The O.co Coliseum is currently the fifth-oldest stadium in Major League Baseball, and the only venue left in the United States to host both baseball and the NFL (Rogers Centre in Toronto hosts both the Blue Jays and the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts).
Commissioner Bud Selig created a commission to study the problems surrounding the Oakland A’s inability to get a new stadium and help the organization attain that goal. However, four years later that commission has yielded no public results.
Is raw sewage seeping out of the showers the wake-up call that the A’s really, truly need a new stadium?
After Oakland’s Sunday 10-2 win over the Seattle Mariners, both teams were forced to shower in the Oakland Raiders’ clubhouse due to raw sewage seeping into both the home and visiting baseball clubhouses, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The problem was due to a plumbing blockage on the first floor of the stadium, which has been a known problem for years. The Raiders’ clubhouse is on the second floor, which is why it was not affected.
“Kind of a weird thing,” A’s catcher John Jaso said. “The ups and downs of the Coliseum. Did you hear how loud it got in the stadium when Josh Reddick hit his triple? It was booming. Then you come in here and you’ve got to find another place to shower.”
Since both teams were forced to use the same facilities, they showered at the same time and had to trudge up and down stairs in towels to get to the Raiders’ locker room. The umpiring crew and most of both coaching staffs left without showering. Luckily for the A’s, it didn’t affect any fan facilities.
“It’s clear, right?” said A’s president Michael Crowley, when asked about the need for a new stadium. “This isn’t the first time this has happened.”
As a matter of fact, the Angels once filed a formal complaint with Major League Baseball about the conditions in the visiting clubhouse at the Coliseum. They said conditions were unsanitary, and that they were worried about E. coli.
Photo via Wikimedia Commons/O.co Coliseum
