Scott Ostler:
Hope that the A’s and the city will be able to reach a deal that would keep the team in Oakland is diminishing quickly.
A’s President Dave Kaval has been pounding home his message of “Howard Terminal or bust.” On Friday, the needle on Oakland’s hope meter veered toward “bust” when Kaval told the Chronicle that the A’s do not accept the term sheet that Oakland just presented to strike a stadium deal.
The city council will vote Tuesday on the nonbinding term sheet, and there could be negotiations between now and then, but if the A’s don’t like the deal, they won’t do the deal, and they say they really don’t like the deal.
In other words: Tuesday could be Bust Day. Kaval made it clear Friday that Tuesday’s council vote will be more than just another step on the ongoing negotiations. The A’s want a strong indication that the city will meet the team’s demands, or it’s “Viva, Las Vegas.”
“We don’t agree with” the city’s new term sheet, Kaval told The Chronicle’s Sarah Ravani on Friday. “So it means we have no agreement at Howard Terminal. Howard Terminal is our last location to make Oakland work.”
The city is making a massive effort to work with the A’s to get a deal done for a ballpark and a development. Oakland officials really want to keep the A’s, and they see great potential benefit in the massive development the A’s propose. If it all works, it would be a monumental boost
to Oakland.
But city officials also vow not to repeat the mistakes of the past, the times when Oakland leaders threw caution and good sense to the wind in order to suck up to sportsteam owners. Oakland is still suffering daily from those past sins, including the Coliseum’s Mount Davis, a monument to the city’s former foolishness and its gift to the Raiders 26 years ago.
Now it’s the A’s move. The city is saying no to a second infrastructure financing district the A’s put in their initial term sheet. Kaval, speaking for team owner John Fisher, is saying that the city’s offer of only one tax district is a dealbreaker, among other dealbreakers.
Kaval and Fisher can talk it over in Las Vegas. They planned to head to the desert Saturday on another reconnaissance trip to map out their team’s move.
If the A’s hold firm, insisting on that second district, that will be an indication that Fisher and Kaval have been jerking Oakland around all this time, looking for an excuse to pack up their team and take it to greener (felt) pastures.
The city’s latest proposal seems to give the A’s plenty of room and financial help for their dream project on the waterfront. The plan would be scaled down somewhat from the original concept, but who goes into a major negotiation expecting and demanding to get everything they ask for?
If we have learned anything from listening to Kaval since the project idea was presented, it’s that he tends to downplay or dismiss risk to the city, and to be condescending to skeptics or questioners.
He recently said that the A’s are not willing to give much ground on their original proposal, and his comments Friday reinforced that stance.
For instance, the city first demanded that the A’s agree to stay in Oakland 45 years. The A’s wanted to make only a 20year guarantee. The city reportedly lowered its demand to 25 years, a very A’s friendly compromise.
The city seems to be seeking ways to make a deal, even suggesting creative ways to help the A’s satisfy the legal requirement that at least 15% of new housing be affordable.
But the city can bend only so far.
Oakland and the A’s are at that critical point in negotiations where Oakland leans forward over its desk and says, “Dave, what’s it going to take to get you into this cool, shiny Howard Terminal ballpark?”
And Dave seems to be saying, “Just throw in an extra IFD. And don’t make me build affordable housing.”
Except that extra district isn’t something the city can guarantee — Jack London Square residents and property owners would have their say. And the city has laws on affordable housing to obey.
Busted in Oakland, the A’s might be on their way out the door.