Several months ago, on a whim, I purchased an airlines ticket to San Francisco and three tickets (lower third base side), to an afternoon game (April 15), between my Boston Red Sox and Money Ball, and the always over achieving Oakland Athletics. My son and daughter-en-law agreed (didn’t take any convincing to those non-baseball fans). They are both engineers in Silicone Valley with residency in San Francisco.
Teams are vacating Oakland. The Warriors left to a new arena in San Francisco and then soon after their departure, they lost players to injury and free agency (Kevin Durant goes to Brooklyn). Immediately the once mighty Warriors turned into a group of sub-pedestrian no names, ungraciously shoved off the pinnacle of basketball greatness. We know the Raiders, after a short escape from Oakland, returning from that hiatus as a second rate tenant of the LA Coliseum some years back, once again were leaving for the greener grounds of an indoor extravaganza in Las Vegas, a new stadium, along with the NFL’s acceptance and embracement of gambling and specifically sports betting. (It should be noted that the MT legislature approved sports betting last session and I, though a little guilt ridden about turning my back to the purity of athletics, voted in favor of Senator Blasdel’s bill, money for the state). Generally, Republicans like gambling, go figure.
So what about the Oakland Coliseum? Well, it’s sort of shit hole (I’ll steal that term from PresidentTrump, like this is a game to be played in Haiti or the Congo between earthquakes and ebola outbreaks). Multipurpose stadiums (football and baseball), were mostly extinct by the early 90’s. Oakland, being a progressive hub for city commissions, was not inclined to mortgage the city for the hosting of professional sports. As of now, with an ample amount of community assets thrown into the mix (affordable housing for one), maybe a new baseball stadium will be built in a less desirable area of abandonment. As of right now, a mostly private investment will take place to build a Field of Dreams in Oakland.
Rats once inhabited the stadium. The Coliseum reminds me of Soviet style architecture, stark, practical, and unappealing. (I gotta check this place out!). Baseball aside, the aforementioned was motivation enough to attend a WEEKDAY baseball game. The Coliseum is not gentrified. In a way that’s sort of refreshing but from a business plan: spirals in only one direction, downward.
There is no baseball, high school sports, NHL or NBA. The NFL has a lockdown on speech so no one deviates from the line that stadiums will be filled in September. (True story, the NFL will fine teams for any disparaging or realistic comments).
When I was a kid I went to Fenway Park when tickets were cheap and players were underpaid. I should take no umbrage in this. I worried that I needed to coordinate taxes with game day. Now theres a three month extension and 1.25 billion coming to Montana. (I am relieved that with prudent reserves and federal intervention, we might weather the worst of storms). Sooner than later, the Coliseum will be demolished. Lacking a new stadium, expect a team in a new stadium (maybe in Montreal or the chaos of Mexico City (wouldn’t that be fun?). I’ve got no faith we’ll have baseball with spectators in 2020. and iI have little faith Oakland Progressives will welcome a new stadium despite Bernie Sanders love of the sport. Maybe Bernie will be the next baseball commissioner. Now that would be an oddity!