As they continue their push for a new ballpark, the Oakland A’s say they are on track to announce a plan by the end of this year.
The A’s have been weighing two site options to replace the aging Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, including the Coliseum property and the waterfront Howard Terminal. How a new ballpark plan takes shape remains to be seen, but the A’s have been focusing on sites in Oakland with the goal of opening a new ballpark in time for the 2023 season.
Announcing a ballpark plan with a preferred site by the end of this year could help keep the A’s on course, and the club indicated recently that it remains on track to unveil a new ballpark concept by the end of 2018. That would represent a big step for the A’s, but the franchise will have to overcome a history that has seen several new ballpark plans unveiled only to stall and never come to fruition. More from Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle:
I asked team President Dave Kaval: Do the A’s still expect to pick a ballpark site by the end of this year, as you promised?
The answer, delivered by Catherine Aker, team vice president of communications and community: “We are still on track to announce our plan by the end of the year.”…
Don’t pop the Champagne corks yet. With any A’s ballpark talk, there usually are huge gaps in information and ugly historical references.
“I have no doubt that the A’s will announce their site by the end of the year,” says longtime pro sports executive Andy Dolich, my favorite skeptic. “They did so in 2006 for Cisco Field, in 2009 for Diridon Station, in 2011 for Victory Court, in 2013 for Coliseum City and in 2017 for Peralta College.”
In September of last year, the A’s announced plans for a new privately financed ballpark on land controlled by the Peralta Community College District, near Laney College. That concept stalled in December, however, when the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees ordered Chancellor Jowel Laguerre to discontinue talks amidst neighborhood and college administrators and student opposition. Throughout much of this year, the A’s have been evaluating the Coliseum and Howard Terminal sites, but have not made an announcement to this point.
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