The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum site remains under consideration in the Oakland A’s new ballpark search, though the team is evaluating multiple options.
For their effort to construct a new ballpark in Oakland, the A’s have zeroed in on the Coliseum, land near Laney College, and Howard Terminal as site options. The site near Laney College was announced as the team’s preferred choice last September, but that effort hit a roadblock in December when discussions with the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees collapsed. While the location near Laney College has not been ruled out, both Howard Terminal and the Coliseum are still options that the team is considering.
There has been an interesting development concerning the Coliseum’s future, as it was recently reported by The San Francisco Chronicle that the City of Oakland is proposing to take sole ownership of the site. That would effectively end a shared ownership arrangement between the city and Alameda County, and potentially simplify discussions concerning any future development at the site. According to A’s president Dave Kaval, the Coliseum site is still in the mix for a new ballpark, but the team has not made a final decision to this point. More from The San Francisco Chronicle:
“We’re parallel-pathing those two things,” he said of studying Howard Terminal and the Coliseum. “Folks will see more progress on that in the next couple of months.”
The Chronicle’s recent report about the city of Oakland’s proposal to own the Coliseum area outright, rather than jointly with the county, could factor into the decision, too, Kaval said. “We’re trying to understand what that means,” he said. “Right now, when we look at the locations, the only viable location for an A’s ballpark is the Oakland Coliseum, where we currently play. We need to make sure we retain the option to build there, a privately financed stadium. We’ve been very clear with the city, county and JPA that that’s an important part of this.”
Would the A’s have any interest in buying the Coliseum land? “All those things are on the table,” Kaval said.
When it comes to the Coliseum site, there are more factors beyond the A’s desire for a new ballpark that will affect the area’s future. The NFL’s Oakland Raiders are set to relocate to Las Vegas in 2020, while the NBA’s Golden State Warriors are expected to leave Oracle Arena for the Chase Center–a new arena currently under construction in San Francisco–in 2019. That should prompt plenty of discussion about the future of the Coliseum area going forward, and it seems for now that a new A’s ballpark at the site remains a possibility.
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