We had pretty low expectations for Oakland Coliseum knowing it was a shared stadium between the A’s and Raiders, and that both teams would be vacating in the near future. For a baseball team, the stadium design is pathetic with narrow concourses and the view of the Oakland Hills blocked by football suites. The Golden State Warriors’ Oracle Arena and Championship Plaza are next door, but nothing else is within walking distance. The concession offerings were decent, but not unique so many fans bring their own food or tailgate. Recent addition of adult and kid friendly amenities definitely improve the experience for all fans. The fans were very friendly and enthusiastic (although the stadium was pretty empty despite it being a special discounted day). Overall this stadium is near the bottom of our rankings due to the poor design for baseball. We have high hopes for the new stadium in Jack London Square.

Design

The Oakland Coliseum is home to both the Athletics and Raiders, and is the only remaining stadium in the US that shares parks between professional baseball and football teams. The exterior looks like a concrete parking garage and is not very attractive. The neighboring Oracle Arena definitely overshadows it.

The stadium name has changed several times since its original construction in 1966. The majority of the time it’s been called Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum and just recently this season changed to RingCentral Coliseum. Other names it’s had for short stints include McAfee, Overstock.com, and O.co Coliseum.

Designs for a new urban “ballpark within a park” in Jack London Square with a waterfront district are in the works. The conceptual designs look amazing and may give Oracle Park (SF Giants) some competition for best ballpark.

“Mount Davis”, the luxury football suites blocks the view of Oakland hills. There’s a tarp that covers the upper decks that aren’t utilized for baseball and have the A’s retired numbers in bright yellow.

Player plaques are along the second level concourse. We said hello to Mark McGwire.

The Coliseum has the narrowest main concourse we’ve been in and was quite crowded. The stadium is built into the ground, which conveniently allows access to both the 100 and 200 levels from the main lower concourse. The upper level concourse was a bit more spacious.

There are two large video screen scoreboards above the upper deck foul poles on both the left and right field sides. It was awesome to have screens on both sides. Although it was hard to read a lot of the content (i.e. the balls are green on a green background and the names are yellow on a red background). They also have old manual scoreboards in the outfield with AL on left and NL on right.

Location

Not much is within the vicinity of the stadium – except Oracle Arena. It’s in a large parking lot, and many fans create their own fun by tailgating. You have to drive to get anywhere.

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It’s relatively easy to drive to, but it was a bit congested getting in and out as there are only a few entrances/exits. It reminded me of KC with the shared parking lot between stadiums. The parking special for A’s Access was $10 (typically $30). Most people recommend taking Uber/Lyft. The BART also connects here. The parking lot area seemed relatively safe since there’s controlled access.

Concessions

We tried the garlic fries, and they were a little mushy and cold. The garlic flavor and herbs were good. The dipping sauce was supposed to be ketchup, but tasted a bit like BBQ sauce. We definitely prefer the Seattle and San Fran versions more. We also tried the chicken bowl from Spice per a fan’s recommendation, and it was pretty very mild kind of like a teriyaki sauce – definitely not spicy like I had hoped.

Other places that were supposed to have good eats were BBQ Ribs-N-Things, Burrito district, and Saag’s Specialty Meats and Sausages.

We tried the 805 Firestone local blonde ale, which was pretty good. Being in California, they had wine from Coppola Winery. We got the pinot noir, which was decent; although not too classy drinking out of a plastic cup. There is a Boba tea stand which had mango among other fruity options.

There was supposed to be boozy popsicle from a roving oversized tricycle dubbed the “Party Pop Cycle,” but we only saw a parked empty tricycle which didn’t appear to have these.

Amenities

Championship Plaza is a neat area located on the plaza between the Coliseum and the Oracle Arena on the west side of the ballpark. It is part of the in-game experience and features gourmet food trucks, beer stands, music, games and a large video screen, making it the perfect place to gather before and during games. The A’s World Series flags are displayed prominently along the Coliseum side of the plaza.

We went on A’s Access day, which is promoting their fan club. It included $10 parking (normally $30), 30 minutes early park access, 50% off food/drink, and 25% off merchandise. Tickets for Plaza Infield Section 222 were $25 from Stubhub (face value is almost double). The season ticket holder next to us said he really wanted the seats we had. There were a lot of energetic fans near us so I think we picked the right section. It was also shaded, which was nice. The majority of the stadium has no shade since there are few overhangs.

The Treehouse has a lot of greenery with plants growing on the outer wall and large tree trunks inside for people to set their drinks on. There are ping pong and billiard tables.

Shibe Park Tavern features a bar & seating area, brick walls, and a billiard table. The bar boasts 50 beers on tap (many local), Bloody Mary bar, and Peet’s nitro brew coffee.

The kids play area has lot of fun activities including a batting cage, radar gun, coloring shack, and mini locker room. We said hello to Mark Mulder who’s footprints you can stand in.

The A’s Stomping Ground has a bunch of elephant statues and AstroTurf grassy areas where children can have fun without sacrificing views of the field for the adults. Kids can race against Rickey Henderson to see if they can beat his record. There’s a mini field for kids to run around.

There’s also a home grown A’s Farm behind the Stomping Ground with nice views of the Oakland Hills.

Sundays feature a free run the bases day so we joined all the kiddos to get a view of the field.

Women’s restrooms were pretty typical and had only 1 door in and out. The men’s restrooms featured old school troughs.Surprisingly the seats were pretty comfortable with plenty of legs space and the 200 level seats even had cushions.

There was a small team and authentics store on the main concourse. There was also entrance to a team store from the outside. We didn’t see an official museum.

Culture

The “Rooted in Oakland” team slogan is branded throughout the stadium. This is part of the A’s advertising campaign to emphasize the club’s commitment to building a ballpark in its longtime home city.

The big head hall of famers (Rickey Henderson, Dennis Eckersley, and Rollie Fingers) appeared before the game and raced each other during the game. Somehow Eckersley won the race.

There was also a cornhole competition and best hair cam, which were great silly entertainment. The sound system was pretty quiet for a stadium built for a football team.

Fans were very enthusiastic. The right field fans brought in flags, drums, and a cowbell. There was lots of flag waving and cowbells ringing when the A’s scored. We ran into Stomper, the elephant mascot, in the concourse.

The Holy Toledo sign in the center batters eye lights up during home runs and all the score boards flash home run.

We went to a Piscotty t-shirt giveaway game when the A’s were playing the Cards. Here are a few of our favorite shots from this game.

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Summary & Scoring

Date Visited: Sunday, August 4, 2019
Game Played: Cards 2, Athletics 4
We went on Piscotty t-shirt giveaway day and law enforcement day. Piscotty was 1 for 3 with a run scored after he got hit by a Waino pitch and subsequently scored on a double by Garneau. Profar had a HR off Waino. Boxscore
Design:  – Ugly concrete with layout for a football stadium and view of Oakland hills blocked
Location: – Nothing within walking distance and a pain to get in/out of parking lot
Concessions: – Nothing very unique but appreciated the CA wine options
Amenities: – Championship Plaza, Treehouse, A’s Stomping Ground, A’s Access, and Shibe Park Tavern provide a number of special amenities
Culture: – Enthusiastic fans playings drums & cowbells, big head player races
Overall: – Unfortunately this stadium is towards the bottom of our list as its great amenities and fans can’t outweigh the poor location, awful design for a football team, narrow concourses, and blocking the view of the Oakland Hills.