Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum

The Oakland Coliseum Complex, circa 1983. The Coliseum served as home of the Oakland Athletics from 1968 to 2024. (Courtesy Barry Colla.)

 

The initial reviews were overwhelmingly positive.

• “Fabulous … ranking with the finest in the country”
• “A class operation”
• “Just great”
• “About the finest in the land”
• “Money well spent”

They were referring to the Oakland Coliseum.

Yes, that Oakland Coliseum. The one that in its later years has been scorned as ugly, falling apart, and not fan-friendly. The one that’s endured sewage backups, pest invasions, and possums in the broadcast booths. The one twice abandoned by the NFL’s now-Las Vegas Raiders and, most recently, by Major League Baseball’s (formerly Oakland) Athletics. The one referred to in one article as “a bland, charmless concrete monstrosity” that “isn’t worthy of preservation … perhaps America’s most hated sports stadium.”1

Or, as it became popularly known, “Baseball’s Last Dive Bar.”

Yes, it’s true. The Oakland Coliseum was once, if not a marvel, at least well received.

Talked about since the 1950s and conceived in the early 1960s, the Coliseum was finally birthed on September 18, 1966, when the NFL Oakland Raiders hosted the Kansas City Chiefs before 50,000 fans. Though the Raiders lost to the Chiefs, who would eventually win the American Football League title that season and play in the first Super Bowl, the new facility carried the day.

“They’re singing the praises of Oakland’s fabulous new stadium today and ranking it with the finest in the country,” one report read. “More than one San Franciscan, on hand for the stadium inaugural yesterday, voiced unstinting praise of the Oakland Stadium complex. They figure it was money well spent.”

The same coverage said that the “compactness and intimacy of the new stadium … made it immediately popular with the fans.”2

Franklin Mieuli, the longtime principal owner of the NBA’s San Francisco (and later Golden State) Warriors and a minority shareholder of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers at the time, was quoted as saying, “It’s a beauty. I’d like to move it across the Bay.”3

A columnist with the across-the-Bay San Francisco Examiner wrote that “[t]he stadium made a handsome appearance. …”4

Another chronicler wrote that the “Raiders – to a man – thought their new stadium was ‘just great’” and quoted Oakland quarterback Cotton Davidson as saying that the stadium in general was “just about the finest in the land.” 5

Raiders co-owner Wayne Valley said, “[The previous Raiders home stadium] wasn’t much of a place for football, but everyone was close to the action. [Now] we still have that kind of intimacy in a stadium [that seats] nearly three times as many fans.”6

A San Francisco Examiner reporter described the stadium as “beauteous” in two different dispatches.7

“There was good reason for rejoicing,” another opined. “The stadium made a handsome appearance. …”8

According to Curbed SF, “The Coliseum represents a time when governments viewed infrastructure as a point of civic pride. Its design and its symbolism for Oakland’s progressive attitude toward construction.”9

There were a few issues at the beginning, of course, most of which would be understandable, even expected, with a first-time event in a new facility.

The Coliseum had opened ahead of schedule to enable the Raiders to play their entire home schedule there, and not all of the 8,000 parking spaces were available since construction on the Coliseum complex was continuing.10 Some fans said that when the parking lot was full, there needed to be more signage pointing them to the nearest available lots.11

Also, the wind-breaks at the top of the stadium did not work well. “It got so cold my wife had to put a blanket over her head,” said Al Ruffo, one of the 49ers’ owners. “Other people in our area had to do the same thing. Yet those directly behind the glass peeled off their coats because the sun warmed them to hothouse temperatures.”12 Protective slot doors were added before the next Raiders game, which eased the problem.

To comply with building codes, temporary rails had been placed in front of some first-row seats in the second and third decks of the stadium, and they interfered slightly with the sight lines of some seat-holders, but the design was soon changed. There was also traffic congestion on the northern approaches to the Coliseum because the 66th Avenue interchange was still under construction.13

Ray Ward, assistant general manager of the Coliseum, said, “We feel we all went to school Sunday.” Still, he said that the four stadium lots were emptied within 40 minutes after the game. “Pretty good.”14

One observer said that “despite minor flaws, the new stadium is a class operation.” Another wrote that “[i]t was a gratifying turnout. Everyone connected with the ambitious project … was immensely pleased.”15

In short, it was a very successful coming-out party for the Coliseum and those who had championed it and helped bring it to fruition.

