Category Archives: News

10.01.13
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Coliseum City’s Mystery Investors Revealed

Earlier in the year, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan talked up foreign investment in Coliseum City, which had the potential to fill in funding gaps for one or more venues planned for the project. The Trib’s Matthew Artz reports tonight, on the eve of a Tuesday City Council closed session, that those investors are a partnership between real estate powerhouse Colony Capital and Dubai financier Rashid Al Malik. The closed session would presumably lead to a public discussion item on October 8, which should include some basic terms for the price of the land, a development timeline, and other critical information.

Colony/Al Malik are no strangers to bidding on expensive properties. In the spring they jumped to the lead in bidding for arena/stadium giant AEG. Eventually they balked as AEG honcho Phil Anschutz refused to budge from his asking price, purportedly up to $10 billion. That led to the departure of Farmers Field champion Tim Leiweke, leaving the football stadium project in limbo.

Coliseum City, which could cost $2 billion just for a replacement arena and separate baseball and football stadia, is expected to have billions more in development costs associated with offices, retail, and additional infrastructure. It has the potential to be the biggest single redevelopment project in California history.

The main problem is that redevelopment is yesterday’s plan. Tax increment is off limits thanks to Governor Brown’s dismantling of redevelopment agencies all over the state. While TIF couldn’t finance a lion’s share of the project, it could’ve helped take care of the infrastructure work, which no developer wants to take on if he can help it. The closed session talks are centered around land sales, so Oakland (and Alameda County) could conceivably sell Coliseum land or other nearby properties to help raise the public share. It’s not much of a departure from Lew Wolff’s Pacific Commons plan, which involved a fairly simple purchase option of privately owned, not publicly owned, land. While the Bay Area’s real estate market is experiencing a rebound, chances are that Oakland would name a price favorable for Colony/Al Malik in order to get them to play ball.

If you’re Colony/Al Malik, you want to be able to get in with as little equity or borrowing as possible. At the same time, we’re hearing that the project could work with only one or two venues as opposed to three. That works in Colony/Al Malik’s favor, since there would presumably be less money going towards stadia that would otherwise go to their shareholders. Not having to build a new ballpark or arena would also free up 10-15 acres of “prime” development land near the Raiders stadium. Of course, that has to be balanced with the recognition that more venues equals more events and event days, which would make the project more attractive to prospective tenants. There’s the possibility that no teams remain, which would result in no new venues. There’s also a remaining disconnect regarding the different players’ respective visions. Raiders owner Mark Davis continues to focus on a smallish outdoor stadium with less than 60,000 seats. Planning consultant JRDV (and previously Mayor Quan) want something larger – and perhaps retractably domed – that could attract big events such as the Super Bowl.

There’s one other angle to play here. In 2010, Colony bought the construction firm Tutor-Saliba, the contractor responsible for rebuilding the Coliseum Arena, Mt. Davis (no, they weren’t the architects), and several transit projects including the planned California High Speed Rail and the BART-to-SFO extension. Colony could see some additional opportunities associated with having Tutor-Saliba control the construction process for much of the project. Not sure how that might conflict with an open bidding process often required when using public funds.

Besides the failed AEG bid, Colony and Al Malik have had their share of hits and misses. Colony invested heavily in Station Casinos just as the recession was starting, and Station eventually declared bankruptcy. Al Malik was head of Dubai Aerospace and launched an aggressive strategy to buy (and lease out) a bunch of jumbo jets in 2006. He quit the company in 2008 as DAE floundered. Colony once co-owned the French football club Paris St.-Germain, then flipped it to investors from Qatar two years ago.

There’s a great sense of irony in that much of the criticism of A’s managing partner Lew Wolff is that he’s a “greedy developer” who only wants to make money. Yet who is Oakland bringing in to give Coliseum City a whiff of viability? One of the richest developer/hedge fund groups in the world, Colony Capital. The master developer for Coliseum City appears to be Forest City, the company Brown favored for Uptown condos and apartments instead of a ballpark. When you need big money and expertise, there are only so many places to find it. What are the chances that this group isn’t “greedy”? Slim and none.

