Celebrating the Oakland Coliseum

I went to the A's game this past Friday night. The team was playing the Yankees, and the game was to be followed by a Super Mario Bros. fireworks show. We lost, sadly, but the experience at the game was wonderful. Good food, a great atmosphere, and wonderful seats. Sitting there in the park, then making my way home, all I could think about is; where's all the hate coming from? The Coliseum might be old, and might need some TLC, but other than a few niggling problems that can be fixed, it's a heck of a place to watch a baseball game.

Exactly what is so offensive about the Coliseum is as amorphous as morning mist. People point to the sewage problem that's crept up a couple times now, but it's certainly nothing that effects the fans. There isn't a bad view in the park, the concessions are stuffed with incredible food, and the crowd is always a treat to interact with. Yet, there's the news, declaring the stadium a dinosaur, crumbling around the edges. Cue the violins, apparently, because here comes the mindless media.

It's sickening. One, because it's an overblown accusation (by a factor of ten), two, because the news only says it because it's Oakland. In all the years that the Niners played in Candlestick, not even a fraction of the hate slung at the Coliseum was ever aimed at their stadium. Despite similar issues, Candlestick was a place worth remembering, with a whole host of social media posts and TV specials celebrating all the special memories in that park. The Coliseum loses a single tower of lights and in come the wrecking balls, the Niners completely lost power and the news cheers Candlestick's past. It's a sickening double standard.

How about winning three world series in a row? How about going to three world series in a row, and sweeping the Giants? The super bowl victories by the Raiders? Concerts, events, shows, all the same sorts of things that people slavishly tout about Candlestick, the Coliseum has had, too. Oakland doesn't get that respect, though. Oakland gets news robots spitting out hurtful rhetoric simply because it sells a couple minutes of advertising time on the air. The news might not care about the Coliseum and its history, but its fans sure do.

So no, Bay Area news outlets, the Coliseum isn't crumbling, it's beaming. It's showing it's age a bit, but it's not the pariah that the bullies want it to be. It's a grand old ballpark that's rough around the edges, nothing more. I don't object to getting the A's a new stadium, but I also don't pretend that the Coliseum is the awful place the media purports it to be. If they can slobber over the memory of Candlestick, they can show some respect for the memories still being made in the Coliseum.