KANSAS CITY -- The A's are making good on a long-standing request from their fans, with plans to take down the tarps covering the third-deck seats.
"The best fans in baseball deserve the opportunity to experience the whole stadium," A's president Dave Kaval said in a release on Tuesday.
Kaval made the announcement on Facebook Live, exclaiming, "The fans have spoken. We're taking off the tarps."
The tarps will be removed ahead of a 10-game homestand that begins Friday with a three-game set against the Astros. The A's have pledged a donation of 50 percent of these View Level ticket purchases -- currently priced at $15 -- during the homestand to Oakland Promise, an initiative that aims to triple the number of college graduates from Oakland in the next decade.
More than 12,000 additional seats will now be available in the View Level sections of 300-315 and 319-334, bringing the Coliseum capacity to 47,170. The tarps on Mount Davis will stay in place, however.
Oakland's average home attendance for the 2016 season was 18,784. In '15, it was 21,829, and in '14, it was 25,045. In that three-year span, the A's had a combined 17 sellouts.
Their sellout crowd of 36,067 -- 1,000 of these tickets being standing-room only -- on Opening Night last week was their first since June 30, 2016, against the cross-Bay-rival Giants.
"We heard from fans that wanted us to open up additional seats, including the upper deck," Kaval said. "We want them to know we are listening to them and responding."
The tarps have been in place since 2006, and they've only been removed once from the original third deck, for the '13 American League Division Series against Detroit.