A’s plan waterfront park to open in ’23
New facility could keep club in town “basically forever”
OAKLAND, Calif. — Dave Kaval can look out his office window and immediately envision a new privately funded ballpark he plans to get built, and it now feels like much more of a reality — with renderings and a real plan, not to mention the city’s support.
The Oakland Athletics have found a waterfront location for their ballpark, with picturesque views toward San Francisco, the Bay Bridge and Port of Oakland. Plans were announced Wednesday, with the goal to open in 2023. There is no announced price at this stage, and Kaval didn’t want to even share an estimate. A California Environmental Quality Act assessment will begin immediately.
Kaval, the enthusiastic, high-energy team president who oversaw a successful new stadium for Major League Soccer’s San Jose Earthquakes, had hoped to finalize a site by the end of the year, and he said the team settled on the Howard Terminal site near Jack London Square after meeting with 500 members of the community and nearly 80 organizations.
“We did a tremendous amount of community engagement where we listened to people in West Oakland, in East Oakland and I think what we found is this project is bigger than baseball,” Kaval said. “It’s not just a ballpark, it’s something that could have a lasting impact in a positive way on our community here in Oakland to ensure the A’s are here for another 50 or 100 years or really basically forever.”
The ballpark site is about 6 miles from the Coliseum and there is no mass transit. The A’s and city said they plan to build a gondola that would go from the waterfront area of the ballpark over Interstate 880 to downtown.
“The significant thing is the A’s are positioning themselves as Oakland’s team. With both the Raiders leaving and the Warriors leaving, the A’s are Oakland’s team,” county supervisor Nate Miley said.
UNION: Tony Clark’s contract as executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association was extended through 2022.
NATIONALS: The team met with free agent lefthander Patrick Corbin this week, The Washington Post reports. Corbin pitched to a 3.15 ERA with the Arizona Diamondbacks last season.
DODGERS: Robert Van Scoyoc has joined the club as hitting coach, along with Dino Ebel as third base coach, Aaron Bates as assistant hitting coach and Chris Gimenez as game planning coach. Returning to manager Dave Roberts’ staff are: pitching coach Rick Honeycutt, bench
coach Bob Geren, hitting strategist Brant Brown, first base coach George Lombard and bullpen coach Mark Prior.
LONDON GAMES: Major League Baseball is charging princely prices for its first games in Britain.
Premium seats at London’s Olympic Stadium will cost 385 pounds ($493) for the games between the New York Yankees and World Series champion Boston Red Sox on June 29 and 30. The top non-premium seats near the infield cost 320 pounds ($410).
Seats in the outfield corners go for 270 ($346) and 220 pounds ($282), according to a chart on Ticketmaster’s website. The ones behind the outfield fences go for 120 pounds ($154).