TVWBB Tailgate @ Oakland Coliseum, A's vs. Orioles


 
Arun L. said:
Were there any more of these?

Also @Chris Allingham, your reaction to the franchise relocation.
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No, I only did this once. The turn-out was not as big as I had hoped for, which discouraged me.

Reaction to franchise relocation? The five stages of grief: :oops:šŸ¤¬šŸ˜’šŸ˜­šŸ¤·ā€ā™‚ļø

They should have redeveloped the current Coliseum site. Could have done a great mixed-use complex with sports, shopping, dining, public spaces, housing, and easy BART/I-880 access. Howard Terminal site was never gonna happen, and the requirement for a waterfront location was apparently BS because now they'll be playing in the desert with the roof closed during June/July/August.
 
Chris Allingham said:
No, I only did this once. The turn-out was not as big as I had hoped for, which discouraged me.

Reaction to franchise relocation? The five stages of grief: :oops:šŸ¤¬šŸ˜’šŸ˜­šŸ¤·ā€ā™‚ļø

They should have redeveloped the current Coliseum site. Could have done a great mixed-use complex with sports, shopping, dining, public spaces, housing, and easy BART/I-880 access. Howard Terminal site was never gonna happen, and the requirement for a waterfront location was apparently BS because now they'll be playing in the desert with the roof closed during June/July/August.
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The new stadium in Vegas is going to be awesome! Looking forward going to a few games in LV.
 
Chris Allingham said:
They should have redeveloped the current Coliseum site. Could have done a great mixed-use complex with sports, shopping, dining, public spaces, housing, and easy BART/I-880 access. Howard Terminal site was never gonna happen, and the requirement for a waterfront location was apparently BS because now they'll be playing in the desert with the roof closed during June/July/August.
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I would think there are a few Philadelphia Athletics fans left who feel your pain.

I remember my dad talking about all the great New York Giants games he attendedā€¦before they moved to San Francisco.
 
Chris Allingham said:
No, I only did this once. The turn-out was not as big as I had hoped for, which discouraged me.

Reaction to franchise relocation? The five stages of grief: :oops:šŸ¤¬šŸ˜’šŸ˜­šŸ¤·ā€ā™‚ļø

They should have redeveloped the current Coliseum site. Could have done a great mixed-use complex with sports, shopping, dining, public spaces, housing, and easy BART/I-880 access. Howard Terminal site was never gonna happen, and the requirement for a waterfront location was apparently BS because now they'll be playing in the desert with the roof closed during June/July/August.
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I agree with the Coliseum site. Plus it's easily accessible by public transportation.

I'd like to think if you had a few more of those tail gates, more people would have come, some of the other times. I would have tried to come.

I wasn't on this forum back then.
 
Did everyone who came to the TVWBB tailgate make fresh food? Or did some people bring snacks and beer, but not make fresh food?
 
Brett-EDH said:
Much more to do and enjoy in LV.
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Fine. But let Vegas get their own expansion team. That's what most Las Vegans (sp?) would prefer anyway.

DanHoo said:
A plane trip to Vegas vs BART through Oakland.

Easy choice
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I lived in San Jose, with BART getting closer and closer all the time. An easy ride to the ballpark that I enjoyed many times. As for current rider safety concerns, that can be fixed...losing the A's cannot be fixed.

Brett-EDH said:
The new stadium in Vegas is going to be awesome! Looking forward going to a few games in LV.
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No evidence of this so far. The original "renderings" were complete BS. It will be interesting to see what can realistically be done on that postage-stamp-sized 9-acre piece of Tropicana property they'll be designing for.
 
Chris Allingham said:
No evidence of this so far. The original "renderings" were complete BS. It will be interesting to see what can realistically be done on that postage-stamp-sized 9-acre piece of Tropicana property they'll be designing for.
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T-Mobile arena and Allegiant stadium are great spaces. Iā€™m betting the ballpark will be similarly attractive and innovative.

I wish the Aā€™s could have done a deal in Oakland. Unfortunately, politics got in the way, like it usually does here in California.
 
I am just old enough to have seen the A's in Boston from 3 different cities. Thought the elephant thing was kind of weird. Never really bonded with the Red Sox who always lost when we went to games. Became an expansion team follower with the Angels with the halo hats until Tony C. got beaned and the Mets at Shea. After the Mets won it all, I moved on to the Blue Jays including a day at Exhibition Stadium on our honeymoon. World Series at Skydome, etc. and the near miss teams. I don't think I will live long enough to see the carpetbaggers in 2028 if they get their stadium ready. Venue is designed for tourists, not locals (I've got 16rs in) since like T-Mobile and Allegiant there is little parking and transit is a nightmare here. A's should have stayed in Oakland and LV received an expansion team. Another fiasco like F1 that punished locals for the wealthy few. We don't even know yet how much that mess is going to cost taxpayers.
 
Dan Leighton said:
Another fiasco like F1 that punished locals for the wealthy few. We don't even know yet how much that mess is going to cost taxpayers.
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All of F1 is for the wealthy. Who else can afford Ferraris? As for the Vegas race, it was pretty cool to see on TV. As for seeing it in person in LV? Maybe down the road in the future after all the kinks are worked through.

