Image Credit: D.L. - Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Oakland Athletics are announcing a goodwill effort for the 2018 season called “Community Impact Wednesdays”. The organization will give baseball fans the opportunity to name their price for tickets in section 322 on the upper level of Oakland Coliseum. Bids must be greater than $1 per ticket and all proceeds will be donated to the Oakland A’s community fund. The promotion will run every Wednesday for the entire duration of the 2018 Major League Baseball season.

Image Credit: Dennis Jarvis (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The first indoor hockey game was played in 1875 in Montreal, Quebec. Fast forward more than 100 years later and the National Hockey League has expanded to 31 teams in North America and could possibly add more in the near future. We wanted to compile a list of the largest NHL hockey arenas in Canada. Our list begins with the Bell MTS Place in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Image Credit: KA Sports Photos (CC BY-SA 2.0)

After finishing the 2017 season near the bottom of Major League Baseball’s attendance standings, the Baltimore Orioles are making a family-friendly offer to fans this season. The promotion is called “Kids Cheer Free” and will run the entire 2018 season. For every upper level ticket sold, an adult will be given two free tickets if they’re accompanied by children under the age of 9.

Image Credit: Daniel Julia Lundgren (CC BY-SA 2.0)

In case you haven’t noticed, the culture in Seattle, Washington is a little…different. And the Seattle Mariners organization appears to be just as eccentric. Last week, the team announced they will be adding a donut bar to Safeco Field in 2018. This comes one year after hosting “Yoga Day” at the ballpark as well as debuting toasted grasshoppers as a food offering.

Image Credit: Erik Smith/Facebook

The Los Angeles Dodgers will be dedicating a bleacher seat to former Dodger Kirk Gibson in the right field pavilion of Dodger Stadium. The seat will commemorate the landing spot of Gibson’s game-winning home run during game 1 of the 1988 World Series vs. the Oakland Athletics. The seat will be sold as two tickets for $150 each for the entire season and will include all-inclusive food as well as two t-shirts. More than 60% of the proceeds from the Kirk Gibson seats will be donated to the Kirk Gibson Foundation which raises awareness for Parkinson’s Disease.

Image Credit: Stephen Kruso (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Just a few weeks ago, all 30 Major League Baseball teams announced that they would be extending the protective netting at their home stadiums to better protect spectators. The move comes after a young girl was violently struck by a foul ball at Yankee Stadium last summer. The San Diego Padres recently released the details pertaining to expanding the protective netting at Petco Park.

Image Credit: Kathy - Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Jack Nicholson has been a Los Angeles Lakers season ticket holder since the 1970’s. The talented actor always sits courtside at the Staples Center and is one of the most recognizable celebrities at Lakers games in addition to David Beckham, James Goldstein and Rihanna. However, on Sunday night when the Lakers were hosting the Cleveland Cavaliers, Nicholson was asked to show his ticket to the courtside usher.

Image Credit: Ken Lund (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Angel Stadium of Anaheim is one of the oldest stadiums in Major League Baseball. However, age doesn’t make the venue immune to updates and changes. The Los Angeles Angels have announced that they will be lowering the height of the home run boundary in right field from 18 feet to 8 feet.

Image Credit: JonDoeForty1-Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Oakland Athletics have been playing at Oakland Coliseum since 1968 and have spent the last several years lobbying for the construction of a new stadium. Out of left field (no pun intended), the team will be adding a 10,000 square foot party area where the left field bleachers used to be. The area will be called “The Treehouse” and will consist of an indoor bar, a bar and lounge on an outdoor terrace as well as a patio deck.

Image Credit: Abdallahh - Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Talks between the Calgary Flames organization and the city of Calgary about the construction of a new arena in downtown Calgary have officially stalled. The talks have actually been stalled for several months now, at least according to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. The proposed arena would be built in the Victoria Park section of downtown Calgary which sits just north of the Scotiabank Saddledome. Neither the team nor the city was able to agree on how the project would be funded which is common for most new stadium talks. Over the last two years, many cities across North America have begun to put up resistance when sports teams ask for public dollars to build new stadiums.

