Half of Coliseum site goes to Oakland A’s ownership

OAKLAND — Alameda County agreed Monday to sell its halfownership share of the Coliseum to the Oakland A’s, a move that should help the baseball team eventually build a new ballpark and the county finally unburden itself from a controversial, longstanding debt.

The county Board of Supervisors unanimously authorized the $85 million sale Monday at a special meeting.

Meanwhile, the A’s are still negotiating with the city of Oakland to either buy its half-ownership share for the same price or lease the land in a joint venture arrangement.

The team is banking on redeveloping the Coliseum site into an ambitious mixed-use project and spending the proceeds to build its coveted ballpark on the Oakland waterfront.

“We’re getting an excellent deal for this, from my perspective,” Supervisor Nate Miley told this news organization after the board vote. “Eighty-five million is a little bit above the actual appraisal price. It’s covering our costs with a deposit on top of that. We’ve conditioned that the A’s stay in Oakland. If they leave Oakland we still get our $85 million, so I can’t see any downside.”

A’s president Dave Kaval similarly described the deal as a good one.

“We’re making a huge financial commitment to this community,” he said at a news conference after the meeting. “... this is something that no other professional sports team has ever done. The money has always come the other way as a public subsidy to these actual sports teams. We are investing in Oakland, in Alameda County, and we’re doing that because we believe in this community.”

The county and the A’s had been negotiating the deal since April. County officials have wanted to get out of the sports business, and the A’s intend to convert the Coliseum site into a massive development that will include housing, offices, a park and retail space to fund construction of a new 35,000-seat ballpark along the estuary near Jack London Square.

At Monday’s special meeting, the supervisors agreed that the property was eating up too much of its money and resources and said they believe the agreement favors the county.

County economic consultant

Jason Moody said at the meeting that the county’s half-ownership share was worth $82 million, based on a 2016 appraisal report from real estate firm Cushman and Wakefield and adjusted for inflation.

Miley said the sale would allow the county to finally pay off its debt on the 1995 renovation of the Coliseum that the city and county commissioned to lure the Oakland Raiders football team back to Oakland from Los Angeles. The deal has been scorned by critics who say the Raiders’ late owner, Al Davis, fleeced local officials at the expense of taxpayers.

As part of the agreement, the A’s will immediately deposit $5 million into an escrow for 190 days. The team subsequently will pay the county $10 million a year until 2023 and $15 million a year from 2024 to 2026. It’ll also foot annual operating expenses of about $5 million.

The decision comes about a month after the city dropped its lawsuit against the county in an attempt to block the sale. The lawsuit alleged a county sale of its ownership share would be illegal under the state’s Surplus Land Act, which requires publicly owned land up for sale to first be offered for affordable housing, parks or open space. But after the A’s made an official offer to the city to buy its share of the Coliseum ownership for $85 million, the city dropped its suit.