OAKLAND, CA – JULY 10: A view of RingCentral Coliseum during the Oakland Athletics summer workouts on July 10, 2020 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Michael Zagaris/Oakland Athletics/Getty Images)
The old Oakland Raiders locker room is being used by the A’s.
The Oakland Athletics were forced to share a monstrosity of a stadium with the Raiders during the football team’s time in Oakland. The bad tenant is now in Las Vegas and that means the A’s have the park to themselves.
The Oakland Coliseum was forced to have locker rooms for both teams at all times. Now that the Raiders are gone, the A’s get to use the giant football locker room that allows for some necessary social distancing.
Raiders leave the A’s a gift
The video shows just how much space is available to the team and there is also a mention that the colors will be changed soon enough. Yet there is something cool about a baseball team using a football team’s locker room. The “Oakland Raiders” are no more so it also has a vintage feel even if the team just moved.
The best part about the extra space is the A’s being able to social distance in the actual locker room without having to worry too much about using other space in the stadium.
This small victory is long overdue for an A’s team that has been stuck in a football-centric stadium for decades. The team plays 81 games at home per year, while the Raiders had a maximum of 10 and ownership had to be frustrated.
Yet the waiting has paid off and if a new stadium can’t be successfully agreed upon, the A’s can fix up the Coliseum and continue using the football-sized locker rooms. However, fans may prefer for the team to just move on and build a new home.