By Rick Kaplan staff writer

I can’t argue with reality–You can almost certainly make more money in Fremont or Las Vegas.

But we need you more in Oakland.

Be forewarned. The baseball Gods are on our side. I have been informed by my sources that if you go ahead and Silicon-ize our A’s, then a horrible curse shall befall them that will make the eighty-eight year hex on the Red Sox seem like nothing more than a momentary hiccup.

Instead, let’s do something really special here. We think the Coliseum – yes, a beautifully and affordably re-configured and updated Coliseum – can be a model of community involvement and pride for the Bay Area, and the whole country.

Click below for the answer!The field could be lowered by 6-8 feet, enabling a movable baseball diamond-conforming seating configuration that would create a few thousand new, prime seats closer to the infield and a more traditional and aesthetic look to the diamond. Rather than completely closing the upper deck, a baseball-only configuration could be applied here too, possibly eliminating the seldom used seats near the foul poles during the baseball season.

Then the upper grandstand could be remade into more of an attractive destination, with a greater variety and quantity of family amenities, such as the kinds of first rate ballpark food choices that the fans down below take for granted. Some ingenuity in regard to heat and shelter would go a long way in making the upper deck a more congenial place to watch Oakland’s favorite team.

And scoreboard and electronic gadgetry can complement a park and give it a contemporary feel, while being mindful of not turning it into a giant video game. Angels Stadium in Anaheim, having the advantage of being a baseball-only site (though not nearly as well-maintained as the Coliseum) has done an impressive rewiring job here.

Looking across the bay to our well-endowed cousins, some people want to compare the A’s venue to the Giants’ dazzling digs. AT&T Park is a beautiful facility, a new park, with new fans all over the globe. It even plays like a classic ballpark, to the Giants’ credit, and it’s amenities and food are world class. And its views rival the Grand Canyon.

But the A’s and their fans are not, and hopefully never will be, baseball tourists, Mr. Wolff. We come to see the game, not the stars and the yachts. Rather, we want to only preserve and take care of our home and our fans.

In fact, there is a hopeful pathway along these preservationist lines now opening alongside the recent retro ballpark boom. On the one hand, many teams, including the Cardinals in their spanking new park which opened last week (which, incidentally, replaced a rather elegant facility born in the same year, 1966, as the Coliseum) have gone for the ‘destroy-build’ approach.

But others are now looking to ‘grow-in-place.’

The Dodgers are completing a comprehensive remodeling of Dodger Stadium, for less than $100M, and showing what can be done to tastefully and affordably enhance and improve what they already have. And Kansas City, home of the esteemed ROK ballpark design firm, is on the verge of putting their resources into an updating of the popular Kaufman Stadium rather than going the mallpark route.

Both socially and aesthetically this approach is very promising and exciting. At a time when there is much concern over living more harmoniously with the earth, the Dodgers have used an existing facility to create a model of creative recycling which is more pleasing to eye, and the team pocketbook, than many of the new facilities. Some of which, although new and heavily marketed, have already come perilously close to achieving financial boondoggle status, such as the sudsy Selig family’s Brewers Park and poorly attended World Champion White Sox’ Comiskey Park.

The Dodgers seemed to go for quality, not just trendiness. And their approach might be a model for the Athletics, despite Dodger Stadium having been built, unlike the Coliseum, as a baseball-only facility.

The Dodgers added some 1600 seats in what was formerly playable foul territory, conforming the seating closer to the infield, as suggested above in regard to a new, more intimate layout for the Coliseum. Amenities such as luxury boxes and improved food facilities and rest rooms have been upgraded, and the park has a virtually “new” look, while retaining the traditional feel of one of baseball’s favorite venues.

Any changes on the scale proposed here for the Coliseum would naturally involve some disruptions to the home schedules of the A’s and the Raiders. Presumably, practical scheduling arrangements involving other local facilities, such as Candlestick, AT&T, or even Raley Field in Sacramento, could be employed on a temporary basis.

It’s true–We have uncommon goals. We are talking about a different business model and ethics in this column than the kinds of ruthless corporate practices which we are all becoming accustomed these days, where profits are maximized and people and social consequences are minimized.

You have a chance here in Oakland to make a statement about what business and baseball could be about. You have demonstrated an awareness in your public statements that school children and hospital patients matter as much as bonus babys and DHs. And I salute you for that.

This column is suggesting that the Athletics and yourself have an opportunity to go beyond that awareness and to historically impact the same social issues you recently identified, in a bold experiment where the community’s gratitude would likely be enormous and the profits at least adequate to stay in the black.

We have a chance to do something extraordinary right here, both for baseball and the community.

Athletics crowds are among the most integrated in the country. Employees at the ballpark reflect the face of the surrounding community. This character, a big part of the A’s tradition and success, will be utterly destroyed with the move to a suburban mallpark.

Dave Stewart, a paragon of the A’s community-based blue collar personality, recently told of hitchhiking as a teenager to A’s games from his East Oakland home and how he was given a lift, and the start of a lifelong friendship, by none other than Reggie Jackson himself. Can a ballclub’s roots go any deeper? Rickey Henderson, of Oakland Technical High School, came back to the A’s and his hometown four times (and we would love to see him again!). Dennis Eckersley, another hometown hero from the late-’80s mini-dynasty, was born in Oaktown.

The Coliseum is a storied ball park with a grand tradition, home of one of the truly elite franchises in the history of baseball. Tied with the St. Louis Cardinals for the second most World Series titles, nine, to the Yankees twenty-six, the Coliseum has been home to the only team in baseball in the last forty years that has gone to the Series three consecutive seasons two different times.

You are a highly successful builder and project organizer. That means you know how important the concept is in any project of consequence. Your plan for the 66th Ave. site was bold and appealing, but apparently couldn’t overcome the entrenched obstacles. Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. Please consider the hopes and dreams of the people of Oakland, and the great tradition of the Oakland Athletics.