Network Associate Coliseum

Network Associate Coliseum Address: 7000 Coliseum Way Oakland, CA 94621

Network Associate Coliseum is Home to the: Oakland Raiders

Network Associate Coliseum Opened: September 18, 1966

Network Associate Coliseum Capacity: 64,000

The National Football League’s Oakland Raiders have called Network Associates Coliseum their home for more than 20 years, albeit in two different stints. The Raiders played their first game in Network Associates Coliseum when it was still called Oakland Coliseum in 1966. The coliseum is shared with Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics. Before the Raiders moved to Los Angeles in 1982 Network Associates Coliseum was more of a baseball stadium than a football stadium. The seats were almost exclusively where the outfield bleachers were and that hurt the Raiders bottom line. After spending over a decade in Los Angeles the city of Oakland was working out a new way to bring the Raiders back to Oakland. In November of 1995 the city poured $200 million into the stadium and brought the Raiders back to Oakland.

The stadium isn’t so much known for anything physically part of the Network Associates Coliseum but rather for the people that show up to the games. There is a section behind one of the endzones that is lovingly referred to as the “Black Hole.” Within there people will dress up in black and silver face paint and wear shoulder pads adorned with huge silver spikes and call themselves Darth Raider. It’s what makes the experience of a Raider game so great for the fans and so scary for the opposing teams’ players all at the same time.