May 23, 2024
Oakland to sell A's stadium as Major League Baseball team exits for Las Vegas
, Bloomberg News
With the Oakland Athletics playing their final season in Oakland, the city has agreed to sell its stake in the stadium where the baseball team has played since 1968.
The city is selling its one-half share of the 155-acre complex for a minimum of US$105 million to the African American Sports & Entertainment Group, whose plans for the site include residential and commercial uses. Oakland will use the proceeds to help offset a projected $292 million budget deficit over the next two fiscal years and avoid layoffs.
“Oakland is committed to bringing new investments to our communities to help boost economic growth that includes strong community benefits, builds desperately needed affordable housing, and invests in local jobs for Oaklanders,” Mayor Sheng Thao said in a statement. “This agreement puts us on a path towards a more equitable and resilient Oakland.”
The agreement caps Oakland’s decades-long losing streak on keeping major pro teams. The National Basketball Association’s Golden State Warriors crossed the bay to San Francisco in 2019. The following year, the National Football League’s Raiders, which had returned to the city after an earlier exit, departed again, this time for Las Vegas.
Major League Baseball’s A’s announced last year that the team had decided to move to Las Vegas after owner John Fisher and the city failed to agree on a plan for a massive commercial and residential development that would have included a new waterfront stadium.
With the A’s contract for the current venue expiring at the end of the season, the club is planning to play at a minor league field 86 miles (138 kilometers) up the highway in West Sacramento until its new ballpark on the Las Vegas Strip is available — if all goes to plan — in 2028.
Fisher will still control the other half of the Oakland stadium site, which includes an indoor arena. His $85 million purchase of it from Alameda County, though, is still being fought over in court.
The city previously awarded exclusive negotiating rights for the complex to the African American Sports & Entertainment Group, led by business and public sector veterans with deep roots in the community.
AASEG has been working with the United Soccer League’s Oakland Roots on a 10,000-seat stadium near the site. It has also has pursued a WNBA franchise for the arena and has eyed prospects for an NFL expansion team.
