Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum / McAfee C / Network Associates C / UMAX C

[sflnyc]

I used to love the way that the "Oakland Alameda County Coliseum" rolled off the tongue. Lot better than Network Associates or McAfee.

Either way, here is a photo of the OACC in 1965 while under construction. The adjacent basketball/hockey arena was also under construction at the same time.

[sflnyc]

OACC on Opening Night 4.17.68 against Baltimore (Att: 50,164).

Even though the stadium opened in 1966 for the Raiders, there were not any large scoreboards in the outfield. It wasn't until Finley (who was notoriously cheap) installed his $1 million exploding scoreboard in right field in June 1968 before the stadium had one.

[sflnyc]

September 28, 1972

The Oakland's A have just beaten Minnesota 8-7 and won their 2nd straight AL West title. Teammates congratulating Sal Bando as he scored the winning run in the 9th off of a Dal Maxvill double.

[sflnyc]

Ask and you shall receive...

The infamous night on 4.17.79 vs. the Mariners when only 653 fans bothered to show up.

[sflnyc]

June 4, 1982 vs. Milwaukee

Robin Yount is at 2B with one out and Cecil Cooper is about to ground out.

The beauty that was the backdrop beyond the outfield for decades at the OACC. At this time, the outfield fences had been changed from a solid wall to the to the clear fence.

The one thing that I always found interesting about the OACC was the staircases in the LF and RF corners which of course were used for the exiting fans from the football seats.

[sflnyc]

...as opposed to the ugly monstrosity that is Mt. Davis today from the same vantage point.



Game is from the 2006 Post-Season but I can't tell if its against Minnesota (ALDS) or Detroit (ALCS).

[sflnyc]

March 13, 1983

The USFL Oakland Invader's first game against the Birmingham Stallions which drew 47,344 fans. Cut this out from a Sports Illustrated article in 1983 because it had a stadium picture (of course!). FYI, the "Invaders" name was directly and purposely chosen because of the similarity to the "Raiders"

I include this photo because it posted an interesting question to me back then. Both the OACC and the AFCS (must be something about the rolling names) featured football fields that ran across the baseball diamond from Third to First instead of the typical Home Plate to Center Field. As can be clearly seen in this photo, the gridiron was laid out in the home plate-centerfield layout.

My question then was why did they not use the normal layout? The baseball diamond was going to get ripped up anyway, so what was the point? Not only that, but the football field was further away from the stands than normal. My guess back then was that the normal football seats that were installed in the centerfield area were probably thrown away as scrap metal as the Raiders had just left and there was no thought to ever having football played there again. Then when the Raiders came back in 1995 a new set of seats was built.

[hsnterprize]

This is how I remember the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum...



I went there in 1986 when me and my cousin went to visit my uncle. It was fun time, and I think at that point, all the seats were a dark green. That place was simply BEAUTIFUL...and it was what we'd consider a "classic ballpark" before dark green seats and such were the trend.

It's a real shame what the Raiders did to that place. I'm looking forward to Cisco Field being up. The pictures and models of that place look stunning, and I hope the builders are able to put up all the surrounding buildings and such. On the down side, not only at the "red brick, green seat" parks the norm, but also cities are trying to build "Wrigleyville-style" neighborhoods around their stadiums, and that doesn't happen overnight.

Still...OACC was a great place. Mount Davis ruined it.

[Jim Vaz]

...as opposed to the ugly monstrosity that is Mt. Davis today from the same vantage point.



Game is from the 2006 Post-Season but I can't tell if its against Minnesota (ALDS) or Detroit (ALCS).

I think the bigger travesty of that picture is the anount of empty seats all around the top bowl

[stlfan]

...as opposed to the ugly monstrosity that is Mt. Davis today from the same vantage point.



Game is from the 2006 Post-Season but I can't tell if its against Minnesota (ALDS) or Detroit (ALCS).

I completely didn't understand why they closed off the top section of the baseball seating bowl for post-season games. I can understand that they do it during the regular season because maybe they only sparsely sold those seats so they closed them off, as they do in Florida or as they did at 3 Rivers. I am sure there were a lot of p.o.ed people in Oakland who wanted to attend those post-season games but couldn't because it was sold out. It's strange where you have a situation where ownership isn't opening up more seats to make more money. Busch III created more temporary seating during the 2006 post-season and made them all permanent seating for the 2007 season.

[bosoxgo]

im not sure if this is true or not but i heard that the As were moving out of Oakland i hope that this is a false rummer because i was really looking forward to seeing that new stadium get built in my opinion that would be the best of the new era ballparks

[raiderjohn]

March 13, 1983

The USFL Oakland Invader's first game against the Birmingham Stallions which drew 47,344 fans. Cut this out from a Sports Illustrated article in 1983 because it had a stadium picture (of course!). FYI, the "Invaders" name was directly and purposely chosen because of the similarity to the "Raiders"

I include this photo because it posted an interesting question to me back then. Both the OACC and the AFCS (must be something about the rolling names) featured football fields that ran across the baseball diamond from Third to First instead of the typical Home Plate to Center Field. As can be clearly seen in this photo, the gridiron was laid out in the home plate-centerfield layout.

