After a five year run, internet retailer Overstock.com and the JPA are calling it quits on their naming rights deal at the Coliseum. The deal apparently was not terribly lucrative for either side. The JPA realized $2 million a year, making at best a slight dent in ongoing debt and operations costs. For Overstock, which more or less stopped using O.co in the US, the name was more a source of confusion and mild derision than revenue growth. Here’s how confusing the name situation was and still is:
Why is Overstock.com known as O.co internationally?
Over the last few years, Overstock.com has expanded to countries all over the world. However, we discovered that “overstock” doesn’t always translate well. To minimize the confusion created by translating the word “overstock” into other languages, we decided to use O.co for our international sites.
So many welps. At least Overstock has found some success partnering with the A’s, so their partnership will continue. As for the stadium, I and most everyone I knew called it the Coliseum. Just as we didn’t call it the Network Associates Coliseum or McAfee Coliseum (or even UMAX Coliseum), we didn’t use O.co and probably won’t use any future name either. I can’t blame the JPA for trying to get some revenue out of this, but they can’t blame the fans for holding on to the edifice’s rightful, classical name. Even the downright bureaucratic sounding “Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum” has its own air, or at least Chris Berman thinks so.
Frankly, when you go through so many names, it’s probably time for a new ballpark.
newballpark.org 
There’s a fresh rumor circulating that the Oakland A’s are going to sign with Majestic Realty to build a stadium at Howard Terminal. O.co story is great, and I don’t mean to digress off topic, but what do you know about this rumor?
Hi Marine Layer,
Long time reader, first time poster. I have really enjoyed your work! Have you heard about Zennie Abraham’s information regarding the A’s nearing an agreement to build a stadium on Howard Terminal? Is there any substance to that?
i’ll believe when i actually see it.
and when i mean see it i mean a shovel hitting the ground near the estuary.
It was a Prank. Zennie’s a narcissistic halfwit. Don’t pay any attention to him.
good the venue will always be remember as the oakland coliseum.
screw network associates, o.co, mcafee or whatever other corporate name it ever had especially over the last 10-15 years.
Assuming this rumor is true, what happens to the Coliseum site should the Raiders decide to move to LA/San Diego?
They are not moving to LA/San Diego. The NFL is not allowing three So Cal teams, Also Kronkie is not about to spend two billion of his own dollars to have a second team come in as a 50/50 partner while contributing nothing. Chargers get San Diego deal done and Raiders develop coliseum site. Lew see’s the writing on the wall. Interesting, no ML comment yet.
I’m waiting until there’s actual news. After 11 years of this, there’s no point in getting worked up about rumors.
@Marine Layer:
Exactly. Plus it’s Zennie. You can’t take that guy seriously. {{-_-}}
@mommyheartsthrift: If the Bolts bolt to LA – The Raiders likely have an excellent chance of relocating to San Diego. The San Diego and LA NFL markets are two distinct, separate markets (San Diego is 110 miles south of Los Angeles) Way more LA fans follow the Rams/ Raiders over the Chargers.
Also, SD city officials would have a much easier time negotiating a stadium deal with Davis, who wouldn’t be so fussy about the details and location of a new NFL stadium as Spanos is.
Furthermore, Las Vegas has way too hot of a climate to play NFL games, an indoor, air conditioned stadium is the only way NFL games could be played there. Since Las Vegas currently has no domed football stadium, an NFL team potentially playing there is several years away (until a domed football stadium is built there)
@duffer- Bolts are not bolting to LA. First of all there is no such thing as an L.A. Charger fan. All excitement in L.A will be about the Rams and the Chargers will lose all their San Diego support if they move. You are right that they are two distinct markets. Chargers will sell very few season tickets in L.A. second, no way Kronkie spends two billion bucks from his own pocket just to allow a second team (Chargers or Raiders) to move in as a 50/50 partners while contributing nothing. Chargers especially don’t work because they generate no interest in the market, Raiders especially don’t work because the generate too much interest and actually are a threat to the Rams success, and there is a thug element to the fan base. You are right about Las Vegas, its a total non starter. Raiders are not going anywhere. Zennie may be a narcissistic weirdo and made this whole thing up, but Wolfe and Ficsher are smart enough to know Raiders are staying right where they are, and San Jose is not happening. The only move they have is downtown Oakland.
