A portion of the Oakland Coliseum site reportedly will have a new owner after the Athletics relocate to Sacramento for the 2025-2027 MLB seasons.
The city of Oakland will sell its half of the land to private developer African American Sports & Entertainment Group (AASEG) for a "minimum" of $105 million, the San Francisco Chronicle's Eli Rosenberg reported Wednesday.
The A's, meanwhile, still are in the process of paying off their 50 percent stake in the land owned by Alameda County.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Rosenberg adds that the city of Oakland originally hoped to work with the team to sell ownership of the entire site, but now will sell its portion to AASEG, who now will negotiate a deal with the A's.
City Hall representatives told Rosenberg that they believed the A's and the new developer group already agreed to terms on a deal, but Ray Bobbitt, founder of AASEG, declined to comment on negotiations.
“All of us are born and raised born and raised in East Oakland,” Bobbitt told Rosenberg. “We know that the Coliseum has a great opportunity to be revitalized.”
According to Rosenberg, city administrators were preparing to move forward with potential budget cuts that included closing four fire stations, reducing police staff and laying off between 50 and 90 city workers, and the city's Coliseum stake sale now should prevent that fate.
Oakland Athletics
The city of Oakland will use the funds from the sale over the next two fiscal years, with the city administrator's office estimating $60 million of the sum will help trim the city's projected $177 million budget deficit.
As Rosenberg points out, AASEG already has floated plans of a $5 billion project for the Coliseum site that includes housing, restaurants and a new convention center while the group also has shown interest in helping lure professional soccer and an NFL expansion team to Oakland.