Venue News: Oakland Coliseum Becomes Overstock.com Coliseum

The Oakland, CA, Coliseum is getting a new name: Overstock.com Coliseum. It’s the stadium’s third name in 13 years. Overstock will pay $1.2 million a year for the next six years for the naming rights to the home of the Oakland A’s and the Raiders. It appears to be one of the smallest deals for naming rights to an NFL stadium. Overstock may be getting a bargain, but the deal isn’t great for Alameda County taxpayers: half the money will go to the Raiders, under the terms of a previous agreement…

…The key to keeping the Kings and building a new arena in Sacramento, CA, might be a regional push. In the fight for a new arena, regional leaders could move to create a six-county Joint Powers Authority. The regional group would comprise Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer, Yolo, Yuba, and Sutter Counties. They would work together to raise money for a new arena with up to a $300 million price tag. Yuba City Mayor John Dukes is heading up that joint committee. He said the model would work and has been used before to pay for other arenas. Dukes emphasized that there won’t be taxes levied and no money from the general fund used…

Arizona Stadium’s north-end-zone construction could begin as soon as January, University of Arizona Athletic Director Greg Byrne said this week after the school announced three donations to the project. The Arizona Wildcats plan to present a financial model to the Arizona Board of Regents capital committee in May and then meet with the full board in June.

The athletic department plans to show the board how it can pay down debt over the course of 20-30 years, likely with revenue from multimedia rights and other sources. Byrne announced an $11 million gift this week from an anonymous source he described as “longtime supporters of the athletic department and the university”…

…Illinois State University officials say the seats in the south end zone of the school’s football stadium are unsafe and will be torn down. Interim Athletics Director Larry Lyons said Tuesday that engineers recently found that section of Hancock Stadium to be structurally unsound. He said the school plans to erect temporary bleachers for the marching band. The student section will be moved to the east side of the stadium. He said the $350,000 project should be finished in time for the 2011 football season…

…A private proposal for an agreement to build a 22,000-seat arena near the Virginia Beach, VA, Convention Center was nixed by the city this week. City Manager Jim Spore issued a letter saying that the plan had been reviewed. Spore said the city could not offer financial backing to the project, saying he was concerned about potential financial impact on the city. That was after the City Council was briefed in closed session on the proposal.

Password must contain the following:

A lowercase letter

A capital (uppercase) letter

A number

Minimum 8 characters

;
SVGLogoHR_NOTAG-200

The Latest in Sports Video Production & Technology
in Your Inbox for FREE

Daily Email Newsletters Monday - Friday