The concept of building a professional-level facility in Oakland had first been talked about in the mid-1950s after the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League departed for Vancouver, British Columbia. The thinking was that attracting major sports franchises would help Oakland at least partially emerge from the shadow of its more glamorous neighbor, San Francisco. The American Football League, with the Raiders as an original member, began play in 1960, and there was talk even then of attracting a major-league-baseball franchise to Oakland, whether by expansion or the transfer of an existing team.

In 1960, a nonprofit organization, Coliseum, Inc., was formed to direct the search for financing and the later development of the complex, which also included an arena and exhibition hall. Robert T. Nahas, who had been president of Oakland’s Chamber of Commerce, headed the group,16 which included prominent people such as former California US Senator William F. Knowland and industrialist Edgar F. Kaiser. Nahas later spent 20 years as head of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Board. “If not for Bob Nahas, there would be no Coliseum. It’s really that simple,” Coliseum Board member Jack Maltester said.17

One idea was to locate the facility on the site of Peralta Park, near Lake Merritt. Later, however, the eventual location alongside the Nimitz Freeway (now Interstate 880) was chosen after the Port of Oakland agreed to give 157 acres to the East Bay Regional Park District in exchange for 105 acres of parkland on the other side of the freeway. The Port then donated the latter to the City of Oakland as the site of the complex.18

The initial plans were released in late 1960,19 and site planning and preparation began in 1961. On February 27, 1962, the Oakland City Council voted 8 to 0 to approve building the Coliseum. Alameda County supervisors okayed it by a 4-to-1 vote in March 1963. There was a possibility that the issue would have to be put to the voting public, but that was dispelled in late March 1963 through a legal opinion by the county legal team.20 The project was delayed by a couple of years because of legal issues and cost overruns, in part due to rising construction costs during the two-year delay. In April 1964 architects were instructed to cut back the plans to get costs more in line.21 Eventually, the original projected $25 million cost increased to $30 million, or about $300 million in 2025 dollars, which nonetheless was half what some pessimists expected22 and which seems inexpensive compared to what stadiums cost now.

However, later in April 1964, Nahas announced that $25.5 million in bonds – about $263 million in 2025 dollars23 – to be retired over a 40-year period, had been sold at an average interest rate of 4.125 percent. “Now,” Nahas said, “we can start breaking ground in mid-May. We expect the Raiders to be playing in the Coliseum by the 1966 season.”24

By then, other activity was booming around the Coliseum site, as the project helped stimulate others in the area, including a drive-in theater, a soft-drink bottling plant, a 14-story addition to a nearby hotel, and an eight-story office building.

“Private enterprise, both local and national, long has been aware of the potential of our area, and the final green light for construction of the Coliseum was all it took to start a parade of new projects and expansions in the vicinity,” Oakland Chamber of Commerce President Nils Eklund said.25

The land, mostly vacant, had been marshy at one point and had been filled in to one extent or other over the years. It was said that the site had been a swamp in prehistoric times, with a creek running through it. Interestingly, in August 1964, construction workers unearthed a pair of mammoth tusks 28 feet below ground level, and they later found the remains of a ground sloth.26

The Coliseum was designed to be simple, utilitarian, and multiuse. A multiuse stadium is a sports facility specifically designed for reconfiguration based on the sport being played on the field.27 The architectural style of the Coliseum has been referred to as “brutalist”28 – defined as “a style with an emphasis on materials, textures and construction, producing highly expressive forms.”29 Put another way, it is “characterized by raw, exposed concrete and bold geometric forms.”30

One retrospective notes that the Coliseum was “hailed in its early years as an architectural triumph – winning an American Society of Civil Engineers Award of Merit in 1967 and recognition from the American Iron and Steel Institute for Best Design in Low Rise Construction two years later. It was also, in these years, truly beautiful. Symmetrical, harmonious, sheltered pleasantly into the landscape – 22 feet below sea level, to be exact.”31 About 25 years after the Coliseum opened, the American Institute of Architects called the Coliseum design “a very simple set of buildings” that was “honest and straightforward with good proportions that will never get old.”32

Creating it for dual use (football and baseball) was a trend of the times. Shea Stadium in New York opened in 1964, and later came the likes of Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, and St. Louis’s Busch Memorial Stadium. Similar edifices were constructed in Atlanta, Seattle, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, San Diego, Washington, and Montreal. All those followed earlier examples like Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium, rebuilt as a multisport stadium in 1954, and Cleveland Stadium, which was opened in 1931 but became multipurpose with the advent of the original Cleveland Browns football franchise in 1946.

