The A's are "completely rebuilding what had been the West Side Club" at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum into "something of an old-time East Coast bar called the Shibe Park bar," according to John Hickey of the EAST BAY TIMES. Unlike the West Side Club, it will be "open to all fans and will include bricks from Shibe Park," where the A’s played under late Owner Connie Mack, and memorabilia from that part of the A’s history. There will be "billiard tables and a couple of dozen different beers." In addition, A's President Dave Kaval said that the club has "listened to fans talk about their dissatisfaction with the food choices at the Coliseum." He said that there have been some upgrades "inside the stadium," but the A’s will be turning the plaza area between the Coliseum and Oracle Arena "into a festival area." Kaval: "There will be 16 trucks on the big nights and eight trucks on the midweek nights. That will give fans different food options, everything from gluten free to vegetarian to some of the trendiest food options in the Oakland area." He added, "We need to try new ideas and bring new options to our fans. If we do that, I think maybe we’ll attract some of the younger millennial fans." Hickey notes the A’s are "branding the plaza area the Champions Pavilion and the area will include video screens and bocce." The area will be "open both before and after the game, which will be a Coliseum first." The A’s have also "spent between $600,000-$700,000 to add cooking capability at more of the Coliseum’s internal food sales areas so that cooking can be done at the sales areas and not just cooked in a central kitchen and moved over" (EAST BAY TIMES, 2/20).
SURVEYING OPTIONS: Hickey notes Kaval had a "new audience" yesterday when he talked about his vision for a new ballpark -- A's players. Kaval sat in on the annual first meeting of the spring and said that there are "four sites in play and that of them, the Coliseum 'is the one site we know is 100 percent viable.'" That is "whether or not the Raiders, the A’s co-tenant, move or stay." Two sites near the Lake Merritt BART station and the Howard Terminal site are "better suited for the A’s because all three would seem to open to have communities built in the neighborhoods around them" (EAST BAY TIMES, 2/20).
