Today it was confirmed that this season will officially be the last year in the East Bay for the Oakland Zombie Athletics, who will be taking their talents to Sacramento in 2025.

I have a strange desire to attend a game at their derelict, dying ballpark before it closes forever.

Who has tips on visiting Oakland? Please note that I am not asking if this is a good idea: I am well aware that it is not.

My priorities are easy access to the Coliseum and not having a car. If I could not get stabbed and/or not step in human excrement, those would also be pluses. I am thinking maybe I should stay in San Francisco close to a BART station and ride the train to Oakland?

YokelRidesAgain said:

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Today it was confirmed that this season will officially be the last year in the East Bay for the Oakland Zombie Athletics, who will be taking their talents to Sacramento in 2025.

I have a strange desire to attend a game at their derelict, dying ballpark before it closes forever.

Who has tips on visiting Oakland? Please note that I am not asking if this is a good idea: I am well aware that it is not.

My priorities are easy access to the Coliseum and not having a car. If I could not get stabbed and/or not step in human excrement, those would also be pluses. I am thinking maybe I should stay in San Francisco close to a BART station and ride the train to Oakland?

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A lot of the Bart stations in SF are bad areas, I'd be extra careful about that. Vagrants love the stations as places to set up shop. If staying in SF, gotta be careful there too, but Uber to a Bart station is probably your best bet. I never had any problems with parking at the coliseum though, so a rental car might not be a horrible option.

I miss going to As games, but I don't miss a lot of the other crap that goes along with it…

It's a bad idea, I lived in the Bay area for 7 years, Oakland is not a place you want to be caught out at night. If you can plan for a Sunday day game or a weekday getaway game then you increase your odds of getting in and out without an incident.

As mentioned, the BART attracts some unsavory folks. You'd be better off just taking an Uber right to the stadium if you are not renting a car. If you do rent a car, get the insurance in case it gets broken into while you are at the game.

I would pick a day game and drive

the stadium is right off the freeway and the parking lot is huge

(or at least it was 20 years ago)

I've driven and parked and uber'd from SF for the 2 times I've gone. No issues either time. Both were day games. I've never had issues on the Bart on either side of the Bay, but it's been 10+ years...

I echo the others in aiming for a day game.

The fans both times I've been were great to be around. Very knowledgeable. Not too many of them around anymore unfortunately

My first baseball game ever was an A's game in the early 80s, long before the Return of the Raiders and the erection of Mount Davis ruined the Coliseum as a baseball stadium. Tickets were free from school for reading a certain number of books, or some such thing.

Being, by upbringing, a Giants fan, I think I only ever went to one other A's game. I did take BART to a Giants game last summer (which entailed walking about a mile to AT&T Park, which wasn't bad at all).

If you want to take BART, I would recommend staying in Dublin or Pleasanton, in the East Bay. Much nicer than SF, unless you also want to play tourist in SF. I don't think there are any hotels immediately near the Dublin-Pleasanton station, but it would be a short Uber ride.

If you like wine tasting, nearby Livermore (where I grew up) has a lot of wineries, plus a nice downtown. I recommend French Dips & More on First Street for lunch.

I am visiting Oakland in a few weeks. Flying into SFO and taking the Bart to the stadium from there. I picked a day game on purpose. I've never been so I hope it goes well.

I went in 2018. I flew into the Oakland airport for business. A day game happened to start about 90 minutes after I landed. The stadium is about 10 minutes from the airport. It was more expensive to park than to get a ticket. I paid $20 to park, and they had scalpers on property trying to unload tickets. I bought a ticket for $1, then went in and sat wherever I wanted to.

The areas around the stadium are complete trash. It seemed somewhat unsafe to get to the stadium, even during the day. I can't even imagine what it would be like at night.

The stadium is an absolute dump. Think of the Astrodome now without a roof and without any renovations. The field though was beautiful. The atmosphere created by the fans who were actually there was good, and I enjoyed the drums. Stadium food was relatively cheap.

I can't speak on where to stay. I stayed at a conference in Walnut Creek. If you drive, prepare for traffic, especially during rush hour.

Added some pictures.

I may actually make a road trip to Sacramento when the As play the Rangers. I ever once considered making a road trip to Oakland. It's a cesspool.

Agreed

Yeah I only live 4 hours from Sac so I might actually make a couple games when the rangers are in town. Oakland isn't much further, and I did want to try to make it to a game there, but I don't really want to deal with the hassle of Oakland.

BMX Bandit said:

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i'm more interested in seeing a game in sacramento than oakland.

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I said this exact thing to my brother tonight.

I'm going to Citi Field, Yankee Stadium, and Fenway in May/June this year so my traveling baseball budget for the year is shot.

I'll just hit up Sacramento in a year or two.

One thing I haven't seen in any of the stories: will the A's be sharing the park with the River Cats (the Giants AAA team), or will the Cats be playing elsewhere?

Edit to add: This doesn't really answer the question. https://www.nbcsportsbayarea.com/mlb/oakland-athletics/mlb-rumors-river-cats-coliseum/1720605/?fbclid=IwAR1U_fLQtCL2-9Mbfh0nlLh3VUd9RZ5A43kzQkXDmI2NbEeKQ_WHSWEGG20

YokelRidesAgain said:

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Today it was confirmed that this season will officially be the last year in the East Bay for the Oakland Zombie Athletics, who will be taking their talents to Sacramento in 2025.

I have a strange desire to attend a game at their derelict, dying ballpark before it closes forever.