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Update 12:25 PM – Got a copy of today’s agenda (thanks Matt Artz). The resolution calls for a 12-month extension of the ENA (Exclusive Negotiating Agreement) to figure out the terms of the deal. This comes on the heels of the the original ENA expiring October 21. In addition to the 12 months there would be another 6-month administrative extension option. No additional money would be needed to complete all of the project deliverables, a concern going back from the early summer.

What I have to wonder is what Mark Davis thinks of all of this. While it’s good to have the potential for additional investment to help defray the stadium cost, here’s another case of the JPA/Oakland/Alameda County pushing a deadline out. This time it could go into early 2015 before things are finalized. This doesn’t seem like the kind of urgency that Davis is looking for:

Whether there’s a sense of urgency or not? I know there is on our side. We have to find out how urgent on their side. The picture that’s been drawn is there. We know what needs to get done. It’s just whether it’s going to be able to be done.

It’s Davis, after all, who’s pushing for a long-term lease extension tied to a new stadium development deal. How does this news affect that? Another 2-3 year lease to stay in the game?

09.30.13
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First set of MLB Postseason game times out

I predicted this on Saturday:

Well, at least I nailed the sequence. The first two game times will be as follows:

  • Game 1: Detroit at Oakland, 6:30 PM Friday on TBS
  • Game 2: Detroit at Oakland, 6:00 PM Saturday on TBS

Future game times to be released later.

The late Game 2 start also has an effect on the Chargers-Raiders game. Originally scheduled for 1 PM, the game will be moved to 8:30 PM in order to accommodate the football changeover. That will make for a most unusual NFL quadruple-header, with the normal 10 AM and 1 PM slots, the Sunday Night slot featuring the Texans at the 49ers, and then across the bay for Chargers-Raiders on NFL Network. With playoff baseball on everyday this week leading into an epic football Sunday, this has to be one of the best sports weeks in recent memory. See you at the yard.

09.27.13
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Governor Brown signs streamlining bills for Sacramento, SF arena projects

You can’t say Jerry Brown doesn’t like sports now, folks. No sir.

The Governor signed two bills to help with environmental review for separate arena projects championed by the Kings and Warriors. SB 743 (Steinberg, D-Sacramento), for the Kings, made incremental changes to how traffic and parking studies will be done, but fell short of the sort of sweeping CEQA changes desired by Republicans and the Governor. Much of the streamlining in SB 743 benefits the Kings arena specifically by creating a time limit for lawsuits and allowing for eminent domain proceedings while the project goes through the EIR process.

AB 1273 (Ting, D-San Francisco) sought to bypass the State Lands Commission so that approval of the project rested with the City/County of San Francisco. That provision was stricken, neutering the bill rather severely. However, the EIR process now inserts SF and the BCDC to manage the process, allowing them to head off any red flag issues that the SLC could use to deny approval of the project. One key win for the Warriors was the granting of a development permit at Piers 30/32 to the BCDC, which should help advance to process of determining the proper (read: low) amount of parking to be built in concurrence with the arena.

The W’s arena should also benefit from some of the new provisions in SB 743. Piers 30/32 most certainly qualifies most certainly qualifies as an urban infill project, considering its near-transit location and dilapidated state.

Now that the legislative endaround has been successfully executed for both arenas, it’s only a matter of time to get their EIRs completed and approved. Sure, all sorts of challenges will occur in the meantime, but these actions are big if they’re to have any hope of being open by 2016 (Sacramento), or more likely, 2017 (SF). It’s just too bad that the legislature couldn’t properly fix CEQA for everyone.

09.26.13
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Selig announces retirement and transition plan

This release came in this afternoon from MLB:

Baseball Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig formally announced today that he will retire upon the completion of his current term, which runs through January 24, 2015.

