Alameda County to sell ownership share in Coliseum to Athletics

Sarah Ravani of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted on Monday to sell its share of ownership in the Coliseum arena complex to the Oakland Athletics. The vote was unanimous at 5-0. Thus ends years of fighting between the city of Oakland and the Athletics.

The Coliseum is currently home to the Athletics and the NFL’s Oakland Raiders. The Raiders, however, will be moving to Las Vegas for the 2020 season. As Ravani notes, the Athletics plan to redevelop the property into a “multisports facility” that includes affordable housing and parks. Per Ravani, the Athletics will pay a total of $85 million across six years, plus cover $5 million annually in operating costs.

Per MLB.com’s Martín Gallegos, Athletics president Dave Kaval said, “We are deeply appreciative to Alameda County Board of Supervisors and Alameda County staff for their work on this transaction. We are committed to the long-term success of East Oakland and the Coliseum site, and as a result of this transaction, millions of dollars that were being spent on the Coliseum site can now be repurposed to meet important health and safety needs in Alameda County. We now look forward to creating a mutually beneficial partnership with the City of Oakland.”

The Athletics don’t plan to stay in the Coliseum for long, however. The organization has been considering the Howard Terminal site as a potential location for a new ballpark and progress has been made recently. The Athletics were recently granted four years to perform an environmental review of a proposal to rent out land in the port of Oakland.

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CARSON CITY, Nev. — A bill introduced in the Nevada Legislature would give the Oakland Athletics up to $380 million for a potential 30,000 seat, $1.5 billion retractable roof stadium on the Las Vegas Strip.

The bulk of the public funding would come from $180 million in transferable tax credits from the state and $120 million in county bonds, which can vary based on interest rate returns. Clark County also would contribute $25 million in credit toward infrastructure costs.

The A’s have been looking for a home to replace Oakland Coliseum, where the team has played since arriving from Kansas City for the 1968 season. The team had sought to build a stadium in Fremont, San Jose and finally the Oakland waterfront, all ideas that never materialized.

The plan in the Nevada Legislature won’t directly raise taxes. It can move forward with a simply majority vote in the Senate and Assembly. Lawmakers have a little more than a week to consider the proposal before they adjourn June 5, though it could be voted on if a special session is called.

The Athletics have agreed to use land on the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip, where the Tropicana Las Vegas casino resort sits. Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao has said he is disappointed the team didn’t negotiate with Oakland as a “true partner.”

Las Vegas would be the fourth home for a franchise that started as the Philadelphia Athletics from 1901-54. It would become the smallest TV market in Major League Baseball and the smallest market to be home to three major professional sports franchises.

The team and Las Vegas are hoping to draw from the nearly 40 million tourists who visit the city annually to help fill the stadium. The 30,000-seat capacity would make it the smallest MLB stadium.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said a vote on the Oakland Athletics’ prospective move to Las Vegas could take place when owners meet June 13-15 in New York.

The plan faces an uncertain path in the Nevada Legislature. Democratic leaders said financing bills, including for the A’s, may not go through if Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoes the five budget bills, which he has threatened to do as many of his priorities have stalled or faded in the Democratic-controlled Legislature.

Under the bill, the Clark County Board of Commissioners would create a homelessness prevention and assistance fund along the stadium’s area in coordination with MLB and the Nevada Resort Association. There, they would manage funds for services, including emergency rental and utility assistance, job training, rehabilitation and counseling services for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

The lease agreement with the Las Vegas Stadium Authority would be up for renewal after 30 years.

Nevada’s legislative leadership is reviewing the proposal, Democratic state Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager said in a statement.

“No commitment will be made until we have both evaluated the official proposal and received input from interested parties, including impacted community members,” Yeager said.