With the Athletics victory over the Detroit Tigers Saturday night, the groundskeepers began the 20 hour task of converting the Oakland Coliseum from baseball diamond to football field in time for the Chargers vs. Raiders game Sunday night at the unusually late time of 8:35pm Pacific Time. The Entire conversion, including the safety inspections and trash clean up, costs over $250,000 each time they do it. The tasks done include:
» The outfield fence pads and fence posts are removed and stored.
» 6,000 visitor sideline seats — in seven sections — are loaded onto carts on wheels.
» “Tons” of plywood are laid down in the center field section of the stadium. “Huge” railroad ties allow two large cranes to do their thing.
» Workers walk through the stadium, cleaning up trash that accumulated during an A’s game that’s expected to draw close to 50,000 fans. “Non-essential signage” also will be removed and stored.
» The pitching mound must be removed from what will be midfield on the Raiders’ sideline. Two bullpen mounds — one in each end zone — also are removed. Sod is laid down.
» The yard lines and hash marks must be repainted, after the same markings were dyed green for baseball. This typically requires 35-to-40 gallons of white paint. The infield dirt is patted down.
It’s an amazing process, but at a cost of $250,000 each way, Oakland definitely needs to get their stadium situation handled.