Commissioner Selig said: “It remains my great privilege to serve the game I have loved throughout my life. Baseball is the greatest game ever invented, and I look forward to continuing its extraordinary growth and addressing several significant issues during the remainder of my term.

“I am grateful to the owners throughout Major League Baseball for their unwavering support and for allowing me to lead this great institution. I thank our players, who give me unlimited enthusiasm about the future of our game. Together we have taken this sport to new heights and have positioned our national pastime to thrive for generations to come. Most of all, I would like to thank our fans, who are the heart and soul of our game.”

Commissioner Selig will announce shortly a transition plan in preparation for his retirement, which will reorganize centralized Major League Baseball management.

Selig has led Major League Baseball since September 9, 1992, when, as Chairman of the Major League Executive Council, he became interim Commissioner. He was unanimously elected Baseball’s ninth Commissioner on July 9, 1998.

Last year Selig indicated that his time as Commissioner would cease with the end of the current term. Selig has been extended twice at the request of the owners, who are very comfortable with him at the helm. And why shouldn’t they be? Since the 1994 strike, Selig has presided over more labor peace than the other three big leagues, while overseeing an unprecedented economic expansion (for baseball, at least). If we’re looking at the job Selig has done in terms of protecting The Lodge’s interests, he deserves an A. When it comes to other aspects of the game (drugs, replay and technology, rules), Selig hasn’t fared nearly as well.

Despite being left hanging by Selig on the San Jose matter, Lew Wolff continues to steadfastly support his fraternity brother.

“This is absolute confirmation of what I was hoping might not happen.”

Wolff has been consistent in saying that he prefers to act in the interest of the game first instead of his own (the A’s), a stance that keeps The Lodge out of potential infighting but frustrates A’s fans to no end.

Unlike the NBA and NFL, which had successors to David Stern and Pete Rozelle (Adam Silver and Roger Goodell, respectively) groomed for years, there is no obvious frontrunner to succeed Selig. It could be someone within baseball’s upper echelon, whether it’s Selig’s current right-hand man Rob Manfred or a respected former team executive like John Schierholtz. The selection of a new commissioner will require a 3/4ths vote – just like a franchise move – and any number of candidates could potentially have enough votes against them to prevent approval. As we know from Selig’s previous endeavors, he likes to show unanimity among the owners, but it’s hard to see how that will happen because of their divergent markets and circumstances. Selig could form consensus because he showed neutrality to them, often to the point of indecision in some extreme cases. It’s not clear that any other nominee will do the same, and no owner wants the job.

Selig has indicated that the executive level will undergo a reorganization, which makes sense. During Selig’s tenure more power has been consolidated within his office than at any other time in baseball’s history. In 1999 the league presidents were eliminated, and a few years ago COO Bob DuPuy was unceremoniously let go. If the owners don’t trust Selig’s power with anyone other than Selig, then it may be best to to redistribute those powers among multiple individuals. Plus, if The Lodge wants to go with someone who can be a figurehead for the owners and technocrats inside baseball, then the safest path may be to restructure the job so that not so much power is vested within the Office of the Commissioner.

It would seem that Selig will leave the A’s-Giants mess to his successor, except for some choice quotes from a CBS Radio interview with John Feinstein, in which he called the Coliseum a “pit”:

“It’s a pit,” Selig said. “It reminds me of old County Stadium and Shea Stadium. We need to deal with that. I’ve had a committee working on it for two or three years, and there’s no question we’re going to have to solve that problem.”

But hasn’t the committee been working on it for a long time? What’s the hold-up?

“We have, John, but I’ll tell you it’s far more complex,” Selig said. “Look, you have one team that wants to move and the other team doesn’t want them to move, and it’s a very complicated situation. Before I leave, I’m satisfied we’ll work out something.”