Allegiant, isn't really designed for cars/parking. Walking to the stadium is fairly easy. It's not much different that parking and walking to Levi's in Santa Clara.

Going to a Niners game is like an 8 hour ordeal. Arrive at least 2-3 hours before kickoff, walk 30 minutes to the stadium. Security and lines add another 20 minutes at times. Then the hike to your seats. Watch the game and then 30 minutes to leave the stadium. Another 30-40 minutes to walk to your car and then another hour to 90 minutes to exit a parking lot.

We just stay at a local hotel and do an overnight if possible. It's just easier. Also another reason we don't go to many in person games. It's too much of a hassle and time burn. Allegiant would be easier and more fun (and better restaurants than Santa Clara).
 
Brett-EDH said:
I wish the Aā€™s could have done a deal in Oakland. Unfortunately, politics got in the way, like it usually does here in California.
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Let's be fair, that's only half the story. There were political failings, to be sure, so we can fairly lay some blame there.

But a lot of folks who know a whole lot more about the business of baseball than I do believe that owner John Fisher was and is a joke, that under his ownership he's augured the franchise into the ground, and that he deserves his fair share of the blame for not being able to make a deal work in Oakland.

Fisher had to know he'd never get all the tax breaks he wanted for a new stadium, East Bay taxpayers would never stand for it. I'm not aware that Fisher ever gave serious consideration to a Coliseum site project where many of us feel the A's should have stayed. The short-lived, failed attempt to move the team to Laney College in downtown Oakland was a joke. Then the bayside, pie-in-the-sky Howard Terminal project, with no good freeway or BART access and the suggestion that they BUILD A GONDOLA SYSTEM to carry fans to and from the stadium :rolleyes: -- IMHO that was more of a real estate project to stroke Fisher's ego than it was a serious ballpark project for a great baseball franchise.

But I'm not bitter. :p

Reading the above about the difficulties of Levi Stadium reminds me of what I liked most about going to weekday 12:35 pm A's games. I'd drive to the San Jose BART station, take a 50 minute train ride for a few bucks, get off at the Coliseum station, walk across the pedestrian bridge to the Day of Game ticket window, buy a great seat in Section 107 for about $42 bucks, get into the stadium at the 11:15 am opening, have a couple of hot dogs, see busloads of kids pour into the stadium from summer school, watch the grounds crew prep the field, and then win or lose, walk back to BART and ride the train home to San Jose during the commute rush. So easy, and not very expensive compared to a Giants game with a better stadium (and sometimes but not always a better team) but with much more hassle getting there and much more $$$.
 
I'm all for giving these sports teams tax breaks to build new stadiums, but not publicly funding the stadium itself. I believe the Raiders left for the same reason, no free stadium. Here in Chicago, the Bears bought the old Arlington Park racetrack with the intention of building a new, privately funded stadium. The problem now is that the county and state are showing an unwillingness to give the Bears the tax breaks they need to move forward.
 
Steve Hoch said:
I believe the Raiders left for the same reason, no free stadium.
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Well, the Raiders had their own bone to pick with the A's. When the A's announced their move to Vegas, Raiders owner Mark Davis did not hold back:

ā€œI wonā€™t forget what they did to us in Oakland,ā€ he was quoted as saying. ā€œThey squatted on a lease for 10 years and made it impossible for us to build on that stadiumā€¦ They were looking for a stadium. We were looking for a stadium. They didnā€™t want to build a stadium, and then went ahead and signed a 10-year lease with the city of Oakland and said, ā€˜Weā€™re the base team.ā€™ā€

The Raiders owner pointed out that the Aā€™s paraded as the team ā€œrooted in Oakland,ā€ using catchphrases that essentially belittled the NFL team.

ā€œFor them to leave Oakland without anything is pretty [screwed] up,ā€ he added. ā€œBecause that site that the stadium was on was a good site. . . . We ended up in Las Vegas, which is absolutely fantastic and couldnā€™t be better. But the Aā€™s never gave us a real good chance to stay up in Oakland.ā€

It appears the Aā€™s arenā€™t as ā€œbaseā€ as both teams thought because theyā€™re now poised to leave Oakland.

Davis doesnā€™t seem like he will be around to welcome them to Vegas when they do arrive, with the 67-year-old reiterating his gripe with the Athleticsā€™ front office.

ā€œI just have, again, a lot of personal animosity toward the front office,ā€ he offered. ā€œBut with a new management group? Absolutely.ā€

Fortunately for Davis, he wonā€™t have to share a stadium with the Aā€™s. He will be sharing a city, however.
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As for tax breaks for billionaires, we won't get into that because it ends up being a political discussion that we don't do here, but let's just say that not everyone agrees on that subject, either!
 
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So there were no other good sites in or around Oakland that the Raiders could have built their own stadium? I don't know, it just seems to me that both teams were seeking a tax payer funded stadium for themselves. I could be wrong, maybe Oakland just isn't attractive anymore as a place for pro sports. Both franchises have a history of pulling up stakes and moving in any case.
 
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