A’s, Oakland still ‘far apart’ on Coliseum lease extension; Sacramento meeting looms
A meeting between the A’s and Oakland officials on Tuesday provided little hope that the team will sign a lease extension to stay at the Coliseum beyond 2024.
MLB owners have approved the A’s planned relocation to Las Vegas, where they aim to open a new stadium four years from now on the site of the Tropicana casino, which closed Tuesday for demolition. The A’s believe the two sides aren’t close to an agreement on extending the team’s stay in Oakland before a planned relocation to Las Vegas for the 2028 season.
“We appreciate Oakland’s engagement and also we are far apart on the terms needed to agree on an extension,” the club said in a statement. The A’s will reportedly meet with Sacramento officials on Wednesday to discuss a temporary residency there.
Tuesday’s morning meeting took place at the A’s offices in Jack London Square, where there was some hope that progress could be made on extending the A’s lease that expires after this season.
The city has lowered its demands and is no longer requesting the guarantee of an expansion MLB team, nor demanding the A’s leave their name and colors behind, a spokesperson for the City of Oakland said on Tuesday.
Oakland officials presented a five-year offer in which the A’s would pay $97 million to stay at the Coliseum through 2029 and could opt out of the deal after three years, though they’d have to pay the total sum regardless. The A’s planned to counter with a two-year deal worth $17 million, according to ESPN.
It’s a steep rent hike for a team that had been paying around $1.5 million in rent each year.
The city is also asking the A’s to pay for the cost of turning the Coliseum into a soccer field for the Oakland Roots and to sell their 50% stake in the Coliseum. Oakland also wants MLB to provide at least one of the following demands: a one-year window with exclusive negotiating rights for an expansion team in Oakland, voting to leave the A’s branding and colors in Oakland, or aiding in the sale of the team to a local ownership group.
“Oakland made a fair and reasonable offer to the A’s,” Mayor Sheng Thao said in a statement. “We await their response and look forward to continuing discussions as necessary.”
MLB cannot guarantee anything related to expansion because all 30 owners would need to vote on expansion, which isn’t expected to happen for several years.
Warriors owner Joe Lacob said last October that he might be interested in buying the A’s if they were for sale, but A’s owner John Fisher has said repeatedly he’s not interested in selling the team. No ownership groups have signaled an interest in piloting an expansion team in Oakland.
A source familiar with Tuesday’s negotiations indicated that Oakland and Alameda County were not unified in their offer to the A’s.
If the A’s cannot come to an agreement to stay at the Coliseum, a temporary move to Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park, the Triple-A home of the San Francisco Giants, has been floated as the most likely scenario. A move out of the Bay Area would cost the A’s $67 million in annual local broadcast revenue.
“It’s important for me to express my sincere hope that the A’s remain in Oakland,” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg told CBS Sacramento on Monday. “I have been consistent in my support for this from the very beginning. However, I believe that Sacramento has so much to offer and would be a fantastic temporary landing spot for the A’s. Our city and region have a rich history in baseball and a deep love for sports. Sacramento would wholeheartedly welcome Major League Baseball, as we have shown with the Sacramento Kings. Second to Oakland, Sacramento is the best choice.”
As for the team on the field, the A’s have struggled in the first week of the season: Entering Tuesday night, they are 1-4 and have been outscored 38-11 over five games against the Cleveland Guardians and Boston Red Sox.
In front of just 6,618 fans at the Coliseum on Monday, the A’s made five errors in the first three innings of their 9-0 loss to the Red Sox, giving them 13 errors in their first five games, the most by any team since the 1995 Chicago White Sox.
Their pending departure to Las Vegas seems imminent, though their ballpark isn’t expected to be ready until 2028 and the $380 million in public funding by Nevada taxpayers isn’t guaranteed.
Schools Over Stadiums, a political action group made up of a Nevada teachers’ union, has a court date in Carson City on April 9 to finalize their petition that, with enough signatures, would give voters a say in November.
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