We’ve heard assurances from Selig before, so this one carries little weight. Then again, who knows? Selig’s hallmark is his deliberate nature. If the point is to wait to provide a solution that’s satisfactory to Giants and A’s ownership, then on his way out the door makes sense. That said, there’s an awful lot of inertia in this story. I’d be surprised if Selig had this all settled before the end of his term. He still hasn’t come to a good compromise between the Orioles and Nationals over the latter team’s television rights.

Let’s just say that I’m not holding my breath.

09.26.13
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Wolff clarifies what he wants out of Coliseum lease

In a wide-ranging interview with MLB.com’s Barry M. Bloom, Lew Wolff talked about the lease terms he proposed to the Coliseum JPA, and the progress that has been made so far. Some key items:

“We’re willing to sign a five-year lease with three one-year [club] options at a much higher rate than we’re paying now,” Wolff told MLB.com during a lengthy interview this week as his A’s played the Angels at Angel Stadium.

“But more importantly, we’re willing to pay more than we have the last five years, only because they need money to buy a new scoreboard and fix up the facility. And we’re willing to offer that money up front. It’s a negotiation that’s hopefully coming to a close soon. The delay on a decision about moving has even limited those options.”

This reminds me of the deal Wolff proposed to fix up Phoenix Municipal Stadium a few years ago. In the end the City of Phoenix decided it couldn’t afford to spend anything on Phoenix Muni, which convinced Wolff that he needed to look elsewhere. When the Cubs planned to vacate Hohokam Stadium for their new complex on the west side of Mesa, there was suddenly an opening for the A’s, which Wolff took. I point this out to illustrate that negotiating parties can go in with the best intentions and sometimes it still doesn’t work out.

In Oakland there’s more at stake. If the A’s can’t work out a proper deal to stay at the Coliseum, it’s not as if they can move 4 miles away to another MLB-ready ballpark. Plus the Raiders have their own designs on the Coliseum complex, and it’s not clear how much the Raiders’ desires conflict with the A’s. Even with those conflicts, the JPA can’t be crazy enough to let the A’s walk away, right? Their biggest leverage is that the A’s don’t have anywhere else to go, not some competitive advantage. If this drags on through the offseason, it’ll be interesting to see if MLB thrusts itself into the talks.

Not that the two sides are entirely on the same page. Wolff wants an out if the Raiders commandeer the site for a new Coliseum. The JPA wants to lock the A’s in as long as possible. Contrast that with the Raiders, who want their own long lease, but because it’s forcing the JPA to make a bigger commitment, the JPA has been hesitant to finalize anything. Imagine if Wolff offered a long-term deal that competed with the Raiders’ offer. What would the JPA do? Would they be forced to choose one over the other?

For his part, Wolff has characterized the negotiations as anything but contentious, and close to completion. Yet I wouldn’t be surprised if this dragged on well into the fall, at which point a lot of people in and around baseball will start to get very nervous.

09.21.13
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SewageGate, Autumnal Equinox Edition

The Bay Area was hit with a deluge of rain before the scheduled start of the Twins-A’s game today, causing flooding in the dugouts and the A’s coaches’ offices. I brought the snark as usual.

For a more straight news take, BANG’s Laurence Miedema has compiled a bunch of tweets that cover the story and reaction from all over the internet.

[View the story “More plumbing problems for the Oakland A’s” on Storify]

With that, let’s hope there are no more sewage catastrophes today, this weekend, and the rest of the season.

09.21.13
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MLB makes final filing for antitrust hearing, includes ML Constitution

Two weeks ago the City of San Jose made its final filing for the October 4 hearing. Now it’s baseball’s turn to file, making its own submission yesterday. Now that we’ve had the initial filings and the rebuttals, we can see how the two sides are formulating their arguments. Yesterday’s filing continues to assert the antitrust exemption over all, that the Piazza decision was flawed, that the City’s interpretation of the Flood case is too broad, and that MLB can take as much time as it likes to determine where the A’s should or shouldn’t relocate.

