Let's Watch Oakland's O.co Coliseum Switch from Athletics to Raiders Mode

Did anyone catch the end of the Oakland Raiders-San Diego Chargers game Sunday night?

You cannot be blamed if you didn’t, considering it was the latest West Coast game in NFL history. A scheduling conflict with the Oakland Athletics ended up pushing the Raiders game back to 11:35 EDT, as the groundskeepers needed more time to shift the Coliseum from A’s territory to a Raiders Nation pit.

Here is video of the full transformation, which was spotted by Kyle Wagner of Deadspin. As the last remaining MLB/NFL flex stadium in the nation, it’s pretty cool to see the shift in one time-lapse shot.

As you can see, the crew at the Coliseum didn’t even wait for A’s fans to leave the stadium Saturday night before they began taking down banners and tarping up the field for cranes. The job went all night, and the additional bleachers were still being laid down long after the sun rose in the morning.  

Before:

Image via @Oracle Arena

After:

Image via @Oracle Arena

It was a drastic and (relatively) quick transformation and capped off a great weekend of sports in Oakland. The A’s managed to even things up in the ALDS on Saturday night, beating the Detroit Tigers 1-0 to bring the series to a 1-1 tie. The Raiders also managed to notch a 27-17 victory over the San Diego Chargers on Sunday night. 

For the first time in perhaps forever, it was a better weekend to be a sports fan in Oakland than in Boston. I wouldn’t get used to it, but drink in the moment while it lasts.

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