Who has tips on visiting Oakland? Please note that I am not asking if this is a good idea: I am well aware that it is not.

My priorities are easy access to the Coliseum and not having a car. If I could not get stabbed and/or not step in human excrement, those would also be pluses. I am thinking maybe I should stay in San Francisco close to a BART station and ride the train to Oakland?

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Going to see Stripling pitch Wednesday. Should be sweet.

Anyone ever taken BART from SFO all the way to the coliseum? Is it just a change at Balboa Station?

BCSWguru said:

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Going to see Stripling pitch Wednesday. Should be sweet.

Anyone ever taken BART from SFO all the way to the coliseum? Is it just a change at Balboa Station?

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I _think_ you take BART from SFO to Montgomery station, then switch to the green line to the Coliseum.

It's been ~12 years and we hopped on in San Bruno (close to SFO). I know we didn't have any problems. The walk from the Coliseum station to the stadium is interesting though!

Sacramento is commonly over 100 degrees (Oakland has almost perfect weather year round, which was an appeal when compared to going to giants games; cold beer in the sun in that stadium was actually an incredibly fun experience regardless of how ****ty the stadium is, and felt a little like watching spring training games in phoenix). Yes, it's a dry heat, but sitting under that sun during day games will be brutal. Nights will be pretty great though.

I'm still bummed they're leaving. Oakland has lots of ****ty areas, but there are actually some pretty great areas too that I still appreciate. I actually considered moving to east bay from SF for awhile. But losing the As is a huge kick to the nuts for fans, especially after the quality that was put on the field, and the ****ty stadium they were subjected to. Even so, the games were a blast, and ill miss going. End of an era...

It was like going back in time. Stripling was on, Pirates stink.

Looks just like the concourse at RFK stadium in DC from back in the day.

Easy...

Just Uber

Looks like all those 70s cookie cutter stadiums....

Three Rivers, Riverfront, The Astrodome (without a lid), etc.

Not sure it'll be missed

The stadium is a dump but the weather is almost always beautiful.

Sadly, most of Oakland is a disaster. The area around the stadium isn't nice but I don't consider it scary. It's a pretty industrial area. Mostly warehouses. It would be like dropping a stadium in the freight areas around a major airport. But, it does get really sketchy real fast once you're several blocks east of the stadium. The industrial area is something of a buffer.

It's really a shame that these places have become so trashed out because the climate and scenery in the Bay Area are fantastic.

AgRyan04 said:

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Looks like all those 70s cookie cutter stadiums....

Three Rivers, Riverfront, The Astrodome (without a lid), etc.

Not sure it'll be missed

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I didn't look like that until the Raiders moved back from LA. Until that point, the upper decks stopped at the foul poles, and there was just single level bleachers in the outfield. But Al Davis wanted more seats, so "Mount Davis" was built in the outfield to make him happy. Then the Raiders left for Vegas anyway.

The A's are leaving because Oakland/Alameda County declined, on multiple occasions, to pay for a new stadium, and the A's ownership refuses to provide the funding on their own.

This is not a new problem in the Bay Area - the Giants paid for their park with their own money (with a sweetheart deal on the land underneath it from the city), and almost moved to Tampa in the early 90s because SF wouldn't buy them a new stadium.

The Niners moved to Santa Clara (in the south Bay, near San Jose, for those not familiar with the geography) because SF wouldn't buy them a stadium, but Santa Clara would.

Santa Clara was willing to fund a stadium for the A's, but under MLB's arcane rules, Santa Clara county belongs to the Giants 'territory', and the Giants vetoed that option.

I have no idea how the Warriors (who used to play in the arena right next to the Oakland Colosseum) funded their new arena in SF.

Used to look like this...



Anaheim's stadium went through a lot of renovations with the arrival/departure of the Rams. They could have done the same with the Coliseum, but elected to do nothing instead. And now we are where we are.

BCSWguru said:

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Used to look like this...



Anaheim's stadium went through a lot of renovations with the arrival/departure of the Rams. They could have done the same with the Coliseum, but elected to do nothing instead. And now we are where we are.

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That's wild. I don't remember the Rams playing in Anaheim. I thought they played at the LA Colosseum with the Raiders and USC.

This was Anaheim during the Rams days. Way different than now. And they did play in the Coliseum, but bailed when, you guessed it, they wouldn't pay for the owners' money makers.

BCSWguru said:

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This was Anaheim during the Rams days. Way different than now. And they did play in the Coliseum, but bailed when, you guessed it, they wouldn't pay for the owners' money makers.

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Seeing it like that I do remember seeing the Rams play there now. Back in the Jim Everett days, IIRC.

Went last year when I was in town for a work trip. Both times I've been in the past has been via driving (rental car once, coworker drove last time), and it's super easy. I would recommend checking the maps and not following GPS, though; last year we got a little lost. Tickets are super easy, don't think the attendance was above 1000 when we went.

If you can manage, try to arrange it to where you can see Oracle as well...*that* is a ballpark worth seeing.

Well, I did it! Made it back to the hotel in San Fran unstabbed and with clean soles, too.

Beautiful day and beautiful field, only thing wrong with it was the abortion of a stadium surrounding it. I tried to tell myself it was comparable to the fin de siecle Astrodome or the Metrodump, but this was clearly the worst MLB ballpark I ever have or hope to see.

Two things that surprised me were that there were actually people there and that most of the concession stands were open. Most of them were devoted to beer and liquor sales, presumably in the hope that if the customers drank enough, they would forget where they were.