The big reveal was that a second document accompanied baseball’s reply brief: the MLB Constitution. PDF links are listed below:

In the City’s original complaint, it argued that MLB’s Constitution expired at the end of last year, which I thought preposterous. Baseball had to approve the Astros’ move to the American League, and some covenant had to reflect that. The new Constitution does show the new divisional arrangement, and continues to show the same territorial assignments as the previous one, with no change in language.

San Francisco Giants: City of San Francisco; and San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Monterey and Marin Counties in California; provided, however, that with respect to all Major League Clubs, Santa Clara County in California shall also be included;

…

Oakland Athletics: Alameda and Contra Costa Counties in California;

If you’re wondering what the shared two-team market definitions look like, here’s an example:

Los Angeles Dodgers: Orange, Ventura and Los Angeles Counties in California; provided, however, that this territory shall be shared with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim franchise in the American League;

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura Counties in California; provided, however, that this territory shall be shared with the Los Angeles Dodgers franchise in the National League;

Even if City’s tactic was simply to get the Constitution out in the open, it’s a good thing. It’s not like they were going to win or lose the case based on this.

One thing to consider is the three-fourths rule commonly cited when it comes to franchise relocation. 3/4ths of the owners (23) need to approve any franchise move, whether it’s 30 miles or 3,000. Just as important is that 3/4ths of the owners are needed to do any number of other changes:

  • Control person owner change (ex: Lew Wolff for the A’s, Larry Baer for the Giants)
  • Franchise termination – some may associate this with contraction
  • Expansion
  • Realignment
  • Revenue sharing changes for individual clubs

Keep in mind that the A’s future could include any or all of the above remedies. Sure, I’m referring to mostly extreme, batshit crazy possibilities, but at this stage, I suppose anything’s possible. If the pro-Oakland folks want to get a new ownership group in or depose Wolff, 3/4ths. Want to contract and expand the team a la the Expos/Nats? 3/4ths. Got a unique way of compensating the Giants for giving up the South Bay or the A’s for giving up the Bay Area altogether? 3/4ths. Commissioner Bud Selig’s is supposedly retiring, so it’s unlikely he’d take on such difficult machinations during his lame duck senioritis period. He took care of a bunch of to-dos like replay and an expanded drug testing program in the last year.

Chances are that Selig’s successor will inherit this mess. If there is some jockeying for the job instead of a Selig “appointment” it could be interesting to see if the A’s and Giants try to lobby for one individual over another.

09.20.13
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Olbermann and Justice give Wolff some good advice

Last night Keith Olbermann took Oakland and Alameda County to task over the continuing sewage problems at the Coliseum. Tonight was Lew Wolff’s turn to be flogged. The clip below is a segment featuring Olbermann and longtime national baseball writer Richard Justice, in which Justice chides Wolff for blaming fans for the A’s attendance woes.

Everything’s on point. Olbermann’s sympathetic to Wolff’s plight but doesn’t excuse him. Apparently, the lead-in to this segment was a much more thorough critique of Wolff. For whatever reason Olbermann’s producers chose to leave it out. The show is not available for streaming besides scattered Youtube clips like these.

It’s too bad. I would’ve liked to have seen KO’s take on this side of the matter, if only to serve as equal time.

Justice pointed out that Cleveland manager Terry Francona and some Indians players chose to take the high road regarding the Tribe’s woeful attendance figures. That’s not exactly the same as Larry Dolan or Mark Shapiro talking. Last week Shapiro had an interview with Crain’s Cleveland which was similar in tone to Wolff’s latest quotes. Shapiro blames some of the problems on Cleveland’s market size. Fans countered that the organization has done little to earn their faith. Obviously there’s a different dynamic at work in Cleveland compared to Oakland. Circumstances are very dissimilar except for attendance figures – and one other thing. Aside from the three straight World Series in the 70’s (which Olbermann notes were not well-attended), the A’s most successful era occurred after the Raiders moved to Los Angeles. The Indians greatest success in the last 50 years occurred after the Browns abandoned Cleveland for Baltimore. The Raiders were successful for a period when they returned, and have been mediocre in the decade since. The Browns have been the AFC North’s punching bag since they returned as an expansion team. Both affected baseball teams have been unable to repeat their respective successes since the football teams returned.

