Fans and citizens, let’s play ball
Here are 10 questions A’s should be asked when plan for stadium is finally released
What’s $5 billion among friends, especially when it isn’t your money?
That’s the amount spent and budgeted in the sports-palace building boom that has included the 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium, the Warriors’ Chase Center, the Raiders’ Las Vegas Dome and the Athletics’ soonto-be announced new ballpark in Oakland.
A’s fans and Oaklanders are envisioning a brighter future for the team and the city once this decision on the site and financial details for a new stadium are released. That announcement, long planned for year’s end, could happen earlier.
When it arrives, it will be a watershed moment for Oakland and East Bay elected officials and their constituents. That’s when they will learn what they will be expected to pay for infrastructure improvements at the proposed stadium site — Howard Terminal and Laney College are the sites currently in contention.
That’s also when the community will have to ask itself if any of that money would be better spent on schools, safety, affordable housing or improved community infrastructure.
The A’s ownership has long said it is unable to build a winning team because of the decrepit condition of the current home in the Oakland Coliseum. In truth, the owners are winning — at the bottom line.
The A’s are a major recipient of Major League Baseball’s revenue-sharing system. The A’s turn a yearly profit by pocketing $30 million-plus from their fellow team owners. A’s owner John Fisher has seen his original investment of $180 million in 2005 appreciate to around $880 million. As of today, the A’s are last in their division and 29th in MLB attendance.
One of the key reasons to speed up the ballpark decision is that MLB revenue-sharing is coming to an end. The A’s take will be diminished by 25 percent each year until it hits zero in 2020.
The team has said that increased revenue from the new ballpark will give it the resources to compete with higher-revenue teams. Let me note that previous A’s teams and ownerships won four World Series and held onto their star players while being a lower revenue-generating team.
With all that in mind, there is much we need to know about any new stadium plan. The stadium site selection news conference is the perfect moment to find out.
If I’m an A’s fan, taxpaying citizen or anyone who enjoys the incredible variety of professional and collegiate sports in the Bay Area, I’d want to know: Why did you select this site? How much will the ballpark cost? Will it be privately funded? If not, where is the additional investment coming from and how much will it be?
When will the team be breaking ground?
What is the timeline for opening the ballpark?
Are there plans to add retail, transportation, residential or youth sports facilities around the new ballpark?
Who will be leading that effort?
Do the city of Oakland and Alameda County have plans to develop the soon-to-be franchise-less Coliseum site?
What happens to the Oracle Arena and the Coliseum?
It took but eight years to conceptualize, finance, work through the politics, design and build the Roman Colosseum 1,900 years ago. We are now into year 12 for this New Coliseum in Oakland for the Athletics. Let’s play ball — batter up.