Oakland OKs Port Site for Ballpark That Trucking Interests Oppose

Howard Terminal at the Port of Oakland. The abandoned facility has been selected as a site for a 35,000-seat baseball park and related commercial and residential development. (Tim Margot/Associated Press)

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The Oakland City Council on July 20 approved a non-binding term sheet for a proposed waterfront ballpark at the Port of Oakland, yet neither trucking interests nor the Athletics baseball club was happy with the outcome.

By a 6-1 vote with one abstention, terms were approved for the proposed 35,000-seat stadium, the centerpiece of a complex that would include $12 billion in commercial and residential development near the port.

During the public forum session of the meeting, the Harbor Trucking Association made its displeasure known over the project designated for the abandoned Howard Terminal.

Moro

“It’s very unfortunate we’re moving forward with this,” board member Jerry Moro said during the meeting. “I’ve been holding my nose throughout the main negotiations. This is not the business partnership that works for us.

“Despite the hard work done by the city staff to meet in the middle, it’s still not good enough. It’s all about the best deal for the A’s, not the city, not the unions, not the county, not the community and not the port.”

HTA contends that building a ballpark at the port and the associated real estate development will be a death knell for the port and the potential loss of thousands of jobs.

But even with the favorable vote by the council, the project appears to be in trouble, and the Athletics may be one step closer to leaving aging RingCentral Coliseum, with Las Vegas the apparent front-runner.

The hang-up concerns more than $350 million in infrastructure improvements that the council approved as amendments to the deal, which they say addresses the team’s concerns. But after the vote, the team said they could not agree with the city’s offer.

A’s President Dave Kaval said that while the vote is a sign of progress, the plan approved doesn’t work for the team.

“I just really want to stress that voting ‘yes’ on something that we don’t agree with, or that we don’t have consensus around, is not an effective path forward,” he said. “And so I really want to work with the council to see how we can get something that we agree to voted on before the [summer] recess, as opposed to voting on something that doesn’t work for our side.”

The A’s current lease at the 55-year-old Coliseum expires at the end of the 2024 season, but if the agreement with the city is approved, a short-term extension may be needed because the new stadium would not be ready until at least the 2027 season.

The team has been working with Oakland and Northern California officials to find a new stadium location for nearly 20 years, and all of the previous plans have been discussed and debated, only to eventually be abandoned.

RingCentral Coliseum opened in 1966 and has served as the Oakland Athletics' home since 1968. (Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)

Officials say renovating the Coliseum or building a new stadium nearby is not an option.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said he was disappointed in the agreement, which he said included new terms.

“For the last four years at my request and urging, the Athletics have invested significant resources and have made a major commitment to their community in the hopes of remaining as Oakland’s only major professional sports franchise,” Manfred said. “We are disappointed the City Council chose to vote on a proposal to which the A’s had not agreed. We will immediately begin conversations with the A’s to chart a path forward for the club.”

However, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas and Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan said the vote was “a milestone in our mission to keep the A’s rooted in Oakland and build a world-class waterfront ballpark district that will benefit the community for generations to come.”

Mayor Schaaf, Council President Fotunato Bas, Community Leaders Host Joint Press Conference near Waterfront Ballpark Site at Howard Terminal https://t.co/93OcndyFTA — Libby Schaaf (@LibbySchaaf) July 21, 2021

Council member Carroll Fife abstained from the vote, saying she believes the team is not negotiating in good faith.

“I don’t know where we go from here if they’re still telling us that they are not rooted in Oakland, that they are not willing to accept what the city staff has put together. … It’s not a negotiation,” Fife said. “It’s really, ‘Do what we say, or we will leave.’ That is not rooted. That is not respectful.”

Team officials say they plan more meetings soon with officials from other cities, including Las Vegas, about relocating.

If the team were to move, it would be the fourth time the A’s have moved since they became a charter member of the American League in 1901 and the only MLB team to relocate four times.

The club started in Philadelphia when it was owned and managed by the legendary Connie Mack. It moved to Kansas City in the mid-1950s and then to Oakland in 1968.

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