ATHLETICS STADIUM

On a stretch of land near an Oakland freeway, Alameda county broke ground for the Coliseum and Sports Arena. Completed in 1966 with only the Oakland Raiders as tenants, the $25.5 million complex lured the Athletics from Kansas City in 1968 and the Warriors from San Francisco in 1971. Although the Coliseum held 48,219 spectators for baseball, the A’s didn’t draw 1 million fans in a season until 1973, reaching that level only twice in their first 13 years in Oakland. Network Associates Coliseum is a stadium located in Oakland, California that is used for football and baseball games. Network Associates Coliseum is home to the following sports teams: Oakland Athletics (Major League Baseball) and Oakland Raiders (National Football League.) Opening day came on April 17, 1968, when 50,219 fans packed the three tiered stadium. Built in a circular shape, many of the seats stretched from foul pole to foul pole, with bleachers beyond the outfield fence. Two Diamond Vision video/scoreboards were located above both the left and right field bleachers. Few changes took place at the Oakland Coliseum over the years. The Raiders moved out of the coliseum in 1981, but when they moved back the coliseum changed dramatically. The coliseum remained an excellent place to watch a ballgame until 1995. As part of an agreement, when the Raiders moved back to Oakland, the coliseum was remodeled. All of the outfield bleachers were removed. A four-tier section of 22,000 seats was built in place of them. All of the orange seats were replaced by new green seats. The video boards are now above the stadium rim down both the left and right field lines. The Coliseum has been home to some of the biggest names in baseball. Jim "Catfish" Hunter, Reggie Jackson and Rollie Fingers were A's teammates in the early 1970s. Dick Williams, Alvin Dark, Chuck Tanner, Billy Martin, and Tony La Russa were all managers in Oakland. In the late-1980s the Coliseum became home to another group of Oakland stars: Rookie of the Year winners Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, and Walt Weiss helped produce three consecutive American League titles beginning in 1988 and a World Series title won in the "Bay Bridge" series sweep against the San Francisco Giants in 1989. In the Coliseum, "Catfish" Hunter pitched a perfect game in 1968 and Rickey Henderson broke Lou Brock’s stolen base record in 1991. In September 1997, UMAX Technologies agreed to acquire the naming rights to the stadium. However, following a dispute, a court decision reinstated the Oakland 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 sometimes, simply, "the Net." In 2003, Network Associates renewed the contract for an additional five years at a cost of $6 million. In mid-2004, Network Associates was renamed McAfee, and it is expected that the stadium will be renamed McAfee Coliseum accordingly. Since 2000, the A's have been a very good team at the stadium winning several division championships and the wild card. During the past several season the team has been able to draw over two million fans to Network Associates Coliseum each season. Currently, the A’s would like to have a new stadium built in the area.