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Las Vegas Raiders: Looking Back At the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum

Originally posted on Gridiron Heroics | By John Galletley | Last updated 11/17/23

The Las Vegas Raiders used to play in Oakland in what feels like ages ago. They used to share the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum venue with the Oakland Athletics. However, the Raiders left the Coliseum after the end of the 2019 season for greener pastures in Las Vegas.

Soon, the Athletics will join the Raiders again in Las Vegas. Today, the MLB unanimously approved the Athletics to relocate from Oakland to Las Vegas. This vote officially confirms the end of an era in Oakland. Let’s look back on it.

Raiders’ History

The Raiders had a lengthy history with not only Oakland but this specific venue. They started playing at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum way back in 1966. Their original stint in Oakland lasted until the end of the 1981 season.

After that, Raiders then owner Al Davis wanted more. Not happy with the state of the Oakland venue, he looked for greener pastures in Los Angeles. This resulted in the Raiders playing in the city at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum from 1982 to 1994.

However, Davis eventually realized that the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum had its limitations. This resulted in him searching for other venue options. Sacramento was a serious contender during this period.

In the end, Davis ended up moving back to Oakland in the 1995 season. A big reason for this was that Oakland lured Davis with a massive stadium renovation. The plan included the addition of nearly 20,000 seats that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to install. It would be dubbed as “Mount Davis.”

It worked temporarily, at least until the Raiders did not need Oakland anymore. They played there for 25 more seasons before finally moving at the end of 2019. However, it almost felt like a forced marriage.

You see, Al Davis tried to move the team to a “super stadium” several times. Before his passing in 2011, Davis was pushing for the Raiders to move back to Los Angeles in a brand new NFL stadium. After his passing, his son, Mark Davis, continued to pursue this.

There is an argument to be made that the Raiders got the short end of the stick here. That is because, in 2015, the NFL announced that the Rams and Chargers would be the teams to move to a brand new stadium in Los Angeles. This left the Raiders stuck in Oakland with no end in sight.

Teams Moving Out

Mount Davis did not go over well with fans of either the Raiders or Athletics. First of all, it blocked the view of the beautiful mountain setting that surrounds Oakland. Then, the Athletics came to realize that they would never fill those Mount Davis seats outside of big playoff games. So, they started putting large tarps over those seats in 2006.

This meant that stadium renovations did not have much benefit for this Oakland venue. Plus, the city of Oakland has been struggling economically for years. Now, Oakland has a budget deficit of around 40% of what the city typically spends in a year.

What does this mean? It means that Oakland did not have all the money in the world to throw at new stadiums and arenas. Plus, people have been exiting the Bay Area for several years now.

It started with the Golden State Warriors moving from neighboring Oracle Arena in Oakland to the Chase Center in San Francisco. The next year, the Raiders moved from Oakland and became the Las Vegas Raiders. This left the Athletics as the last team keeping professional sports in Oakland.

Now, that is no longer the case. The MLB approved the Athletics’ move to Las Vegas and they only have one more year left on their lease in Oakland. They will likely play at their minor league ballpark in Las Vegas or in neighboring Oracle Park in San Francisco until their new Las Vegas stadium is ready.

People Missing Out

The vote signifies the end of an era in which the Raiders played a significant part. They even won two Super Bowls while playing here. While their move to Las Vegas has been quite successful financially, the real losers of this are Oakland sports fans.

This writer had the chance to attend an Athletics game in Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum for the first time for their 2023 regular season home finale against the Detroit Tigers. Fans talked about fundamentals as if the team was in a tight playoff race instead of having 107 losses. More importantly, the raw passion was there as the fans voiced their displeasure about the impending move.

You can argue the Coliseum is an eyesore. It does not have the glitz and glamour. However, what it does have is an extremely passionate fanbase who have had their hearts broken several times over the last few years. Now, they are perhaps receiving their final death blow.