True, mommyheartsthrift, The Raiders, playing in San Diego, could even draw attendance away from LA fans. The NFL has practically endorsed a Raiders move to San Diego though – so they must be onboard with the idea. Also, true, Spanos may stay at San Diego anyway. The team averaged 66K per game in 2016, even with a bad team. The Chargers might oversaturate the NFL market playing in LA, and would possibly have difficulty averaging 66K per game in Inglewood (very possible since they are 3rd fiddle to the Rams and Raiders with the Los Angeles NFL fanbase)
@duffer- Its will not be difficult for the Chargers to draw 66k in Inglewood. It will be impossible. No one in the L.A. area cares about the Chargers. No one at all. Neither the Raiders or Chargers were ever moving to the L.A. area. It was always the Rams. The Carson proposal was only a threat used to get public money spent on stadiums in their home markets. As soon as the Chargers sign a deal with San Diego It will be the Raiders turn to threaten again an L.A. move. But the NFL will not allow three So Cal teams. Concessions were all ready made to Spanos in order to move the Rams back to So Cal. There is no way a third team is let in. The NFL has practically endorsed a Raider move only to put pressure on Oakland to spend money on a stadium. The NFL loves public money for stadiums. That is what the whole L.A. game is about.
Yeah! I see this rumored plan happening provided the following does happen:
1. Oakland agrees to fund most, if not all the costs for site toxic cleanup.
2. Oakland agrees to fund most, if not all the costs to develop the surrounding ballpark site’s infrastructure area; including the upgrading of pedestrian and automobile traffic access to the site.
3. BART mist obtain the necessary and required funding to add a new BART station, along the current system’s track right-of-way, and within reasonable walking distance to/from the proposed ballpark site.
4. MLB agrees that as long as the two team Bay Area market continues to be subdivided into two unequal territories, the A’s will be allowed to continue on as revenue sharing recipients.
5. If all the above holds true, the A’s will fund one hundred percent of ballpark construction costs from private sources.
That’s a pretty tall order. {{-_-}}
| 3. BART [must] obtain the necessary and required
| funding to add a new BART station, along the current
| system’s track right-of-way, and within reasonable
| walking distance to/from the proposed ballpark site.
Considering the current condition/funding level of the BART system, this is a HUGE “maybe”.
| 4. MLB agrees that as long as the two team Bay Area
| market continues to be subdivided into two unequal
| territories, the A’s will be allowed to continue on as
| revenue sharing recipients.
Requires agreement of MLBPA (players’ union), and extremely unlikely to be handled before the post-2016 season Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations (the current exemption from “pricing out” of the revenue sharing payments is enshrined in the CBA).
To answer everyone’s question, yes, Zennie Abraham was playing an April Fools joke.
He thinks it was funny.
He was wrong.
I wish I captured all the tweets of the low information, low IQ jackhole’s on Twitter… My personal fav “Rumors of Howard Terminal and now the A’s are blanketing JLS with social media… hmmm” or some crap. I guess the day before the A’s were going to play at Fruitvale BART?
can not believe that you guys even listen to that guy Zenny. HT is a 1B+ project so unless Fisher is in the mood to spend, it ain’t happening.
The cleanup + prep work alone will cost 200M then bart, bridges, roads etc…
You could assemble a site in Downtown Oakland for 200 million. Forget Howard Terminal, too far away from Downtown just like Safeco Field in Seattle.