My question then was why did they not use the normal layout? The baseball diamond was going to get ripped up anyway, so what was the point? Not only that, but the football field was further away from the stands than normal. My guess back then was that the normal football seats that were installed in the centerfield area were probably thrown away as scrap metal as the Raiders had just left and there was no thought to ever having football played there again. Then when the Raiders came back in 1995 a new set of seats was built.

First post here. Great bit of nostalgia for me. Been to the OACC since 1980.

The reasons why the field is laid out home to center, rather than 1st to 3rd could be seasonal or just plain dumped after the Raiders left. When the Raiders were in town during baseball season, the field ran home to center because of the time it took to build the bleachers than remove for the A's. So during the preseason and September, the field would run home to center for the Raiders. Being that the USFL season ran at the same time as baseball, this could be the reason why the field ran home to center. Simpler reason would be just dumping it. It took up a lot of space. The current bleachers probably take out quite a a thousand or so parking spaces. With the advance of technology the stadium can be converted within 48-72 hours.

I one of my co-workers who had Raider season tix back in the 70's would tell me stories and one of them would be how they ended up on the 50 yard line. Nowadays with the prices.....those would be complaints.

[nymdan]

im not sure if this is true or not but i heard that the As were moving out of Oakland i hope that this is a false rummer because i was really looking forward to seeing that new stadium get built in my opinion that would be the best of the new era ballparks

The ballpark that they released plans, Cisco Field, for won't be in Oakland, but rather Fremont.
http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/oak.../new/index.jsp

[bosoxgo]

o i thought Freemont was right near oakland my bad. But even if the freemont stadium dosent work out there leaving oakland no matter what.

[PeteU]

First post here. Great bit of nostalgia for me. Been to the OACC since 1980.

The reasons why the field is laid out home to center, rather than 1st to 3rd could be seasonal or just plain dumped after the Raiders left. When the Raiders were in town during baseball season, the field ran home to center because of the time it took to build the bleachers than remove for the A's. So during the preseason and September, the field would run home to center for the Raiders. Being that the USFL season ran at the same time as baseball, this could be the reason why the field ran home to center. Simpler reason would be just dumping it. It took up a lot of space. The current bleachers probably take out quite a a thousand or so parking spaces. With the advance of technology the stadium can be converted within 48-72 hours.

I one of my co-workers who had Raider season tix back in the 70's would tell me stories and one of them would be how they ended up on the 50 yard line. Nowadays with the prices.....those would be complaints.

I remembered the first year the Raiders moved back to Oakland from Los Angeles, 1995 I believe, and seeing a game on TV in September and noticing the football field was running from home plate to center field. (This was a year before they built Mount Davis) I remembered being puzzled because knowing the layout of the park as a baseball stadium I would have thought the field would have always gone from left field to right field. And sure enough, they switched it around that way in October. I would imagine that would have been a pain for season ticket holders. But if your co-worker was correct, they would have kept the same seats throughout the season--a 50 yard line holder would have been stuck with endzone seats for a few games, and visa versa. I hope they didn't pay extra for when their seats weren't 50 yard line seats. It all seems so confusing, which is probably one of the reasons Al Davis wanted out the first go around.

After Mount Davis was built in 1996, it permanently fixed the football field from left field to right field. Which, if you think about it, makes a lot more sense anyways. Although it totally ruined whatever asthetic value the place had as a ballpark.

[Jaybird]

When the Raiders added more seats for football when the Oakland Raiders returned from Los Angeles, they should have made the stadium a complete circle and had a football setup similar to what Atlanta Fulton County Stadium had when the Falcons played there. Instead, we now have the Mount Davis montrosity.

[Stray Cat]

They should build a football stadium and put the Coluseum back the way it was before.

[Twins91871977]

Any pictures of the Oakland Coliseum outfield before Mt. Davis? Including those from the Raiders first tenure there in the 1970s.

[Twins91871977]

Here's the only one I could find.

[btown12]

Here's a few I found. Enjoy!

Football Configuration pre-Mount Davis





And a construction shot

[Aviator_Frank]

Here you go . . .

[PeteU]

Anyone have a picture of the Oakland Coliseum in its homeplate-to-centerfield football configuration they used the first couple of weeks of football season? I was looking for those but never found them.

[bigworm_122]

i believe that angels in the outfield (with christopher lloyd) was filmed in oakland prior to mt. davis

[bleacherbum73]

That stadium was actually one of the nicer parks, outfield view wise, in baseball. Then they ruined it by adding that monstriosity in the outfield. It's too bad they can't build a new home for the Raiders then remodel the existing stadium, like they did with Anaheim Stadium.

[btown12]

i believe that angels in the outfield (with christopher lloyd) was filmed in oakland prior to mt. davis

Yes it was...and according to wikipedia, here's why.

"Although the exterior and sky shots of the stadium were filmed at Angel Stadium of Anaheim (then known as Anaheim Stadium), most of the shots inside the stadium were actually filmed at McAfee Coliseum (then known as Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum). Anaheim Stadium had been damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, making it necessary to make repairs and film scenes elsewhere."