The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority has approved a ten-year lease extension for the Oakland Athletics which should keep the A’s playing at the Coliseum until 2024 or within Oakland if the team does make a move.
The deal, which still needs to be approved by the Oakland City Council and Alameda County supervisors, will allow the A’s to move with two-years notice, but the team will be on the hook for paying the rent on the Coliseum for the length of the lease if they move to a stadium outside of Oakland.
The approval comes on the heels of Athletics co-owner Lew Wolff having told the Authority that Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig had granted the A’s the right “to seek a temporary or permanent location outside the city of Oakland” if a new lease wasn’t immediately approved.
Good way to call Oakland’s bluff. Oakland – the only city in California that makes San Francisco look responsibly managed. (OK, ok, exaggeration – clearly we’re at least not bankrupty like Vallejo. But you get my drift…)
Nevertheless, I think this article’s a little optimistic – with rent of only $1.25 million a year, the aggregate cost to the A’s of a move – particularly after a few years have passed – is not going to be that material to them.
That rent cost is just a token fee. The facility probably requires more that that just for maintenance. Then there’s basic city services to support events. This is a public subsidy.
Funny they should choose $1.25M instead of the traditional token one dollar. Maybe to fool casual readers into thinking “yeah, the A’s are paying their way.”.
Lame deal. They should have let them go. 1.25 mil is chump change. Oakland should have more confidence in itself
All Pro Sports team owners are all about OPM (other peoples money) Lew Wolfe is a real estate developer who happens to own a baseball team. He wants free land to develop. He can’t give 2 sh!ts about Baseball or a stadium.
Except the reality is that we are talking about a Ball Park that is literally a TOILET , and has not been properly maintained ,
Oakland Gov can not blame the A;s for not having developed an entertainment district within walking distance of the Park that would have driven the similar level of Economic growth similar to AT&T Park
Candlestick was a toilet also.
SF failed by letting the Niners go to Santa Clara.