Oakland Coliseum
Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, often shortened to the Oakland Coliseum, is a multi-purpose stadium in Oakland, California, United States. It serves as part of the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Complex, located next to Oakland Arena. In 2017, the playing surface was dedicated as Rickey Henderson Field in honor of Major League Baseball Hall of Famer and former Athletics left fielder Rickey Henderson.
The stadium was the home of the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball from 1968 to 2024. It was also the home of the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League from 1966 until 1981, when the team moved to Los Angeles, and again after the team's return, from 1995 until 2019, when the team moved to Las Vegas. For the last years of top-flight professional sports at the venue, it was primarily used for baseball. It was the last remaining stadium in the United States shared by professional baseball and football teams. It has occasionally been used for soccer, currently being host to second-division soccer league USL Championship's Oakland Roots SC, and has previously hosted select San Jose Earthquakes matches in 2008 and 2009. Additionally, it was used for international matches during the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The Coliseum has a seating capacity of up to 63,132 depending on its configuration; an upper deck dubbed "Mount Davis" by fans was added as part of a 1996 renovation for the Raiders' return to Oakland. In 2006, citing a desire to provide a more "intimate" environment, the Athletics blocked off the entirety of the Coliseum's third deck during its games, which artificially limited its capacity to 34,077. On April 11, 2017, with Dave Kaval as the team president, the Athletics began to reopen some of the sections in the third deck, and open the Mount Davis deck for selected marquee games; this configuration made it, by contrast, the largest baseball stadium in the United States by capacity through 2024.
The state of Oakland Coliseum has been widely criticized; sports fans and players alike consider the Coliseum to be poorly maintained and out of date. During its later years as an MLB stadium it was often cited, along with Tropicana Field, as one of the worst ballparks in the league. The Athletics played their final season at the Coliseum in 2024, moving to West Sacramento's Sutter Health Park while planning to relocate to Las Vegas.
Stadium history
Planning and construction
Business and political leaders in Oakland had long been in competition with neighboring San Francisco, as well as other cities in the West, and worked for Oakland and its greater East Bay suburbs to be recognized nationally as a viable metropolitan area with its own identity and reputation, distinct and separate from that of San Francisco. Professional sports was seen as a primary way for the East Bay to gain such recognition. As a result, the desire for a major league stadium in the city of Oakland intensified during the 1950s and 1960s.By 1960, a non-profit corporation was formed to oversee the financing and development of the facility rather than city or county government issuing taxpayer-backed bonds for construction. Local real estate developer Robert T. Nahas headed this group, which included other prominent East Bay business leaders such as former US Senator William Knowland and Edgar F. Kaiser, and which later became the governing board of the Coliseum upon completion. It was Nahas' idea that the Coliseum be privately financed with ownership transferring to the city and county upon retirement of the construction financing.
Nahas served 20 years as President of the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Board. On the death of Nahas, Jack Maltester, a former San Leandro mayor and Coliseum board member, said, "If not for Bob Nahas, there would be no Coliseum, it's really that simple." Nahas had to be a diplomat dealing with the egos of Raiders owner Al Davis, Athletics owner Charles O. Finley, and Warriors owner Franklin Mieuli.
Preliminary architectural plans were unveiled in November 1960, and the following month a site was chosen west of the Elmhurst district of East Oakland alongside the recently completed Nimitz Freeway. A downtown site adjacent to Lake Merritt and the Oakland Auditorium was also originally considered. The Port of Oakland played a key role in selection of the East Oakland site. The Port gave at the head of San Leandro Bay to the East Bay Regional Park District, in exchange for of park land across the freeway. The Port then donated that land to the City of Oakland as the site for the complex.
The Oakland Raiders of the American Football League moved to Frank Youell Field, a makeshift stadium near downtown Oakland, for their third season in 1962, and the Coliseum was already being heralded in the local media as the Raiders' future permanent home. Baseball was also a major factor in the planning of the Coliseum. As early as 1961, the American League publicly indicated that it wished to include Oakland in its West Coast expansion plans. In , American League president Joe Cronin suggested that Coliseum officials model some aspects of the new ballpark after the recently completed Dodger Stadium, which impressed him, though these expansion plans seemed to fade by the middle of the decade.
After approval from the city of Oakland as well as Alameda County by 1962, $25 million in financing was arranged. Plans were drawn for a stadium, an indoor arena, and an exhibition hall in between them. The architect of record was the San Francisco office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill with Myron Goldsmith the principal design architect and the general contractor was Guy F. Atkinson Company. Preliminary site preparation began in the summer of 1961, and construction started the following spring. The construction schedule was delayed for two years due to various legal issues and cost overruns; the original design had to be modified slightly to stay within budget.
In, it was rumored that the Cleveland Indians might leave for a West Coast city, but the Indians stayed in Cleveland. Charlie Finley, owner of the Kansas City Athletics, unhappy in Kansas City at its municipal stadium, was impressed by Oakland's new venue and Nahas personally convinced him to consider moving the A's to Oakland. After several unsuccessful attempts and amid considerable controversy, Finley eventually got permission to relocate the Athletics to Oakland prior to the 1968 season. The expansion Kansas City Royals, the A's replacement, debuted the next year.
Stadium name changes
For over three decades, the stadium was first known as Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum.In September 1997, UMAX Technologies agreed to acquire the naming rights to the stadium. However, following a dispute, a court decision reinstated the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum name. In 1998, Network Associates agreed to pay US$5.8 million over five years for the naming rights and the stadium became known as Network Associates Coliseum, or, alternately in marketing and media usage as, "the Net".
Network Associates renewed the contract in 2003 for an additional five years at a cost of $6 million. In mid-2004, Network Associates was renamed McAfee, restoring its name from before its 1997 merger with Network General, and the stadium was renamed McAfee Coliseum accordingly.
McAfee was offered a renewal of the naming contract in 2008, but it was declined. The name reverted to the pre-1997 name of Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum on September 19, 2008. The stadium retained its original name until April 27, 2011, when it was renamed Overstock.com Coliseum via a six-year, $7.2 million naming rights deal with online retailer Overstock.com.
The Coliseum was renamed O.co Coliseum on June 6, 2011, after Overstock.com's marketing name. However, due to a contract dispute with the Athletics regarding the Overstock/O.co naming rights deal, the A's continued to refer to the stadium as the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum in all official team communications and on team websites.
Overstock opted out of the final year on their naming rights deal on April 2, 2016, and the stadium once again became the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum.
The Athletics dedicated the Coliseum's playing surface "Rickey Henderson Field" in honor of MLB Hall of Famer and former Athletic Rickey Henderson as part of Opening Day on April 3, 2017.
RingCentral placed a bid for the naming rights on May 14, 2019, for a $1 million annual payment. The Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Authority gave its approval of the new naming-rights deal on May 31, 2019, pending formal approval from Major League Baseball. New signage was in place by the time that the Golden State Warriors hosted the 2019 NBA Finals at the neighboring Oracle Arena on June 5.
In August 2019, the head of the Coliseum Authority, Scott McKibben, abruptly resigned his position after allegations emerged that he had requested a $50,000 fee from RingCentral in exchange for negotiating the naming rights deal. McKibben was subsequently charged by the Alameda County district attorney's office with violating conflict-of-interest laws, including one felony and one misdemeanor count, ultimately pleading nolo contendere to the misdemeanor in exchange for the dropping of the felony charge. On January 17, 2020, the RingCentral naming rights deal was rescinded by the Coliseum Authority. In late 2020, a new three year naming rights deal with RingCentral was agreed to.
On April 1, 2023, the Coliseum terminated its sponsorship with RingCentral, reverting to its original name.