Casey Harrison
Exterior of the Oakland-Alimeda Coliseum. Aug. 18, 2023. Brian Ramos
Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024 | 5:03 p.m.
The A’s and Bay Area officials are expected to meet this week to negotiate a possible extension of the team’s lease for the Oakland Coliseum and give the club a permanent home until their stadium in Las Vegas is ready.
A’s president Dave Kaval is scheduled to meet with officials from the city of Oakland and Alameda County, which together have a 50% stake in the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, with the team owning the other half.
A source told the Sun the talks will focus mainly on where the A’s will play their games for the 2025, 2026 and 2027 seasons. And because the lease at the Coliseum expires at the end of this year, the team has explored playing at San Francisco’s Oracle Park as well as minor league venues in Las Vegas, Sacramento and Salt Lake City, according to various media reports, though a final decision has yet to be made.
Top A’s representatives ended negotiations with Oakland officials to build a waterfront ballpark district off the San Francisco Bay in April and have focused solely on a move to Southern Nevada since then. Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao has said previously she would be open to letting the team remain at the Coliseum until 2028, so long as the team relinquishes the “Athletics” brand and the city is promised an expansion franchise.
In December, A’s brass told Alameda County officials in a letter it would pay the remaining $45 million left outstanding from the 2019 deal to acquire its half of the Coliseum.
The A’s purchased the stake for $85 million and have paid $40 million, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The agreement states the A’s would need to pay the remaining balance within 180 days of announcing the team would leave Oakland. May 14 will mark 180 days from the Nov. 16 relocation announcement.
The other half of the 155-acre Coliseum property is owned by the City of Oakland, which is negotiating with the African American Sports and Entertainment Group, an organization formed to pursue development of the property.
The A’s were to pay the remainder of its balance in increments of $15 million due in January 2024, February 2025 and January 2026. The team’s lease to play at the Coliseum ends after 2024, and it’s not yet clear where the A’s will play between for the ‘25, ‘26 and ‘27 seasons.
The A’s have played there since 1968. It’s not yet clear if any lease negotiation would include the team having to sell its share of the Coliseum or relinquish its half to the city.
Meanwhile in Las Vegas, preparations are being made to demolish the Tropicana Hotel, the longtime Vegas fixture where the stadium will soon be built. The Tropicana is currently scheduled to close April 2 and the site is expected to be cleared by next April.
MLB owners in November voted unanimously to approve the relocation of the A’s from Oakland to Las Vegas. In June, Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo signed into law a $380 million funding package to aid in the construction of a $1.5 billion, approximate 33,000-seat stadium off the Las Vegas Strip – though groups backed by the state’s largest teachers union have challenged to the bill’s constitutionality.
Though the Tropicana sits on a 36-acre parcel, the tentative stadium is slated to be built on nine acres, with the remaining land to be used for a new resort, according to Bally’s Corp., which operates the resort.
