TK Sanders
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The Athletics will likely be the third professional sports team to move out of the city of Oakland if the local government can’t make accommodations for a new ballpark soon. Negotiations toward a new $12 billion ballpark and commercial district on the waterfront continue this week, so we’ll see what happens.
The current plan includes a 35,000-seat ballpark and a mixed-used development of 3,000 homes, 1.5 million square feet of office space, 270,000 square feet of mixed retail, a 3,500-seat performance theater, 400 hotel rooms and about 18 acres of parks and open space at Howard Terminal, which is part of the Port of Oakland near Jack London Square.
So far, the two sides have not found a solution for affordable housing, community benefits and infrastructure funding, such as streets, sidewalks and pedestrian bridges surrounding the site.
The city wants the A’s to contribute significantly to affordable housing development, as well as contribute millions of dollars in community benefits. These types of benefits range from local hiring all the way to providing relocation assistance to residents and businesses currently in the development zones.
The A’s want the city to form a separate assessment district encompassing the Jack London Square area to pay an estimated $350 million for such improvements as pedestrian and vehicle crossings to get A’s fans across train tracks to the ballpark.
The city council voted yesterday to move forward with negotiations, but only under the condition that the team fully agrees to its demands, many of which come from special interest groups and local unions.
It’s a messy situation that could be headed for divorce. Rumors of the team relocating to Las Vegas have been swirling for months, and at this point, it feels like negotiations to stay in Oakland are only happening to show that a sincere effort had been made.
“We are growing increasingly concerned that the council is going to vote on something that doesn’t match what we’ve proposed,” A’s President Dave Kaval said.
For the city to counter with its own terms for financing the project’s infrastructure and dictating other conditions without the team’s buy-in “is not an effective path forward,” Kaval said. Nevertheless, he added, “my phone is open.”
See you in Vegas next summer.
A’s fan here. The team needs to leave. It’s a clown show in Oakland. The coucil demanding that the team build affordable housing is ridiculous.
Do your own jobs, idiots!
And pay for their moves!
You know what would make affordable housing in California? Cutting several miles of red tape back down to a reasonable amount for construction.
The A’s should leave Oakland so the city government can focus all their attention on defunding the police. By the way their is no affordable housing available in California. What nut jobs!!!
Oakland has been a hellhole for decades. The Raiders left three times. The NBA team left. The crime in the city has been out of control. Infrastructure is deteriorating.
Oakland is a failed city. The State of California is a failed state with out of control crime and unaffordable housing. Homelessness across the state and in every major city is out of control with no real solution except throwing money at buying tents for people to live in.
Sounds like a great plan. Go to a game and park your car, walk around with your iPhone with cash and credit cards, in your pocket for food and merch in a low income/affordable housing neighborhood.
Was an on/off A’s ticket holder before I left the state. The parking lot of a freeway and the cesspool of humanity on BART made the Coliseum a pain in the ass. Local govt is too stupid to do anything but ask for a hand out, pass the buck, or kick the can. A’s need to join me in Nevada. Games in Oakland would be closer to me than Vegas but visiting CA is like visiting the dentist.
FYI – to build a typical single family home in CA you will need $150k for the local gov before you can even break ground. The pension system (calpers/calstrs) in CA is outta control.
Form oakland city audit 6/2021 –
City revenues for the period FY 2019-20 $1247 Million
The City’s pension liability increased from $1.655 billion to $1.717 billion between FY 2018-19 and FY 2019-20
The A’s are gone. Unless you have the money like Kroenke to do whatever you want, you’re not getting a new stadium.
The biggest misnomer in California’s “affordable housing” laws. is they ignore there is affordable housing in the area. But they want affordable housing where you are building, which means they are demanding “affordable (cheap) housing” at the beach, or in expensive locations that employed, well-off middle class people can not dream of buying. Its a joke