Image Credit: Angela N (CC BY 2.0)

The Oak View Group, the investment group desperately trying to secure an NHL franchise for the city of Seattle, received an enormous response for their season ticket drive earlier this week. Seattle area residents were asked to put down a $500 or $1000 deposit for season tickets to gauge the city’s interest in an NHL expansion team. Not only did the Oak View Group secure more than 25,000 season ticket deposits in an hour, the deposit drive also caused Ticketmaster’s computer systems to crash.

Image Credit: Grangernite - Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

The Detroit Tigers and Comerica Bank have agreed to extend the current naming rights agreement for Comerica Park for another five years. The original naming rights agreement was signed in 1998 while Comerica Park was being constructed and the Tigers were still playing their home games at Tiger Stadium.

Image Credit: Doug Kerr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The New York Islanders will begin playing their home games at a brand-new arena in Belmont Park, New York beginning in 2021. Until then, the team will split their regular season home games between the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the team’s current home, and the old Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. Nassau Coliseum recently completed a major renovation and reopened in 2017. The move marks the first time in NHL history that a team has split it’s home games between two arenas over multiple seasons.

Image Credit: Phil Dolby (CC BY 2.0)

The New York Jets have announced that they will be freezing all ticket prices for the 2018 and 2019 NFL seasons for fans enrolled in the 10 and 12-month installment plans. Following the franchise’s second straight 5-11 season and seven-year playoff drought, season ticket prices will decline by an average of 11% next season. The 11% decrease in season ticket prices is the largest drop since the Jets first moved into Metlife Stadium nearly 10 years ago.

Image Credit: Daveynin (CC BY 2.0)

The Terrible Towel is a rally towel and an iconic piece of NFL and Pittsburgh Steelers history. The idea of the Terrible Towel was dreamed up by Myron Cope who served as the voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers for more than 30 years. The Terrible Towel made it’s debut on December 27, 1975 when the Steelers hosted the Baltimore Colts during the 1975 NFL Playoffs.

Image Credit: Mack Male (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Chicago Bulls will host their third NBA All-Star Game when they host the event on February 16^th, 2020 at the United Center. The game will be the 69^th NBA All-Star Game and will be the first held at the United Center which originally opened in 1994. The Bulls haven’t hosted an NBA All-Star Game since 1988 and before that, 1973.

Image Credit: TruffShuff - Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Baltimore Ravens have sold out every home game at M&T Bank Stadium since the team relocated from Cleveland in 1996. However, in light of the ongoing national anthem protests and declining attendance league-wide, the Ravens were forced to advertise tickets for Sunday’s matchup vs. the Detroit Lions. To say the Baltimore Ravens organization and the rest of the league are panicking about the decline in television ratings and game attendance would be an understatement.

Image Credit: Ken Lund (CC BY_SA 2.0)

The Pontiac Silverdome, located in Pontiac, Michigan, was home to the Detroit Lions from 1975 until 2001. Since 2001, the Pontiac Silverdome has been sitting idly and decaying. There are have been several efforts to revive the venue, however, nothing meaningful has ever come to fruition. Various events were held at the Silverdome as late as 2013. Triple Investment Group of Toronto, Ontario purchased the Pontiac Silverdome in 2009 for $583,000 at a public auction. After a snowstorm destroyed the stadium’s roof in 2013, the Silverdome began to decay at an even quicker pace.

Image Credit: George Kelly (CC BY 2.0)

One look at the exterior of Oakland Coliseum, home of the Oakland Athletics, and it becomes blatantly obvious that the team needs an upgrade in it's home stadium. Well friends, that day seems to be drawing near. The Oakland Athletics have chosen the future site of their new stadium and it sits near Laney College. The plot of land the team is interested in sits between Lake Merritt and I-880. Currently, there are warehouses, parking lots and offices that belong to the Peralta Community College District occupying the area. The Athletics organization will need to purchase and raze the entire area before construction can begin. The ballpark is not expected to be constructed for several more years.

Image Credit: Chris Martin (CC BY 2.0)

In case you haven’t noticed, Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers, has been virtually empty on more than one occasion this season. One of those reasons appears to be because the east side of the stadium offers virtually no shade for fans on hot and sunny game days. This was especially the case for the first home game of the season when the team hosted the Carolina Panthers. As a result, the San Francisco 49ers organization have hired Populous, an architectural firm in Kansas City, to see if awnings can be added to Levi’s Stadium.