MESA, Ariz. — Try to wrap your mind around this: the Coliseum as a drawing card for foodies, beer lovers and baseball history aficionados.

For years, decades even, the food and beverage options at the A’s stadium have been mediocre at best, and the nods to the team’s rich past only cursory. Under new team President Dave Kaval, that is changing; there will be added dining options, a new tavern and an embrace of the team’s history.

Each game, there will be eight to 16 gourmet food trucks, including vegetarian and gluten-free options, on the plaza between the Coliseum and Oracle Arena, and a big video board will allow fans to patronize the trucks and play bocce ball and other games without missing any action. The plaza will be renamed Champions Pavilion and will feature flags from all nine team titles, going back to the Philadelphia A’s.

Connie Mack’s teams are referenced again at the new Shibe Park Tavern, which will include artifacts from the team’s primary Philadelphia stadium, including brickwork; A’s director of stadium operations David Rinetti worked with the Philadelphia A’s Historical Society to find photos and memorabilia to display. And not least, the tavern, formerly the West Side Club, will feature 24 beers on tap after a $1 million renovation.

“I think that’s going to be a really good place for people to hang out,” Kaval said. “And it’s open for everyone. We want to honor our past, but we don’t want to make it exclusionary.”

Even the Coliseum concessions have been upgraded, with $600,000-$700,000 of work to enable food preparation right at the stands, rather than getting everything hauled up from the kitchen level. The team will release menus with a list of new options in a few weeks.

“I appreciate the fact he’s trying to spruce it up for our fans, give them more options, create a better atmosphere at our ballpark,” said A’s manager Bob Melvin, who grew up attending games and concerts at the Coliseum. “We appreciate that, too. We like our fans to be in a good mood.”

Kaval said the team continues to investigate sites for a stadium — the current location, Laney College and other potential areas around Lake Merritt, and Howard Terminal — and he emphasized that the Raiders’ future has no bearing on what the A’s are doing. “Our process is completely independent of what they’re doing,” Kaval said. “I hope they stay. I don’t like teams moving.”

Briefly: Rain moved the A’s first full workout indoors, with players hitting in the cage in the morning. … The team has 70 players in camp, the largest contingent since 1982. The A’s had to truck in five lockers from Oakland to accommodate everyone. … Former A’s second baseman Mark Ellis is in camp for the next week to work with a large bunch of young infielders, and he’ll be back for another week later in the spring. “We’re trying to increase his workload this spring,” Melvin said. “I’ll take Mark Ellis as many days as I can have him.”

Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.