OAKLAND — Eddie DeBartolo looked at Candlestick Park and saw a pig sty. Amanda Tugwell beheld the oft-maligned wind bucket and imagined a tourist trap.

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A’s hope history & food trucks will enhance Coliseum experience This was about five years ago when Tugwell, a San Francisco State University student, had received an internship with the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department. Her assignment: The ‘Stick, already consigned to the gallows. Her first day on the job she did a walk-around with the stadium manager.

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“As I’m walking around,” said Tugwell, 29, a San Jose native who grew up a sports nut, “I’m seeing all this cool stuff and I said, ‘Fans need to see this.’”

The Candlestick tour program she built became front-page news in the Wall Street Journal. The opportunity for tour-goers to recreate The Catch was a big hit. But when the demo equipment showed up, it was time to leave.

“So I called over to Oakland and I said, ‘You guys don’t have tours,’ ” Tugwell said.

They do now. Tugwell began conducting Coliseum complex tours shortly after the new year began. For $20 you can take a 90-minute, behind-the-curtain visit to the Oakland Coliseum. Ten bucks more will get you a tour of Oracle Arena. You’re rolling your eyes, aren’t you? I know I did. To me, the Coliseum is at that awkward age — too old to be state-of-the-art, but without the attendant sentiment and romance reserved for facilities with a tear-down date. (Whereas Oracle, built at the same time as the Coliseum, is aging wonderfully.)

Exactly what is to be seen in the old gray lady? Real drains where real sewage backed up to the consternation of real athletes? The interview room where coach Bill Callahan called the Raiders “the dumbest team in America”? Wise cracks — I had a million of them. I junked them after speaking with Andy Dolich.

“I wouldn’t say it’s the magic kingdom, but magic has occurred there as it pertains to sports,” said Dolich, an A’s executive during the team’s Walter Haas ownership. “Think about the history of Oakland, the history of the three teams. These buildings, they’re really the last town squares in our society. It’s the last place people can get together from all aspects and have a good time and see stuff you couldn’t predict.”

Happily, “stuff you couldn’t predict” was on the itinerary during a recent tour populated by about a dozen curiosity seekers from Japan, South Korea, South Carolina and the Bay Area. A trip to the Raiders locker room was received enthusiastically. All the room was a stage, save for the Raiders shield painted on the black carpet. It was cordoned off.

“It’s considered bad luck for people to step on it,” Tugwell said.

Tugwell was a fount of factoids. The A’s and Raiders are “basically a divorced couple” who hide each other’s logos, photos and signage when it’s their turn to use the facility. The Coliseum tour hit the press box, the East Side Club and the stadium floor. The soggy bottom sits 22 feet below sea level. At Oracle, the paint that decorates the ice on which skaters perform is flour-based and edible.

The arena tour included luxury suites, which go for as much as $500,000 per season (it is said the women’s spa-like restroom is almost worth the price of admission); the visitor’s locker room (starkly utilitarian); and (brief) access to the floor.

Brian Sue, 49, born and raised in Oakland, called it a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity.

“I always wanted to visit a locker room,” he said. “I thought I never would.”

Kozue Fumikura, 19, is a college student majoring in sports management. Her interest in Oracle wasn’t purely academic.

“I’m a really big fan of the Warriors,” she said, giggling.

Tugwell is a really big fan of fans.

“I like connecting and giving them an experience,” she said.