I wanted to post there, but don't have access. Not a big deal, but I thought this would be a good topic for here as well!
I was in that area for vacation a few years back, and we decided to go take a trip to the Giants Stadium, and the A's stadium as well.
We got our hotel in the Fremont area. It was an absolute STEAL! Like 60 bucks a night for a NICE suite...
As we started to venture out to see the area, and the stadiums, I noticed that there was a lot of new construction of office parks and stuff like that. They had also re routed the on ramp to the highway. as you get on the highway there was a Shell station that I got gas at, and decided to ask the guy working what was up with all of the office parks, that look completely deserted. (There was a MASSIVE lot across the street that was empty). He told me that the A's had a deal all worked out to come to that area a few years back, and the deal was so close that a bunch of places developed the area around it, and at the last second the A's backed out of the deal leaving the area completely messed up, and barren. Was really kind of crazy.
On top of that on our trip to the game the guy showing people where to go at the A's stadium sent us 3/4 away around the stadium because you have to enter near your seats. We could just taken a quick right and been right at our gate. The place is a DUMP. They actually had all of the extra seats sitting in the parking lots surrounding the stadium.
All of that, and I don't even want to get into the area the stadium is in, and all of the panhandlers around it.
It's the worst experience that I've had at any of the 10 stadiums that I've been to. Hopefully, they move it soon.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/articl...?cmpid=twitter
Quote:
A's management said Friday that it does not plan to sell 20,878 of O.co Coliseum's 55,945 seats next week for the A's division showdown with the Detroit Tigers. Those seats account for about 37 percent of the Coliseum's baseball seating capacity, and A's management has sealed them off with tarps since 2006 due to low attendance.
But now the Oakland A's are drawing sellout crowds. So many fans showed up for the last game of the season on Wednesday that A's management warned people to stay away because there were no tickets left.
Quote:
The A's rationale is that most games are far from sellouts, so they want fans to gather in the lower decks rather than scatter throughout the stadium.
"Here's a team that says they need to leave Oakland because there's no support. Yet here you have thousands of people who are begging to put money in the A's pockets, and they tell fans, 'Sorry, you have to watch it on TV,' " said Doug Boxer, a former Oakland planning commissioner and organizer of an A's fan group called Let's Go Oakland. "It doesn't make any sense." So far this year, the A's have sold out only seven of 79 games in the 35,067 seats in the non-tarp area.
Quote:
Longtime sports marketer Paul Siri of Redwood City, a former executive with IMG, said he'd never seen an owner say "no" to the chance to sell more tickets, hot dogs, beer, T-shirts and other merchandise at a high-profile game that's sure to sell out.
The move makes sense only if Wolff is trying to convince Major League Baseball he can't build a successful team in Oakland, Siri said.
"Looking at this from his point of view, this is the worst thing that could happen," Siri said. "His team wins, media exposure increases, the stadium sells out, and suddenly he loses his leverage to move. It kills his argument. ... I don't blame the fans for being upset."
Originally Posted by Calten
