in so
many ways. When I went to Pac Bell that year it opened, I felt the great feeling
of an old-time style ballpark. I for one say, bring on the new ballpark a.s.a.p.!!!!

I love the fact that I can TAILGATE, I love the fact that it rarely gets too hot there, I love the fact it has great sight-lines, I love the fact that they still have troughs in their bathrooms instead of individual urinals, and most importantly I LOVE THE FACT THAT YUPPIES HAVE NOT RUINED MY BASEBALL EXPERIENCE.

The sooner the A’s get a new ball park the sooner our “fan – base” turns into those garlic fry / wine sipping gi gi “fans” across the bay.

FYI…I am a white collar professional and I don’t want the A’s experience to be ruined by a new park with all the bells and whistles.

Go A’s!

Mt. Davis is a major bummer but tearing that down is a heckuva lot cheaper than a new stadium—which may not happen in the current economy anyway. BART access rocks, you can see well from almost everywhere, the weather is always great, and you can always get tickets. I will be really bummed if the A’s build a Fremont ballpark, but if they do I hope they get more fans.

I like the Coliseum, but it could easily be replaced, too.

Love the tailgating. Love the relative ease of access. It does have a good baseball vibe.

Hate the large foul territory, basically a product of poor design… lack of forethought.

Don’t like Mt Davis, but don’t see it as the great monstrosity that others do either. I have never understood people’s fascination with the view of the hills (pre Mt Davis). Boring non-descript hills that you couldn’t see half the time through the smog anyway.

Therefore, I love it. But damn I wish they could knock down Mt. Davis and evict the Raiders.

Crowds and expensive tickets are not my bag. If I were a Giants fan, I would brag to my friends about how great my stadium was, but watch every game from home.