These made sense in some ways. Having a single stadium for both football and baseball teams meant the facility would be utilized more often and thus be more cost-effective. And though football games had been played in baseball stadiums for many years – examples being the Chicago Bears in Wrigley Field and the New York Giants in Yankee Stadium or the Polo Grounds – the configurations weren’t ideal for both sports33 and the fans were sometimes seated far from the action or had their views blocked by poles.

In addition, professional football started becoming more popular in the late 1950s, and teams needed more seating than the baseball-only parks sometimes allowed. So the Coliseum was designed for the Raiders and also for attracting a major-league baseball team.

At baseball’s 1961 All-Star Game in San Francisco, American League President Joe Cronin conferred with Knowland of the Coliseum, Inc., board. In February 1962, after the Oakland City Council’s vote to build the Coliseum, Nahas said, “We’ve been told that, with a stadium, Oakland would stand head and shoulders above other Pacific Coast cities for an American League franchise. This community should bend every effort to get a franchise.”34

Reportedly, an American League source said that Oakland had been picked as first in line when the league next decided to expand. The AL had added two teams, the Washington Senators and Los Angeles Angels, the previous year, and it was thought that having another AL team on the West Coast would reduce travel time and costs. But others in baseball thought there was a chance of a club moving to Oakland once the Coliseum was up and running, with Cleveland and Kansas City considered possibilities.35

In March 1962, Nahas, Oakland Mayor John Houlihan, and Board of Supervisors Chairman Emanuel Razeto all wired Cronin to express their interest in a baseball team.

“We want to discuss as soon as possible the possibility of obtaining an American League franchise, whether [an] existing [one] or a new one,” Nahas told Cronin.36

It didn’t happen as soon as anyone had hoped. The previously mentioned cost overruns and legal issues delayed the Coliseum’s opening by two years from the original 1964 target. And while Charles Finley, owner of the then-Kansas City Athletics, had been pitched by Nahas37 and even attended the first Raiders game in the Coliseum along with Angels co-owner Bob Reynolds,38 it took Finley several years of battling other American League owners and a refusal to sign another lease on Kansas City’s Municipal Stadium to get the OK to move the team to Oakland in time for the 1968 season.39

The first A’s game in the Coliseum was played on April 17, 1968, a 4-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles, whose first baseman, Boog Powell, hit the Coliseum’s first home run. Less than a month later, on May 8, eventual Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter electrified a minuscule crowd of 6,298 by pitching just the ninth perfect game in major-league history to defeat the Minnesota Twins, 4-0. The A’s then made the playoffs in five consecutive seasons (1971-75) and were World Series champions in 1972, 1973, and 1974.

It was a far cry from the day that former player and manager Cookie Lavagetto, who was born in Oakland, stood on the vacant, littered lot that would become the site of the Coliseum. Lavagetto picked up a rusty tin can, threw it, and said, “Someday, this might be the spot where they’ll throw the first pitch in a World Series.”40

The Coliseum was a financial success at the beginning. A report by the International Association of Auditorium Managers in 1975 rated the Coliseum Complex, including the adjacent Arena and Exhibit Hall, as one of the three highest profit-makers among 300 public assembly facilities surveyed in the United States and Canada. At that point, the Coliseum Complex had finished each year in the black. Its few-frills design made it less expensive to build, operate, and maintain than many others that came on line afterward.41

However, the glow diminished in the late 1970s, and it came harrowingly close to losing both its major tenants.

Finley, whose A’s had sunk into mediocrity in the late 1970s, twice, in 1978 and 1979, tried to sell the franchise to oilman Marvin Davis, who planned on moving it to Denver. However, Oakland and Alameda County would not let the club out of its lease, so Finley eventually sold it to the Haas family, owner of San Francisco-based Levi Strauss & Company.

The Raiders, however, succeeded. After owner Al Davis was not able to get luxury suites and club seating added to the Coliseum, he announced in March 1980 an agreement to relocate the team to Los Angeles. Though a legal fight delayed matters, the Raiders finally moved in time for the 1982 season.

