July 26, 2019, Oakland, CA - I'll admit that our enthusiasm to visit the A's much maligned stadium was tamped down by many of the reviews we read which places it at the bottom of the MLB stadium list. A typical comment about the stadium is that it is a football stadium in which they also play baseball.
The reviewers aren't necessarily wrong. The stadium does have the overbearing concrete look of a football stadium. Sadly, since the Raiders have left Oakland for Las Vegas, it is a football stadium that only hosts baseball now. The fact that it sits in an industrial area with lots of homeless people around does not help the situation. We opted to stay in a hotel close to the stadium in hopes of walking there and back, but after checking out the surrounding streets we thought better of that and took the hotel shuttle to the BART station entrance. Even that made Christine a bit nervous, especially waiting for the shuttle pickup after the game. Note: Even if you stayed in a nicer area of town, it is likely Uber would have also dropped you off at this same BART station.
The concessionaires in the stadium were generally friendly and the staff were also talkative and friendly. Food choices have been criticized as well in this stadium, but this season they seem to be making an effort with some more upscale choices. We even got a free $5 credit for concessions on our electronic ticket to encourage us to eat there. Beer prices were reasonable (given the professional venue) at $10 for premium draft. The hot dog was OK, and they did have chopped onions for it in the condiment section.
The elephant mascot Stomper was pretty much non-existent through the game, but they did have the big head racers. The most entertaining moments was a guy behind me heckling the home plate umpire using the umpire's name.
The truly sad thing is the 14,000 attendance on a Friday night when the stadium capacity is 47,000. There are plans for a new stadium to be built elsewhere in Oakland, but with that kind of fan support I'm not sure how they will justify it.
Stadium Ratings are exciting, good, meh, bad, disastrous.
Facility - Not built for baseball and sitting in an industrial area surrounded by the homeless and drug deals. No city or bay views. On good side the staff were friendly and I did like the old school trough style urinals (it just seems more efficient). Rating: Meh
Food - Reasonably priced for a professional venue and contained the choices you would expect in a stadium. Condiment station had chopped onions. Hot dog was OK but nothing to get excited about. The five dollar concession credit was a nice touch. Rating: Meh
Mascot - Stomper the Elephant - I read the story behind why the mascot is an elephant but do not really understand it. He was not around very much. Rating: Disastrous