Yep!!! I really hope the Laney College thing has legs and it’s not just hot air backed by Signature Properties 🙂 That site would be fantastic for everything that any of us could possibly want… BART right there, parking spread throughout downtown, Oakland could extend the success of Uptown through Downtown… Pretty please, make it happen. 🙂
@ Jeffrey
Jeffrey I have heard anything about Laney College, please elaborate on what’s being said or post a link. Thanks in advance, really hoping it’s not more BS by Signature Properties as you suggest or worse yet Zennie Abraham’s lying a**
Zeenie…. Never heard of him until now, but unfortunately out of curiosity today I watched several of his YouTube clips to find out what he’s all about. Some of the local politicians actually are entertaining him, but it’s like the same way when I’m out with my boys and like some crazy homeless dude approaches us with the wild shit things you’ve ever heard. We don’t treat him mean, we just play along for his and our amusement…holy hell ,nice f—-n hotel
Zennie is a dumbass and this was a bad April fools joke that came out the day after on April 2nd to most of the public.
In any case, Davis is stuck in Oakland for other reasons that just hit me. “Ingress, Egress, and Parking”.
In Inglewood only 9k of parking spots are nearby, 3k of which are at the Forum across the street. All the rest are spread out over 1 mile. Sounds like Levi’s Stadium where Davis shot down playing there because of the same issue.
There is no public transportation to the Ingelwood site either. There will be a Crenshaw/LAX line 1 mile away, you will to need shuttle.
Davis has said publicly he has not looked into these things in at Inglewood. His Carson site was sitting in the middle of 18k of parking spots.
As for the A’s, Wolff will sit on the Coliseum site until Davis cries Uncle and moves.
Wolff has lost my respect big time, he could easily build with Davis at the current site for 400M-500M with minimal cost from the JPA and play in ATT Park for 3 years.
@Sid — “…There is no public transportation to the Ingelwood site either. There will be a Crenshaw/LAX line 1 mile away, you will to need shuttle. …”
I’m not sure where you got that information. According to metro.net, there is a bus (Line #115) that takes you to the NW corner of the Inglewood Forum parking lot.
Actually Wolfe will cry uncle. Zennie is a dope and most likely this was a lame april fools joke but it is true that the Raiders will NEVER leave the coliseum site. If they have to wait out the full A’s lease they will, and they will threaten to move the whole time. The sooner the A’s and all A’s fans understand and accept the fact that the Raiders WILL NEVER leave the coliseum site the better. Then we can move on and either plan for two stadium at the coliseum location or plan to build elsewhere. MLB most likely never recind the giants rights to San Jose. So Laney college, Howard terminal, whatever makes most sense.
You’re assuming that it’s the Raiders choice.
The Raiders will never build a new stadium as long as Mark Davis owns the team and as long as Oakland smartly refuses to pay for it.
The question isn’t whether the Raiders will move, it’s whether Oakland smartens up and decides to kick the Raiders out if the Coliseum is the only viable site for the A’s in Oakland.
If it is true that Davis’ primary requirement is a sea of parking with incredibly easy ingress and egress, he’s not getting a new stadium in the Bay Area.
Land is incredibly valuable in the Bay Area. Who in their right mind is going to waste land in an area with good freeway and public transportation options on a sea of parking that’s going to get used maybe 25 times a year?
You really think a city is going to kick out an NFL franchise? The NFL is king and has enormous influence. The Raiders have about 45,000 season tickets sold. You are exactly right about the value of Bay Area land with freeway access, public transportation and a sea of parking, not to mention an international airport in close proximity. You better believe the NFL understands this value as well. This was a big part of the mayors presentation to the NFL. The Raiders are not going anywhere. Oakland will float a $400 mil bond to finance a stadium as soon as they know where the A’s will be. Two stadiums at coliseum location or the A’s downtown?
There is little doubt that one day Las Vegas is getting an NFL Franchise. The question is will it be the Raiders? If you have followed the NFL down through the years, you know that they like to keep Markets open for teams having Stadium issues (LA was a perfect example of this). They still need to find a location for the Raiders, Chargers, Jacksonville Jaguars and (probably) Buffalo Bills.Vegas will satisfy that need.