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I was able to watch the last airing of Olbermann for Thursday night/early Friday morning, and have seen the missing 10-minute show monologue. KO ripped Wolff, Horace Stoneham, Al Davis, the Coliseum’s sewage problem (yes, that again), Bo Pelini, Lee Elia, Craig Kilborn, and Olbermann himself for creating circumstances that lead to gaffes like Wolff’s. No, KO didn’t call for Wolff’s head. For your edification, I took a phone video of the segment (replete with poor audio, turn it all the way up) for you to view. If it gets taken down because of copyright/fair use issues, I’m sorry. Can’t do anything about that.

Note that Olbermann didn’t have any sort of solution, other than urging Wolff to not trash fans. Well, it’s nice for KO that he could jump from network to network and sue whenever he got petulant or bored. Wolff? MLB’s constitution doesn’t give him such latitude.

Someday we’re all gonna look back on all of this and laugh. Right?

09.19.13
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Local concern, National narrative

I’ll take the blame. It’s my fault for leaving town.

I’m down in Anaheim again for work, and the antagonism in Oakland has started all over again. First it was Josh Reddick talking about small crowds at the Coliseum on Twitter. Then it was a Bob Nightengale article in the USA Today featuring Lew Wolff, who called the occasional poor attendance at home games “depressing” in light of the team’s on-field success. That begat the usual Twitter furor from defenders of Oakland and some of the A’s fan base. Some called for boycotts of GAP and related stores. Others told Wolff to go f- himself. Ray Ratto defended the defenders and chastised Lew Wolff for the umpteenth time. Then the toilet backed up in the A’s dugout, creating a huge mess and another embarrassing moment for the punching bag known as the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.

Today Wolff spoke again about crowds, while touting the virtues of a downtown ballpark – either in San Jose (his preferred choice) or Oakland (which hasn’t been a considered option since 2006). But before people could start reading between the lines to believe that Wolff was changing his mind, cold water was poured on the notion.

Whining about small crowds, fans whining about the whiners, and another sewage problem, all grist for the very active mill that is A’s fandom. Then there’s tonight’s Worst Person(s) in the Sports World segment on ESPN2’s Olbermann. The Worst Person(s)? The O.co/Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, the City of Oakland, Alameda County, and AEG. Check at the 1:35 mark of this video for the tribute.

There was nothing about the small crowds, the myriad issues the City of Oakland faces, San Jose, the Giants, or Bud Selig. It was just Keith Olbermann summing the much-maligned Coliseum in the sharpest way possible:

AN OUTHOUSE WITH SCOREBOARDS!!!!

I wonder if KO got the memo about how the JPA hasn’t bothered to replace the scoreboards yet because it rerouted the money for the Coliseum City study?

Anyway, I’ve touched on how the local and national narratives couldn’t be more different. At the local level, Wolff is often perceived as grandfatherly version of Rachel Phelps, who will stop at nothing to rob Oakland of its team and constantly offends the fans. At the national level (baseball writers, media), Wolff is seen as a get along type of owner who has shown the wisdom to stay out of Billy Beane’s way and let him do his job. Olbermann is a friend of A’s manager Bob Melvin, who lives in New York City during the offseason. Whether Olbermann’s bemoaning of the Coliseum was just to highlight the absurdity of the situation or to support his friend BoMel, the message was devastating. Every local columnist from Ratto to Lowell Cohn to Ann Killion could write angry missives about Olbermann’s video, but it won’t matter. This is the meme. This is the big narrative. And by lumping Oakland and Alameda County (but not the fans or citizens) in with the Coliseum, it’s quite clear what parties KO is holding accountable for this debacle.

