In light of Rob Manfred’s harsh comments about the Oakland protest, I wanted to remind myself how long Oakland and the Athletics have talked about a new stadium. Here is the result of searching Baseball Musings for “Oakland” and “Stadium”. They’ve been trying to build near Jack London Square since 2009, and at Howard Terminal since 2018.

The thing that surprised me the most, however, was the amount of time since closing the upper deck. That was implemented for the 2006 season:

More important, perhaps, is that the new baseball capacity will be 34,179 — which is just about the size the A’s would like to have if and when they get a new stadium. So, essentially, a smaller Coliseum will be a test run for a new ballpark.

https://www.sfgate.com/

I guess they failed the test. In the long run, the citizens of Oakland should be better off that they didn’t waste money on a new park.