The A’s and the city of Oakland are divorcing, but the team continues to cling to its ownership share in the family home.
While billionaire ballclub owner John Fisher has declared his love for Las Vegas, he still holds rights to a half-interest in the Oakland Coliseum. For the city, the spurned spouse, that means future redevelopment of one of Oakland’s most valuable parcels could be blocked indefinitely.
Fortunately, city officials have an option. They could — and should — wrest control of the property from the A’s owner through eminent domain to use it for a public purpose. The move would clear the way for economic revitalization of the 112-acre site, bringing needed housing and commercial development and a refurbished sports complex to one of the city’s most impoverished neighborhoods.
It’s a travesty that, as Fisher works to move the A’s to another city, he can still control the destiny of a prime piece of once-public property with incredible transportation access, including an interstate freeway on one side, a BART station and Capitol Corridor train stop on the other, and an international airport just three miles away.
Blame Alameda County
Blame the Alameda County Board of Supervisors for this debacle. The Coliseum complex, an outdoor stadium and an indoor arena, had been co-owned for decades by the county and the city, each with a half-interest.
But by late 2019, the Golden State Warriors basketball team had left the arena for San Francisco, and the Oakland Raiders football team was about to depart for Las Vegas, leaving the A’s as the city’s only professional sports team.
Through his lackey, team President Dave Kaval, Fisher made clear that they had no interest in keeping the A’s at the Coliseum. Instead, Kaval said that they wanted to move six miles up Interstate 880 to Howard Terminal, a parcel owned by the Port of Oakland adjacent to Jack London Square.
Nevertheless, the team wanted to buy the county’s share of the Coliseum. “We want to privately finance a new ballpark here in Oakland, and this action will go a long way in making that happen,” Kaval said then. In other words, development profits from the Coliseum site could help offset the other project.
Alameda County supervisors accommodated. In a deal that stiffed taxpayers, supervisors sold the county’s Coliseum share to Fisher for $85 million, a sweetheart price based on an outdated appraisal with no competitive bidding. The agreement calls for annual payments until 2026, when the title is to transfer. And, in a move of gullible stupidity, the supervisors didn’t even require that the team stay in Oakland.
Now the Howard Terminal deal has collapsed, and the A’s are leaving town, although exactly where in Las Vegas the team will land remains uncertain. Yet, they still control half-ownership of the Coliseum, giving Fisher the ability to block future development there.
The city’s partner
Meanwhile, Oakland officials, who want to see new housing and commercial development on the Coliseum property, in January entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement with African American Sports and Entertainment Group to eventually sell it the city’s half-interest in the site.
AASEG envisions a sports complex, restaurants, nightlife, retail shops, hotels and market-rate and affordable housing there. The group is backed by Loop Capital, a Chicago-based and Black-owned investment firm that manages securities funds worth billions of dollars.
But AASEG’s 18-month deal with the city requires the group to “diligently pursue” an agreement with the A’s for a cooperative development plan. It’s a fool’s errand doomed to failure. The city’s past three years of negotiations with Kaval over Howard Terminal showed that bargaining with the A’s is like trying to hit a home run as the team keeps moving the fences farther away.
One of the AASEG’s partners, Brien Dixon, has indicated that the group might try to buy out Fisher’s interest in the Coliseum. That, of course, would require a willing seller. And it’s not clear that there is one; no one really knows the A’s agenda for the Coliseum property. Kaval did not return a message seeking comment.
Without city intervention, this stalemate could drag on for years while the Coliseum site lays fallow except for the booming concert business at the arena.
A complete divorce
Which brings us to eminent domain. If the city demonstrates that it plans to use the site for a public purpose — such as redevelopment, economic revitalization, recreational amenities or open space — it could exercise eminent domain to acquire the A’s share of the Coliseum, legal experts say.
The city would have to pay fair market value for the land, but it could turn to AASEG to put up the money. As for the price, there are two clear markers on which that could be set — the $85 million the A’s agreed in 2019 to pay for the county’s half, and the $115 million AASEG agreed in January to pay for the city’s half.
The notion of an eminent-domain acquisition by the city should not surprise Fisher or Kaval. Their agreement to purchase the county’s half-interest contemplated the possibility of just such an action. To protect county taxpayers from further harm, the deal dictates how the county and the A’s would split proceeds of an eminent-domain purchase if it occurred before 2026.
For the good of the community, the East Bay needs to fully divorce from the A’s, Kaval and Fisher. With eminent domain, there’s a legal mechanism to do so. This abusive relationship has gone on for too long. It’s time to move on.