The A’s rebounded under manager Billy Martin in 1980 and 1981 but again fell off until a new crop of stars helped them reach the World Series in 1988, 1989, and 1990. The Coliseum, meanwhile, got an upgrade in 1986 in the form of new scoreboards and a Diamond Vision video screen,42 and the facility hosted the 1987 All-Star Game.

 

 

The major turning point in the history of the Coliseum came in 1995 when the Raiders agreed to return to Oakland, so long as the facility underwent major renovations that resulted in what was derisively termed by many as “Mt. Davis.” The project proved to be a large financial burden for the city and county, which issued $223 million43 in taxpayer-backed bonds to pay for it. The debt, which ballooned to approximately $350 million because of interest payments,44 was scheduled to finally be paid off in 2026.45

The work included removal of the bleachers and installation of a new bleacher section that was overall smaller and higher up than the old one, and featured chairs instead of the bench-style seating. Above the new bleachers sat a row of plaza suites, a second deck of bleachers, two rows of luxury boxes, and a third deck of seats, higher than the original grandstand.46

The 22,000-seat expansion obliterated the grassy knoll and eucalyptus trees that had been there and blocked the view of the Oakland Hills that had given the ballpark at least some charm.

As one missive described it, pre-Mt. Davis, “With a humble lawn hammocked gently above the centerfield bleachers such that it welcomed a breeze (along with a view of the hills), the Coliseum was, in a way that felt uniquely Californian, picturesque.”47

Not only did the seats block the view of the hills, they were too far away for baseball, and even for football. In fact, by 2006, the A’s were covering all the extra seats with a tarp; by 2013, the Raiders were doing the same.48

Beginning in the early 1990s, the trend turned from multiuse stadiums toward larger edifices for football and smaller, more intimate facilities for baseball. There have been 22 new major-league baseball parks opened, beginning with Baltimore’s Camden Yards in 1992. That includes San Francisco’s very successful Oracle Park, built without the benefit of public funds. By the 2000s, the Coliseum was becoming more and more outmoded. The A’s made some improvements in the 2010s, such as an outdoor plaza area with food trucks and lawn games, a new restaurant, and an indoor/outdoor bar concept called The Treehouse.

However, those enhancements were overshadowed by issues like feces from feral cats,49 a moth infestation, mold, a nearby homeless encampment, broken seats, and plumbing and water leaks.50 One report listed “at least four delays due to malfunctioning stadium lights … dead mice in a soda machine; the postponement of a game for more than three hours while crews pumped four inches of untreated sewage out of the visitors’ dugout; and, most recently, the opossum that has taken over the visiting team’s press box.” The same posting called the Coliseum “cavernous, threadbare, outdated and unfashionable.”51

The A’s finally left after the 2024 season after several unsuccessful attempts at getting a new ballpark in the Bay Area, and the Coliseum and the next-door Oakland Arena were in the process of being sold to a local group, the African American Sports & Entertainment Group, which, at least initially, had plans for an entertainment and sports complex with a convention center, restaurants, and housing. Also, the Oakland Roots Soccer Club of the USL Championship league played at the Coliseum in 2025 and 2026, but have chosen to play at another location in 2027.52

Despite the travails of the recent past, though, the Coliseum can lay claim to a good chunk of history. Known by seven names53 over the years, it has been utilized for many events, both sporting and otherwise. The A’s were in Oakland for 57 seasons, playing 4,445 regular-season games and 61 playoff contests there54 and advancing to the World Series six times. The Raiders played 316 regular-season games55 and 17 playoff games56 at the Coliseum from 1966 until 1981 and from 1995 until 2019, winning Super Bowl titles after the 1976 and 1980 seasons.

The Coliseum hosted the 1967 and 1969 American Football League championship games, both involving the Raiders, as well as college football’s East-West Shrine Game in January 1971, the 1987 All-Star Game, and a number of international soccer matches.

On September 4, 2002, before a raucous crowd of 55,528, the A’s Scott Hatteberg hit a walk-off home run to give the team its 20th consecutive victory, then an American League record. In 2010 A’s pitcher Dallas Braden matched Hunter’s perfect-game feat in a 4-0 victory over Tampa Bay, and Domingo Germán did the same on June 28, 2023. Texas’s Nolan Ryan, at 43, became the oldest major-league pitcher to throw a no-hitter when he did so at the Coliseum on June 11, 1990. All in all, 12 no-hitters were pitched at the Coliseum, nine by A’s pitchers.

