Post by TheShadow on Apr 27, 2011 4:41:01 GMT -5
www.mercurynews.com/
Oakland Tribune staff report
The A's and Raiders are getting a new stadium — in name only.
Welcome to the Overstock.com Coliseum. You won't have trouble finding the place. It's the same, old gray structure covered with the big green tarps that sits off 66th Ave. in Oakland.
But, thanks to a deal that's expected to be approved Wednesday, an online retailer will pay $1.2 million per year for the next six years to re-name the old Oakland Coliseum, the Bay Citizen reported Tuesday.
For those keeping score, through different naming deals and non-deals the home of the Raiders and A's has been called the Network Associates Coliseum (1998-2004), McAfee Coliseum (2004-08) and Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (2008-11) during the past 13 years.
Yet, for the first time since the McAfee agreement ended in 2008, the Oakland-Alameda Stadium Authority will generate funds from the stadium's name. The Bay Citizen pointed out half of the $1.2 million per year paid by Overstock.com will go directly to the Raiders, satisfying terms of the team's contract when it moved back to Oakland from Los Angeles in 1995.
The other $600,000 will go to the Stadium Authority in order to pay a small part of the more than $100 million debt taxpayers incurred from the deal to lure the Raiders back to the East Bay.
While both the A's and Raiders hold out hope for their own shiny, new stadiums, they also shouldn't get too used to the Overstock.com name. The company is already in the process of streamling and re-naming itself O.co.
In short, the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum will eventually become the O.co Coliseum. It will just be more pricey to say it.
Oakland Tribune staff report
The A's and Raiders are getting a new stadium — in name only.
Welcome to the Overstock.com Coliseum. You won't have trouble finding the place. It's the same, old gray structure covered with the big green tarps that sits off 66th Ave. in Oakland.
But, thanks to a deal that's expected to be approved Wednesday, an online retailer will pay $1.2 million per year for the next six years to re-name the old Oakland Coliseum, the Bay Citizen reported Tuesday.
For those keeping score, through different naming deals and non-deals the home of the Raiders and A's has been called the Network Associates Coliseum (1998-2004), McAfee Coliseum (2004-08) and Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (2008-11) during the past 13 years.
Yet, for the first time since the McAfee agreement ended in 2008, the Oakland-Alameda Stadium Authority will generate funds from the stadium's name. The Bay Citizen pointed out half of the $1.2 million per year paid by Overstock.com will go directly to the Raiders, satisfying terms of the team's contract when it moved back to Oakland from Los Angeles in 1995.
The other $600,000 will go to the Stadium Authority in order to pay a small part of the more than $100 million debt taxpayers incurred from the deal to lure the Raiders back to the East Bay.
While both the A's and Raiders hold out hope for their own shiny, new stadiums, they also shouldn't get too used to the Overstock.com name. The company is already in the process of streamling and re-naming itself O.co.
In short, the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum will eventually become the O.co Coliseum. It will just be more pricey to say it.