Lew Wolff could be as devious as Oakland/Alameda County are bumbling. The former is a small story that no one pays attention to outside of Northern California. The latter is the national narrative. That’s an enormous problem for Oakland, a city already with a major perception problem. If people in Oakland want to change the narrative, they might want to change their strategy from a local one to a national one.

In the short term, here’s the biggest problem. The Coliseum was always a generally poor place to play baseball since Mt. Davis was built. Now the narrative is that it’s altogether unfit to host Major League Baseball. As diehard A’s fans, you and I know differently, that it’s plenty serviceable if not sexy or exciting. The A’s have extended a 5-year lease extension offer, which practically makes them look magnanimous for being willing to endure the conditions. Bud Selig and the Lodge are watching this and seeing how this plays out. And there’s no telling how they’ll react in the offseason if more accidents or bumbling occurs.

09.17.13
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The incredible expanding Coliseum

Division Series tickets went on sale today at 10 AM. As the first two games started to sell out, I noticed something unusual about the seating map.

The Coliseum, now free of section numbers!

The Coliseum, now with no section numbers!

Unlike last year, the entire third deck appears to be available. Even Mt. Davis, which is usually grayed out, is colored brown as if it was for sale. Had the A’s finally changed their tune and opened the nosebleed seats to fans?

Well, yes and no. The original upper deck has been opened up, though the prices went from $15/$22 for the normal Value Deck (316/318, 317 is for media overflow) to $35 for the “new” sections. Standing room tickets are also available for $18. However, Mt. Davis will not be open, leaving the ALDS capacity at 48,146. That would place the Coliseum at the third highest capacity among postseason parks, short of Dodger Stadium (56,000) and Turner Field (49,586).

The A’s also announced that the first two decks are sold out for the series, implying that the only tickets remaining are the remaining original upper deck (300-315, 319-334). As of the time of this post, the oh-so-exclusive Loge Boxes are also for sale ($45), at least for games 1 and 2.

As for Mt. Davis, who knows? Maybe if the upper deck sells out in the next few days the dreaded upper upper deck will also open up.

I’m going to use the opening of the third deck to test a theory I have about crowd noise. Personally, I think the crowds for the 2012 ALDS and Games 160-162 were extremely loud because of a number of factors, including the smaller footprint of the crowd. We were packed into a much smaller space than for most previous postseason games, so the crowd noise had a concentrated effect – or so I thought. The same phenomenon happens in smaller arenas, including Oracle Arena, where the seating capacity is large but the building itself isn’t so voluminous.

To test my theory, I’m going to measure crowd noise on Thursday night. The crowd size will probably be similar to the sparse crowds seen for the Astros and Angels series, so it can serve as a baseline. During my conversation with A’s stadium operations veep David Rinetti, I asked him if I could roam around the Coli to get further readings. He told me to page him once I got in and that he’d help me out. I plan to take readings on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Either of the weekend games could be a division clincher, so there’s potential for big crowd noise, plus Sunday is the final home game of the season. I also plan to do measurements during the Division Series (no, they haven’t clinched yet – knock on wood), though getting roaming access may prove more difficult than for this last homestand.

I look forward to seeing the big crowds and measuring the results. If you would like to chip in with your own measurements, you can download one of the many sound meter applications for your smartphone or bring your own sound meter if you have one. Some app examples:

  • SPL Graph (iOS, $9.99) – This one’s expensive but it provides excellent graphs and lots of controls, including recording capability. Worth it if you do this work a lot IMO.
  • Noise Meter (Android, free) – Easily toggles between graph and dB display mode. Incredibly easy to use.
  • Decibel 10th (iOS, free) – Also easy to use, not very granular or customizable.

We can go over methodology if anyone’s interested. I’ll do a writeup over the weekend explaining how I gather the data. Hooray for big crowds, huzzah for no tarps!