Football fans have many memories, as well, including, but hardly limited to:

• The 40-7 win over the Houston Oilers in 1967 that gave the Raiders their first AFL title
• In 1968, after NBC had cut away to show the children’s movie Heidi, the Raiders scored two touchdowns in nine seconds to defeat the New York Jets, 43-32.
• Quarterback Ken Stabler, as he was about to be sacked, lofted a wobbly pass that Clarence Davis caught for a touchdown despite being surrounded by three defenders. That gave the team a 28-26 divisional playoff victory.
• The 41-24 victory over Tennessee in January 2003 that got the Raiders into the Super Bowl
• The seven touchdown passes thrown by Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles in a 2013 contest against the Raiders.

Other events at the Coliseum have included:

• College football benefit games matching Bay Area schools against historically Black universities
• Championship rounds of the AMA Supercross
• Monster Jam events
• RV shows
• An annual “Day on the Green” concert series presented by promoter Bill Graham
• Concerts by top musical groups and individual performers, including Bad Bunny, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Zach Bryan, the Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead, Shakira, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Eagles, Parliament-Funkadelic, Metallica, AC/DC, Elton John, Queen, Celine Dion, The Police, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Guns N’ Roses, U2, Oasis, Los Bukis, Green Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Robert Plant, Kenny Chesney, Huey Lewis & the News, Marvin Gaye, Lenny Kravitz, and others.
• On two occasions, a Bay Area edition of the hip-hop music festival Rolling Loud

As of March 2025, the Coliseum alone (not including the Oakland Arena) had hosted 524 concerts. Between 1976 and 1994, it was the venue for double-digit numbers of concerts every year except for one, and it held 31 shows in 1990, according to ConcertArchives.org.57 Since Mt. Davis was built, though, the Coliseum has housed far fewer concerts – just 77 through March 2025.

Ray Bobbitt, founder and managing member of the Coliseum’s new ownership group, said that when the Raiders returned to Oakland and Mt. Davis was built, the logistics “might have just been a real stretch on the site and on the planning[,]” and therefore led to a reduction in the number of concerts there starting in the late 1990s and lessening the Coliseum’s reputation as a concert venue. Bobbitt hoped to change that, pointing to the sold-out Bad Bunny concert in 2023 and the Zach Bryan appearance in 2024 that attracted 60,000 fans.

 

 

“When you look at it from the standpoint of … artists that have to play stadiums and can’t necessarily play only arenas. When you talk about classic events where there’s a multitude of different artists that could come and perform … the possibilities become endless,” he said.58

And even in its later years, despite its well-publicized shortcomings, the Coliseum had its supporters.

“It’s unique in that there’s no frills,” A’s player Brent Rooker said. “A lot of stadiums have kind of become less about the actual game and more as an entertainment product. What the Coliseum offers is ‘[h]ere’s just a bunch of seats, and here’s a field, and there’s going to be a baseball game happening.’ And that’s really cool.”59

In “The Beauty of America’s Ugliest Ballpark,” New York Times writer Jack Nicas wrote, “Yes, the Coliseum is ugly, but it is cheap, gritty and fun. And the park’s dinginess fosters a freewheeling atmosphere, where bleacher diehards bang drums and heckle outfielders, while upper-deck denizens pack picnics and pass joints. It all adds up to a baseball experience that stands out in the increasingly homogeneous ballpark landscape.”60

Joey Mellows, a teacher from England, said in 2019 that while he was amazed by the classic parks, nothing could match the Coliseum’s atmosphere. “It’s grungy, and it’s grimy, and it’s got many quite obvious imperfections,” he said. “But personally, I find that gives it an authenticity and a character that sometimes is lacking in the more sheeny, shiny, brand-new ballparks.”61

During the final series at the Coliseum in 2024, longtime Texas Rangers broadcaster Eric Nadel said, “I love the Coliseum. So many great memories for me here, more than any other opponent’s ballpark by far.”62

Another fan, Miguel Barahona, displayed a tattoo of the Coliseum on his biceps and said, “I love this place. Give me another 10 years here.”63

Last revised: October 29, 2026

 

Notes

1 Kevin Draper, “The Oakland A’s Are Trying to Solve Their Stadium Problem. Still,” New York Times, September 12, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/12/sports/baseball/oakland-athletics-ballpark.html.

