McAfee Coliseum

The Oakland Raiders played their first game at the Oakland Coliseum on September 18, 1966. The Oakland Coliseum had 45,000 seats when it opened. Designed to be multipurpose, the Raiders were the sole tenant of the coliseum for two years. After the 1967, the Kansas City A’s (MLB) moved to Oakland, and began playing at the stadium in 1968. The Oakland Coliseum was built more for baseball than football. Many of the 45,000 seats were in three tiers from the right field foul pole and circling around to the left field foul pole. Bleacher seats were beyond the outfield wall. The Oakland Coliseum was converted two ways from baseball to football when the A’s moved into the stadium. The MLB season overlapped the first couple of weeks of the NFL season. During this time, the NFL gridiron was located between home plate and centerfield, making the conversion process simpler. Once baseball was over, the gridiron was located along the first and third base areas. The Raiders played at the Coliseum until the 1981 season. In 1982 they moved to the Los Angeles Coliseum.

After more than a decade without the Raiders, the city began trying to get the team to come back to the Oakland Coliseum. As part of an agreement, the Raiders decided to move back to the Oakland Coliseum. In November 1995, a $200 million project began to add over 22,000 seats to the stadium. All of the outfield bleachers were removed and replaced with a four tier grandstand, that includes 125 luxury suites. The Raiders moved back into the coliseum for the 1996 season. In 1998, the Oakland Coliseum was renamed Network Associates Coliseum. The stadium received a new name after the 2004 NFL season, and is now known as McAfee Coliseum. Since the addition to the coliseum, it has become more of a football stadium than a baseball stadium.