As far as the A’s are concerned, the most realistic and probably best option is the Coliseum Site. It will not be Montreal ( the Canadian Dollar ( called the Loonie)
is worth less then .80 Cents US), it will not be the Terminal ( due to cost), and it will likely not be San Jose. In a perfect World the Raiders move to LA or San Diego after the Season, then the A’s can start the process of building after the 2017 Season. But it is also possible that the Raiders remain in Oakland, or announce Vegas and wait in Oakland until the Stadium is built. Then because of stuff like California Elections, we are talking 2019 or beyond.
The NFL will never put a franchise in Vegas. They can’t have the perception of being associated with gambling. Also Vegas is just not an NFL market. The NFL does like Vegas as a threat to extort public dollars from other markets. Jaguars will eventually move to St.Louis. After they have been without the NFL for a few seasons St. Louis will be ready to fully fund construction with public dollars. Chargers stay in San Diego, Raiders stay in Oakland. The NFL is only trying to get as much public money as possible from those cities. The A’s need to plan for a future with theRaiders remaining at the coliseum.
| The NFL will never put a franchise in
| Vegas. They can’t have the perception
| of being associated with gambling.
Yeah, because no one ever has bet on a football game that wasn’t in Vegas.
DFS aside, gambling on sports is allowed at hundreds of NA casinos, Atlantic City, and *literally everywhere in the UK* (the NFL wants to plant a team in London to harvest even more money) and the big money in Vegas stopped being organized crime a long time ago.
The A’s possible kicking the tires on Laney mentioned in Matier & Ross today: http://blog.sfgate.com/matierandross/2016/04/10/silent-majority-owner-of-as-takes-over-stadium-hunt-from-lew-wolff/
Retread of article from January, because SFGate doesn’t really keep up with what even *they* said on the issue:
http://blog.sfgate.com/matierandross/2016/01/17/as-silent-partner-has-big-say-in-ballpark-search/
ML did a series of tweets on the Laney/Peralta issue last night. The only difference between the two blogposts is that they’ve finally accepted that Howard Terminal is Not Happening.
Zennie guy is a joke… He calls the city hall all the time and we all laugh at him. We even go as far as just making stuff up. The most dumbest thing and he is so dumb he thinks we are being serious. IMO he is mentally ill or perhaps have some kind of disorder. NFL gave him certain media passes where he can attend things like owners meetins and be “press” they felt they had to because he kept saying he would sue them because it’s racist. So they decided he can go to these things but now reporters want him gone since he chases them with his phone to get interviews and nobody wants to talk to him. He will go up to you and if you refuse he actually says “why is it because I’m black?, I can make a video about you being a racist if that’s the case” then they actually say “okay but just a few minutes” he is like a homeless guy that you kind of just go along with it. He’s a 60 year old blogger who always wanted to be famous but obviously there’s something wrong with him.. I’m not giving my name but I know who he calls at the county, the guy can’t stand this Zennie. He gave Zennie his number about 5 years ago out of what I described above.. He thought perhaps this Zennie guy would never bug him but he was so so so wrong. It’s got to a point where the guy just says one word “yes” So Zennie says stuff (by the way we all listen on speaker trying not to laugh) and he will say “So Ronnie Lott Group is building a stadium” and then he gets “YES” and then goes on for about 10 min of not asking a question but reassuring what he wants to say in his videos and he gets “yes” to all his answers. By the way the guy he was calling changed his extension as of 2 weeks ago and now Zennie is freaking out….But bottom line is never believe anything Zennie says! Believing him would be like actually talking to those religious nuts who have the flyers saying the world is ending..He’s a kook. . In his MIND it’s true but look into his eyes. HE IS NUTS! The reality is Mark Davis owns The Raiders and we have not heard from that guy in months! Raiders plan on going to Vegas or somewhere but they are not playing in Alameda anymore (well they are for the next 2 years) but outside of that, the mayor won’t spend public money..We can’t stand her either…Oh and A’s love the stadium even know it is falling apart. Nobody goes to the games anyways. By the way, this is
real talk, I would have no reason to write this much, just love this site and wanted people who don’t live in Oakland to know that Zennie is weird and has no real legit sources that are giving him info…