2 Roger Williams, “Coliseum Just Great: 50,000 Can’t Be Wrong,” San Francisco Examiner, September 19, 1966: 58.

3 Williams.

4 Prescott Sullivan, “A Test for Fair Oakland,” San Francisco Examiner, September 25, 1966: 1, Section III.

5 Walt Daley, “Audible Makes Garrett Great,” San Francisco Examiner, September 19, 1966: 59.

6 Williams, “Coliseum Just Great.”

7 Walt Daley,” How Raiders Balked Breeze,” San Francisco Examiner, September 6, 1966: 53; Walt Daley, “Raiders, KC Vie in Arena Opener,” San Francisco Examiner, September 18, 1966.

8 Sullivan, “A Test for Fair Oakland.”

9 Zach Kahn, “America’s Roman Colisseum? Candidate 1: Oakland Coliseum,” Zach’s Substack, December 27, 2024: https://zachkahn.substack.com/p/what-abandonedunused-stadium-is-the?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web.

10 Walt Daley, “‘We’ll Beat 49ers at Gate’ – Raiders,” San Francisco Examiner, September 13, 1966: 53.

11 “Oakland Grid Signs Urged,” San Francisco Examiner, September 20, 1966: 64.

12 Williams, “Coliseum Just Great.”

13 Walt Daley, “A’s, Angel Owners Huddle at Oakland Coliseum Opener,” San Francisco Examiner, September 15, 1966: 65.

14 “Oakland Grid Signs Urged.”

15 Williams, “Coliseum Just Great.”

16 “Sports Stadium Plans Revealed,” Oakland Tribune, November 3, 1960: E23.

17 Rick DelVecchio, “Robert Nahas – He Brought Coliseum and A’s to Oakland,” SF Gate, February 26, 2002: https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Robert-Nahas-He-brought-Coliseum-and-A-s-to-2870795.php.

18 Virginia Hamrick, Susan Rich, Sandra Threlfall, and Richard Winnie, “League of Women Voters of Oakland Waterfront Study,” 1993: http://www.waterfrontaction.org/learn/league/ch2.htm.

19 “Sports Stadium Plans Revealed,” Oakland Tribune.

20 “Alameda County Supervisors ‘to Rule on Arena,’” San Francisco Examiner, March 29, 1963: 56.

21 Ed Schoenfeld, “$2 Million Cut Ordered in Coliseum Plans,” Oakland Tribune, April 3, 1964: E49.

22 Frank Piazzi, “$25 Million Pandora’s Box,” San Francisco Examiner, February 23, 1964: 4.

23 Dollartimes.com: https://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/inflation.php?amount=25000000&year=1962.

24 “Coliseum Go-Ahead,” San Francisco Examiner, April 17, 1964: 59-60.

25 Ed Schoenfeld, “Big Project Generates Industry,” Oakland Tribune, May 3, 1964: 25.

26 “Oakland on the Move: Before the Coliseum,” no date provided. https://courses.ischool.berkeley.edu/i290-2/f98/oaklandkids/sites/coliseum/colbefore.html.

27 Kevin Reichard, “In Memoriam: Oakland Coliseum,” Ballpark Digest, October 4, 2024: https://ballparkdigest.com/2024/10/04/in-memoriam-oakland-coliseum/.

28 Bryan Armen Graham, “Baseball’s Last Dive Bar: Farewell to the Crumbling Oakland Coliseum,” Guardian, May 4, 2023: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2023/may/04/farewell-to-the-coliseum-baseballs-last-dive-bar

29 https://www.architecture.com/explore-architecture/brutalism.

30 Katherine McLaughlin, “Brutalist Architecture: Everything You Need to Know,” Architectural Digest, July 12, 2023: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/brutalist-architecture-101.

31 Dan Moore, “An Ode to the Oakland Coliseum,” Oaklandside.org, March 19, 2021: https://oaklandside.org/2021/03/19/oakland-coliseum-design-raiders-al-davis-howard-terminala/

32 “The Ballparks: Oakland Coliseum,” This Great Game.com. No date: https://thisgreatgame.com/ballparks-oakland-coliseum/.

