The Oakland A’s need a new ballpark. Almost everyone agrees, except some overweight seagulls who love the Coliseum’s 7th-inning bird buffet.
The A’s have been searching for the perfect ballpark location for years, investing millions of dollars in the process. We have seen a growing portfolio full of venue artists’ renderings and proposals for ballyards at Cisco Field in Fremont, Diridon Station in San Jose, Victory Court in Oakland, the Peralta site in Oakland and now several different looks for their proposed Howard Terminal home run.
On May 11, Major League Baseball gave the A’s a green light to explore relocation options if efforts to develop their new $12 billion urban ballpark city at the Port of Oakland fall through.
The MLB statement said the Coliseum is “not a viable option for the future vision of baseball.” I’m not sure MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has voiced a strategic, detailed future vision for baseball or the A’s. Does that vision include parboiling players and fans during Las Vegas summers or building a Doofus Dome with a significant air conditioning bill?
In a recent interview, A’s President and official ballpark spokesman Dave Kaval stated that the organization had “No Plan B” for a new ballpark in Oakland: “It’s Howard Terminal or bust.” He also said there was “No Plan B” when the Peralta deal fell apart in December 2017.
Now is when we turn our lonely eyes and perked up ears to A’s majority owner John Fisher. What do you say John? Are you 100% committed to 100% privately financing the $12 billion dollar cost for the new urban ballpark city plan at Howard Terminal? Do you have the means through the jeans or is there a Gap in your plan? Are you waiting on signing a deep-pocketed developer to be drafted by the A’s so that the 100% promise can be realized? Or are you counting on taxpayers to cough up nearly $1 billion?
The A’s 55-acre Howard Terminal plan includes a 35,000-seat baseball park, 3,000 residential units, 1.5 million square feet of commercial space, a 3,500-seat indoor performance center, 400 hotel rooms,18 acres of public open space and a high-capacity gondola. Then there’s the environmental remediation and the entrance and exit additions that will be necessary to circumvent the traffic of locomotives and 18-wheelers carrying cargo containers to and from the port.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf has said the city could consider a $200 million infrastructure deal to help cover the costs of roads and utility improvements around the site. How is that defined as 100% privately financed, especially since that number has ballooned to $855 million dollars that the city doesn’t have?
Franchise shifting is a modern-day sports soap opera. Oakland is the national poster child for this maddening process. But Fisher, Manfred and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf have lost their way with the heart and soul of what the A’s mean to the Bay Area and millions of their loyal fans who want the team to stay but expect the billionaire owner to pay his way.
Those who care deeply about the A’s future can only hope that teamwork, leadership and trust from the major decision makers can craft a new ballpark in Oakland.
Mr. Fisher, it is your time to step forward and restore the pride in a storied franchise that has won four World Series, participated in 14 playoffs, sent four players and a manager to Cooperstown and thrilled millions of fans who have been, are and will always be “Rooted in Oakland.”
Andy Dolich is a sports business consultant and a former top executive with the Oakland A’s, San Francisco 49ers and Golden State Warriors.
