re: Nothing worse than seeing an infield on a football field

Oh but they really are. You have no idea how many people from the area come to those games, but don't live in Oakland. The majority.

Those fans then stay in a hotel, go out shopping/eating.

In fact, because of the major revenue they provide for the city, the proposal currently on the table and being discussed publicly for the first time on Tuesday, is "Coliseum City" which is an entire downtown area built around the stadium to not only increase revenue with the new stadium, but everything around the stadium.

The plan is to build a stadium right next to each other for all 3 sports teams, Golden State Warriors, Oakland A's, and Oakland Raiders. Likely will just be the Raiders, but that's the proposal for now.

It is very similar to what the STL Cardinals wanted to do around the new Busch Stadium, named Ballpark Village, 6-8 blocks of nothing but shops, restaurants, bars, etc built around the stadium to boost the downtown scene and revenue.

This proposal has a VERY good chance of approval because this allows for outside funding for the whole project, in this case, deep pocketed Dubai investors are on board.

quote:

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OAKLAND -- A well-connected Dubai financier and the world's third-largest privately held real estate firm are teaming up to invest in Coliseum City, providing a significant shot-in-the-arm to Oakland's effort to redevelop the sprawling Coliseum complex into a sports and entertainment center.

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