33 Kevin Reichard, “In Memoriam: Oakland Coliseum.”

34 Ed Schoenfeld, “Big League Baseball Next Coliseum Aim,” Oakland Tribune, February 27, 1962,: 35.

35 Ed Schoenfeld, “Big League Baseball Next Coliseum Aim.”

36 Ed Schoenfeld, “Oakland Wires Cronin: ‘We’re Ready,’” Oakland Tribune, March 6, 1962: 26.

37 Rick DelVecchio, “Robert Nahas – He Brought Coliseum and A’s to Oakland.”

38 Walt Daley, “A’s Angel Owners Huddle at Oakland Coliseum Opener.”

39 Warren Corbett, “Expansion, Round Two: How Charlie Finley Blew Up Baseball,” in Maxwell Kates and Bill Nowlin, eds., Time for Expansion Baseball, (Phoenix: SABR, 2018). https://sabr.org/journal/article/expansion-round-two-how-charlie-finley-blew-up-baseball/.

40 Ed Schoenfeld, “There’s This About the Coliseum: It Makes Money,” Oakland Tribune, March 16, 1975: 33.

41 Ed Schoenfeld, “There’s This About the Coliseum: It Makes Money,” Oakland Tribune, March 16, 1975: 26.

42 “Oakland Coliseum timeline: 50 years of triumph and heartbreak at A’s stadium,” July 19, 2021; https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2021/athletics-coliseum-history/.

43 Dan Moore, “An Ode to the Oakland Coliseum.”

44 Daniel Waldman, “Rotten in Oakland: How the A’s Trashed Their Roots and Became MLB’s Laughingstock,” Bleacher Report, June 30, 2023: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10078816-rotten-in-oakland-how-the-as-trashed-their-roots-and-became-mlbs-laughingstock.

45 Michael Thomas, Dan Kerman, “Oakland City Council Approves Sale of Its Share of Coliseum,” KRON4, June 13, 2024; https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/oakland-city-council-approves-sale-of-its-share-of-coliseum/.

46 https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Oakland_Coliseum.

47 Dan Moore, “An Ode to the Oakland Coliseum.”

48 Jay Hart, “The Shame of Oakland,” Yahoo! Sports, April 21, 2023; https://sports.yahoo.com/the-shame-of-oakland-170702093.html.

49 David DeBolt, “Feral Cats Have Invaded the Oakland Coliseum,” Oaklandside, April 13, 2022; https://oaklandside.org/2022/04/13/feral-cats-have-invaded-the-oakland-coliseum/.

50 DeBolt.

51 Bryan Armen Graham, “Baseball’s Last Dive Bar: Farwell to the Crumbling Oakland Coliseum.”

52 Michael Nowels, “Oakland Roots’ run at Coliseum is ending,” San Jose Mercury News, July 9, 2026: https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/07/09/oakland-roots-coliseum-soul-stadium-lease/.

53 Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (on five occasions), Network Associates Coliseum (1998-2004), McAfee Coliseum (2004-2008), Overstock.com Coliseum (2011), O.co Coliseum (2011-2016), Ring Central Coliseum (2019-2020, 2021-2023).

54 Martin Gallegos, “Looking Back at 576 Years of A’s Baseball in Oakland,” mlb.com, September 23, 2024; https://www.mlb.com/news/history-of-mlb-at-oakland-coliseum.

55 Josh Dubow, “The Oakland Coliseum Provided Many Memorable Moments and Numbers,” NBC Bay Area, September 26, 2024: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/east-bay/oakland-coliseum-moments-numbers/3662777/.

56 https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/rai/playoffs.htm.

57 Gabe Fernandez, “Concerts Once Were an Oakland Coliseum Staple. Can They Be Again?” SFGate, October 2, 2024, https://www.sfgate.com/athletics/article/oakland-coliseum-future-concert-revival-19792867.php.

58 Fernandez.

59 Associated Press, “Athletics Bid Emotional Farewell to Oakland Coliseum That They Called Home since 1968,” capradio.org, September 27, 2024; https://www.capradio.org/articles/2024/09/27/athletics-bid-emotional-farewell-to-oakland-coliseum-that-they-called-home-since-1968/.

60 Jack Nicas, “The Beauty of American’s Ugliest Ballpark,” New York Times, October 2, 2019; https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/sports/baseball/oakland-coliseum.html.

61 Nicas.

62 Joe Mock, “Heartbreaking: After 57 seasons, A’s leave the Oakland Coliseum,” BaseballParks.com, September 27, 2024: https://baseballparks.com/indepth/oakland-coliseum/.

63 Jack Nicas.