New Ballpark site

Group resurfaces for A's ballpark bid

In fact, little has been done since Wolff, who had been investigating the possibility of a new park as a minority owner, designated the Coliseum area as the best available site last summer. The park would be built on the south side but Dean doubted it actually would be in the existing parking lot, as was once thought.

"You'd have to have a parking alternative with all those spaces gone," he said, "and the idea of building a parking structure doesn't work. First, it would be prohibitively expensive and then, it would be a nightmare with everybody trying to leave at the same time after a big game."

This is the first specific mention of the idea that the ballpark will not be built on the existing Coliseum grounds. In the 2001 study done by HOK for the A's and Oakland, the Coliseum option had the ballpark built on the north (66th Avenue) side of the park.

This is an aerial photo I modified to highlight (in red) the new site. The old Coliseum option would have placed the ballpark directly north of the arena (in the dark parking strip). Hegenberger Road runs along the right (east) side of the picture. BART is in the upper-right corner. 880 (Nimitz Freeway) is west of the arena.

The site is around 25-26 acres in size. Most of it has been fenced off to prevent vehicle access due to frequent use as a site for sideshows and before that, raves. The only active tenants on the combined site are the Denny's at the NW corner of Coliseum and Hegenberger, and the EDD/office building at the NE corner of the lot. I'm not clear on who exactly owns the properties in question, but I should have that info soon enough.