The Oakland Athletics have finally proposed a site for their brand new ballpark.

The 13 acre plot of land on the Laney College campus appears to be a great location, considering it’s near downtown, next to I-880, and only a nine minute walk from the Lake Merritt BART station.

Local A’s fan Ken Carlock from Concord, likes the location and the activities around it.

“There are lots of restaurants nearby, and Chinatown is close too” said Carlock.

The proposed ballpark will provide a much needed upgrade from the rundown, aging Oakland Coliseum, which has been around for over 51 years.

A’s fans have been yearning for a new stadium for quite some time now, and while many are excited to have a new venue to call home, others are frightened by the expected problems the new stadium will bring to the community.

While the stadium is privately financed, which is a rarity in professional sports these days, many feel that the stadium will bring issues to the surrounding neighborhoods.

Fan and Oakland resident Thomas Jackubek, who happens to live by Lake Merritt, believes the surrounding neighborhoods will see some residents having to leave the area.

“Absolutely, it will even force families to move out, and for some that’s their last resort for a home” said Jackubek.

Surrounding neighborhoods will definitely experience different types of hardships with a new stadium, and some may involve other fans.

Parking at any stadium these days is expensive, so fans are always looking for a way to save a few bucks on game day.

It is almost guaranteed that fans will go into surrounding neighborhoods and park in front of houses, which is just asking for blocked driveways and trash.

Another problem with the proposed downtown site is that fans will likely not be able to tailgate the same way they would at the Coliseum.

San Ramon resident and tailgater Brian Rodgers knows the potential parking situation could make tailgating a difficulty.

“Yeah, thats the thing, you don’t really know what the parking could be like, it could be far away and make it harder to tailgate” said Rodgers.

Part of the A’s game day experience is the fans interacting with each other in the parking lot and building relationships with other fans.

The new stadium site would likely provide a parking situation comparable to their rival San Francisco Giants across the bay at AT&T Park.

The Giants don’t allow tailgating in their parking lots, and the same can be said about the various third-party parking lots throughout the area.

The Coliseum has little to no aspects of their stadium that do it better than AT&T Park, but tailgating is one of the few things the A’s have over the Giants.

The A’s need to continue the fan mystique that comes along with tailgating and bring that into any new stadium plans they come up with.

Overall, A’s fans should be excited that the necessary steps towards a new stadium have been taken. However it has become quite apparent that there are still some kinks to be worked out.