In 1966, the city of Oakland constructed Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (or Oakland
Coliseum for short) for two reasons: as a new stadium for the Oakland Raiders football
team and also in an effort to lure MLB baseball to Oakland. The Raiders played their first
game there on September 18, 1966. In 1968, the Kansas City Athletics became the
Oakland Athletics and began play at the new stadium. The Athletics' first game was played
on April 17, 1968. The stadium complex cost $25.5 million to build and rests on 120 acres
(0.5 km²) of land. The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Complex at one time consisted
of the outdoor stadium and the indoor arena. The outdoor stadium was commonly called
"the Coliseum", while the arena was called "The Coliseum arena." More recently, only the
stadium is called the Coliseum. The arena is now called Oracle Arena, and is home to the
Golden State Warriors basketball team of the NBA. The outdoor stadium features a
unique underground design where the playing surface is actually below ground level.
Consequently fans entering the stadium find themselves walking on to the main concourse
of the stadium at the top of the first level of seats. This, combined with the hill that was
built around the stadium to create the upper concourse, means that only the third deck is
visible from outside the park. This gives the Coliseum the illusion of being a short stadium
from the outside.
In its baseball configuration, the Coliseum has more space between the foul lines and the
seats, especially near first base and third base, than any other major league ballpark.
Thus, many balls that would reach the seats in other ballparks are caught for outs at the
Coliseum.
In 1972, the Athletics won their first of three straight World Series championships, and
their first since their years in Philadelphia. In 1982, the Oakland Raiders moved to Los
Angeles, leaving the A's as the only remaining tenants of Oakland Coliseum. The 1987
Major League Baseball All-Star Game was held at the Coliseum. From 1988-1990 the
venue saw three more World Series. In 1989, the Oakland A's won their fourth Series
since moving to Oakland, as "Bash Brothers" José Canseco and Mark McGwire of the A's
defeated the San Francisco Giants in the earthquake-interrupted "Bay Bridge" Series or
"BART" Series.
In July 1995, the Los Angeles Raiders agreed to return to Oakland provided that Oakland
Coliseum underwent renovations. In November 1995, those renovations commenced and
continued through the next summer until the beginning of the 1996 football season. The
steeply-pitched stands that now span the outfield (and face the setting sun late in the day
during NFL games) acquired the derisive nickname Mount Davis, after the
ever-controversial Raiders owner Al Davis, from those who considered the view of the
Oakland Hills over the center-field bleachers valuable. The new layout also had the
somewhat peculiar effect of creating an inward jog in the outfield fence, in left-center and
right-center. There are now three distance markers instead of one, at various points of the
power alleys, as indicated in the dimensions grid. The Raiders return also heralded the
creation of the Black Hole, a highly recognizable group of fans who occupy the Raider's
endzone seating during football games.
Along with the since-demolished Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, the Coliseum features the unusual configuration of laying the football field on a
line from first to third base rather than laying it from home plate to center field, or parallel to one of the foul lines, as with most multi-purpose
facilities. Thus, a seat behind home plate for baseball is behind the 50-yard line for football. The Coliseum has the distinction of being the last
multipurpose venue in the United States that hosts both Major League baseball and an NFL team. (Note: Although the Metrodome and Dolphin
Stadium host both, these facilities were designed as football stadiums that can adjust to host baseball.)
On December 21, 2005, the Athletics announced they had reduced the seating capacity of the Coliseum to 34,077 by closing the third deck of
the stadium permanently. The closed seats will be covered by a tarp during baseball season featuring retired numbers and other A's history. The
closing of the third deck made the coliseum the lowest capacity baseball stadium in the MLB. On April 2, 2006, the broadcast booth was renamed
in honor of the late Bill King, a Bay Area sportscaster who was the play-by-play voice of the A's, Raiders and Warriors for over thirty years.
Mount Davis
Mount Davis is the contemptuous name given to the over 10,000 upper deck grandstand seats at McAfee Coliseum in Oakland, California by
fans of Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics.
The term applies to sections 335-355 of the stadium, used only during football games (though it had been made available for expected
high-attendance baseball games). The addition was constructed prior to the 1996 football season in order to accommodate Al Davis, owner of
the Oakland Raiders, in a successful attempt to induce Davis to move the team back to Oakland from Los Angeles. The new stands block a
spectacular view of the Oakland hills that had been a feature of the Coliseum for almost 30 years. It has been criticized as an area which has
made the McAfee Coliseum look ever more like a football stadium, and not at all one for baseball [2]. Since the 2006 season, the Athletics have
covered it with a tarp, and have announced that no seats in the area will be sold under any circumstances except for a World Series appearance.
Current prices for "Mount Davis" during Raiders games range between $26-$46. The relatively narrow and steeply-pitched structure has 6 levels
of seating, bringing the back row of its upper-most tier to a height rarely seen in stadiums, thus inspiring its nickname. Unfortunately for the
patrons of "Mount Davis", many of them find that they have to shade their eyes from the setting sun, just as the game might be reaching a
dramatic juncture; thus perhaps learning why the original layout of the stadium had only a single level of bleachers in that area, with most of the
seats positioned with their backs to the sun.
Another nickname for this area is "the AL-ps," also after Davis.
