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07 January 2008

Upper deck reopening - but there's a catch

For the glutton in all of you, the A's are reopening three sections of the vaunted View level/third deck. All 81 games will be available for the low, low price of $35! Borrowing a page from the Dodgers, the A's are designating sections 316-318 as All-You-Can-Eat sections. Fans will enter through a special entrance and will be given wristbands indicating their, um, opportunistic status. Each fan can go to one of the open View level concession stands and get two food items and a soda per visit. The stands will be open until the end of the 7th inning.

The concept was a massive hit at Dodger Stadium, so they're trying it here. I suppose if you can't recognize many of the players on the field, at least you can gorge yourself enough that it won't matter. Whether or not it's really a deal depends on what items will be available. Beer's not on the menu. Some of the premium items such as Saag's sausages and Round Table personal pizzas probably aren't either. I hope that at the very least they have big dogs or polish sausages. Hamburgers and nachos would be good too. If you're going to stuff yourself with ballpark food of questionable nutritional value, go all the way!

One thing the Coliseum will have over Dodger Stadium: Dodger Stadium doesn't include ice cream in their deal.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe the A's are planning to move to Vegas after all. This sounds like a trial run for the all ya' can swallow buffet deals at the hotels. More and more the once state of the art Oakland A's are starting to sound like an ad for a $99 suit.

Jeffrey said...

Did you see this?

Looks like south Fremont is turning into a happening place. How does extending Fremont Blvd. impact traffic concerns?

Georob said...

One of the reasons given for closing off the entire third deck was that it made it easier(and presumably cheaper) for security.

Therefore, in order to re-open even a portion of the third deck, you have to increase prices to cover the cost. However, no one is just going to buy expensive upper deck seats, so the A's have to add some value to the package, hence the all you can eat deal.


........ Of course, once Diamond Lil and all her fat friends in the OAFC start stuffing themsleves up there over seven innings, that third deck will come crashing down faster than you can say "It's all part of the conspiracy to destroy the Coliseum" :)

Anonymous said...

Great news! This means that the A's have now decided that the Coliseum is the place to be and they will stay in Oakland. After all, who wants to tie a stadium to the current California housing market? You would have to be out of your mind. This Fremont ballpark will never come to fruition. The housing market is in free fall, the transportation and gridlock issues are not being addressed, as well as the infrastructure and environmental concerns. This opening up of the third deck, along with the recent trades, shows how this once great and proud franchise has turned itself into a flee-market operation headed by a carpetbagger from Los Angeles who obviously has no direction.

Anonymous said...

jeffrey, I was more interested in the effect on retail demand for the area. Is it possible that Fremont will over-dial and find themselves with too much?

LOL, georob.

As for the team, well, we're steadily improving Sacto and Midland! In the old days, minor league teams existed to improve the major league team. But forward thinking teams like the A's have rightfully realized that those old fogeys have it all backward. So what if the major league team will be a joke for years to come. Look how highly people rate our prospects now! That's the real point of MLB, isn't it?

Marine Layer said...

Anon - They're not tying the ballpark to the current housing market. They're tying it to the future housing market, 2010 and later. Try again.

Jeffrey - I'll have more on the Bayside Marketplace project later. We'd discussed it in passing last year. The important thing to come from it is the extension of Fremont Blvd all the way into Santa Clara County, which allows for an alternate route to the ballpark.

Jeffrey said...

Mr. Mouse- I don't think Fremont is over retailing. I think, depending on the mix of stores, the Bayside Marketplace will bring good retail outlets like Target to an area that is underserved. I don't think the types of retailers considered for this project are similar to those considered for the ballpark village.

ML- Look forward to reading more about it. With Fremont Blvd extended to Dixon landing, I could go from my office in North San Jose to the village without ever getting on the freeway!

Georob said...

The Midland Rockhounds will play four away dates in Corpus Christi this year, (April, June, July, and August) each of which consists of four games.

Looks like I'd better see the games in April, as by June a lot of them may already be in Oakland :)

Anonymous said...

I always thought the top deck was for the stoners anwyays. Now they can satisfy their munchies for a reasonable price.

Anonymous said...

Sounds good to me jeffrey. I haven't seen any details on the targeted stores for Bayside. If they are looking at a very different mix than at PC, then I'm not going to worry about it.

Jeffrey said...

ML- Is there a development plan on line for Bayside? I am wondering if Fremont Blvd will end up connecting to McCarthy at Dixon Landing.

Anonymous said...

I never really understood why the 3rd Deck closier was such a big thing anyways. No one ever sat up there anyways, and people only bought tickets up there in order to move down to the 1st or 2nd deck.

Jeffrey said...

And that is the big deal. People don't want to pay the price for the tickets they really sit in.