Bay Area Sports Guy – Oakland now ‘Tarp City’ year round: Raiders closing Mt. Davis in 2013

If you can’t sell ‘em, tarp ‘em. That’s the philosophy of the Oakland A’s, and now the Raiders appear to be following suit. From CSN Bay Area:

As part of a stadium “capacity adjustment” for the 2013 NFL season, the Raiders are going to block off the top of Mt. Davis on the east side of the O.co Coliseum — sections 335 through 355 — as well as upper deck sections 300 through 303 on the south side of the original stadium and sections 331 through 334 on the north side.

According to Newballpark.org, this will lower the Coliseum’s football capacity from 63,132 to about 51,000. This move is also the Raiders’ first public admission that building Mt. Davis, the concrete monstrosity that removed the best part of the Coliseum — the view of the Oakland Hills — was a mistake.

While closing seats and copying Lew Wolff will probably draw groans from throughout the region, maybe it’s a good sign that the Raiders are being proactive about their blackout issue. Only one home game was blacked out during the 2012 season, which compared to previous years was a major improvement. With this change it’s hard to imagine a scenario where the Raiders can’t sell out all eight regular season dates, especially considering the Coliseum will now hold about 10,000 fewer available seats than the stadium with the second-smallest capacity, Soldier Field.

Of course, if the Raiders won more than 49 games over the past ten seasons, maybe they would’ve had some hope of selling every seat in 2013 without tarps pushing everyone a little closer to the field. Maybe the third overall pick in April’s NFL Draft will help in that department.

Otis Byrd III

LOL at Damon Bruce getting hated on from Raider fans on Twitter because of his opinions on this. As far as how I feel about this, yes, this definitely reminds you of the A's tarping the upper deck seats of the Coliseum. But yeah, this must be embarrassing.

Stan

Otis,what did he say?

Otis Byrd III

He's also questioning Raider fans, and how much of fans are they, if they can't sellout 8 games a season.

Otis Byrd III

@Slam- Yeah, Damon is great. He is definitely the most underappreciated and talented host on KNBR. Yes, he's still kind of relatively new compared to most of the rest of the KNBR hosts and probably has to pay his dues a little more since he started back in 2005, but there just isn't a show on either KNBR or 95.7, that's as good as Damon's show right now. The Townsend and Bucher (Bucher and Towny) show could come somewhat close, but they have too many segments and bells and whistles like most of the rest of the shows on 95.7. Their sports talk content is good overall, but they have to get rid of the bells and whistles. But yeah, Damon's show probably is the best weekday sports talk radio show in the Bay Area right now. BTW, speaking of Damon, he said he will be filling in on CBS Sports Radio this Saturday from 7-11 AM, so that should be cool. I wonder if he's filling in for Brandon Tierney aka "bellboy". LOL @Beaver- Damon didn't say that LeMichael James would be Super Bowl MVP. He said that he thought LeMichael James would have a good game or a breakout game or something like that. Sadly that didn't happen, and I think he even admitted that he was wrong on that, but most of the time Damon is spot on and not wrong that often.

Beaver

TheMicheal James Super Bowl MVP - better stick with 99.9% of the time.

Slam

I love Damon. He rants and raves and he's correct 99.9% of the time if not 100%

Otis Byrd III

He was kind of making fun of the situation and saying that the Coliseum should be demolished. Damon was mainly just basically saying how the Raiders are hurting themselves by denying fans to come to games, and basically how the Raiders are an inferior product right now. Raider fans are getting all butthurt and calling him a hater. LOL. Damon has stated many times that he's not a fan of any of the Bay Area teams, even though he covers these teams.

20 comments

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Go back to LA

Go to LA or Sacramento where you'll be appreciated.In the Bay Area the Raiders Re an afterthought

The Coliseum is a concrete toilet. The Raider team is horrible. The team in SF is one of the best in the NFL.The Oakland baseball team is saying that the O.co is a piece of crap. There are rumblings that the Raiders are talking to people in Los Angeles. There is a perception that Raider games are thuggish and unsafe. The bad news is, this creates a negative perception that the Oakland Raiders are a joke. The good news is, this could be a smart move to sell all 51,000 tickets and create a small fierce loyal season ticket crowd at every home game. You gotta figure every ticket holder spends another $20-$30 on crap. Empty seats spend nothing. This tarp strategy is a lot more forward thinking than the good ol' days of Al Davis suing everyone.

erik

I guess this proves the whole Coliseum needs to be replaced angle. Too bad the Raiders are farther along this path than the A's

lime

"Who's franchise is worse than us?" NOBOODDYYY

Fitz's Future Unemployment Check

Our resident Raider fan Tru who can never pass up a chance to lob a generalized grenade at the Niners is really quiet for once...

Tru

Wow, thanks for caring about my response. I was not a fan of this earlier today, then I read over Amy Task's press conference and it makes a little more sense. The team is really trying to get the ball rolling on the new Oakland stadium front and this is one of the steps they'e taken to get the brand on tv, with the possibility of another tough year. We'll see if it works. Btw, I see numerous shots taken at the A's and Raiders by commentators on this site, yet somehow my comments on the 49ers are somehow exceptional? That's a pretty telling sign as to why most East Bay fans steer clear of here and go to other places.

We know, we know. East Bay fans got quite an inferiority complex. :)

Your clever repartee just proved my point. Stay butt hurt, my friend.

Kei

I'd personally like to thank the Raiders for replacing the Jaguars as the new butt of tarp/attendance/relocation jokes.

As far as L.A. goes, yeah, it really would make sense for the Raiders to move back to L.A. They still have a huge following down there, and when the Raiders go to San Diego, I heard a lot of Raider fans from L.A. come down to those games. L.A. and San Diego to some extent, are like 2nd homes or a home away from home, for the Raiders. We'll see though. I'm sure the Raiders will try to make it work here in the Bay Area first before they consider a move to L.A., whether it's getting a new stadium in Oakland, sharing the 49ers new stadium in Santa Clara, or as Damon brought up, possibly playing at Candlestick which I doubt happens, but you never know.

adrian reynolds

I live in Santa Monica and as I walk around my area, I see the occasional mailboxes in the shape of Raiders helmets and Just Win Baby stenciled on a curb.