Oakland’s O.co Coliseum gets plenty of grief — the park was a fixture on early episodes of “Olbermann” for their chronic plumbing problems — but I’ve rarely had a bad time watching a baseball game there. At least part of that is down to good seats (tens of thousands of them) being available for face value by the time of first pitch, but the massive amount of foul territory aside, I think it’s a perfectly acceptable venue. The SF Chronicle’s Scott Ostler, mindful the club won’t be moving to San Jose anytime soon, addresses the foul territory issue, noting that someone else has already proposed doing something about it.
Supposedly, when the Haas family owned the A’s, they considered moving home plate back but junked the plan because fans in the third deck would lose their view of the plate. That deck is now tarped, except for a middle slice of that top-deck pie. To make up for losing those seats, the A’s could put up 10 rows of bleacher seats behind the new outfield fence.
A’s owners say they won’t spend tons of money improving a ballpark they’re trying to flee. However, if they get a new lease, the owners have pledged to spend $10 million on improvements, including an LED ribbon banner.
Ribbon banner? Fans, would you rather have better seats and a cooler, close-up game experience or be assaulted with flashing neon advertising?
The cost of moving the field? A pittance. Foul poles would be relocated and a few field-level seats rearranged. The dugouts should be moved closer to the field. All simple Home Depot projects.