Oakland Athletics, City Of Oakland Fail To Reach Stadium Lease Extension Deal

The Oakland Athletics and the City of Oakland failed to reach a temporary lease deal regarding the Oakland Coliseum on Tuesday, paving the way for a quicker exit of the team to a temporary home after the 2024 MLB season.

Since the early 2000’s, the Oakland A’s, one of the Bay Area’s two Major League Baseball (MLB) teams (along with the San Francisco Giants), have been looking to build a new stadium somewhere in Northern California because their current ballpark, the Oakland Coliseum, proving to be outdated and literally crumbling around them. As the team brings in millions to the city each year through taxes, fees, and fans spending money at nearby businesses, the city always made it a priority to try and keep not only the A’s in town, but also the NFL’s Oakland Raiders and the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.

However, plans for a new stadium in Fremont were blocked by city leaders in the mid 2000’s, with a potential stadium in San Jose being shot down because of being in the Giants’ media area. A stadium on the campus of Laney College was also rejected by College leadership. The most recent attempt for a stadium was back in Oakland at Howard Terminal. However, years of negotiations turned out to be slow, with taxpayers outraged at the hundreds of millions being thrown at the team for the new stadium. While the city forged ahead, many port and rail officials also noted that the new stadium could really interfere with operations. Detractors said that the city just wanted to give the team a waterfront spot for a stadium to try and keep them.

In 2022, things were looking good for the stadium until the city fell through on plan deadlines, causing the MLB Commissioner to raise doubt that the team would stay in Oakland. By this time, the city had already lost out on its two other teams, with the Warriors moving to a new arena in San Francisco and the Raiders moving to Las Vegas, with both teams getting new stadium and arena deals. This led to the announcement last April that the A’s would in fact be moving to Las Vegas sometime between the 2025 and 2028 seasons. Then in November 2023, all 30 MLB owners voted in favor of the move, making the move all but done.

2024 finalized many points of contention. The site in Las Vegas designated for the stadium, where the Tropicana Hotel and Casino currently sits, is to be leveled soon. The casino closed for good on Tuesday, with Demolition expected later this year. The only open question now is how soon will the A’s leave town. As the Las Vegas stadium will likely not open until 2028, and the A’s lease at the Coliseum ending at the end of this year. Multiple plans have been proposed. This has included the A’s getting an extension at the Coliseum, the A’s moving to Oracle Park in San Francisco for a few years, or the team moving to minor league parks in Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Reno, or Las Vegas for three years until the stadium is ready.

Oakland, now facing the possibility of losing the team sooner than expected countered with an offer, upping the current $1.25 million a year lease amount to a five year contract with three year opt out clause for a total of $97 million. In addition, the team would have to either leave behind the team name, colors and branding when they move, get MLB assurances of the city getting an expansion team, or the A’s selling the team to a local owner. Oakland Chief of Staff Leigh Hanson has said that the $97 million “extension fee” charged would help Oakland’s current $170 million general fund deficit.

A’s, Oakland fail to come to lease extension agreement

However, these terms were severely challenged last week when, on opening day, the Athletics only drew 13,000 fans on opening day out of a stadium that could facilitate nearly 4 times that, with nearly as many outside the stadium holding a protest. Armed with this, the A’s and city officials met on Tuesday where the Athletics countered with a 2 year, $17 million lease agreement. The two sides also quickly ended the meeting, as they were far apart on what an agreement.

“We appreciate Oakland’s engagement and also we are far apart on the terms needed to agree on an extension,” said the Athletics in a press release. “We have no additional meetings scheduled with the City of Oakland at this time.”

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, who has been widely been seen as the “Mayor who lost the Athletics,” said in a separate statement that “Oakland made a fair and reasonable offer to the A’s. We await their response and look forward to continuing discussions as necessary.”

With Oakland now meeting with Sacramento officials over using the Sacramento River Cats’ AAA stadium in the near future, experts note that the city is likely now going to lose the Athletics by the end of the season.

“This all but confirms that Oakland lost the team for good, but also shows that it is likely that 2024 will be the last season,” said Bay Area political advisor Jackie Avery in a Globe interview. “I mean 5,000, 6,000 a game? That is Single A baseball numbers. Sacramento gets more fans than that most nights. For the city, they are losing their last major league team. They will no longer be a city with that kind of prestige, a thing that few cities in the U.S. can claim.”

“Politically, this issue will not rest well with voters. The city is giving a lot of ridiculous demands right now for a simple lease extension, and expects the Athletics to help pay their deficit. The A’s are not saints themselves. I mean, the ownership has been very stingy and awful. They’ve also been widely accused of not even giving a chance to keep the team in the city. But city leadership has faltered too. They failed to keep the Raiders and Warriors from leaving, and now under Thao, she is going to lose the Athletics. Next election, voters will not forget this. There are a lot of Athletics fans who vote. Not offering a fair deal to the team? This only hurts her.”

More on the Athletics move to Las Vegas and possibly moving temporarily to Sacramento will likely come out soon.