A’s looking at 4 sites for a new ballpark
Owner John Fisher is investing millions of dollars in finding the best place to build a new ballpark in Oakland, underscoring the Athletics’ commitment to a city that is in danger of losing its NBA and NFL teams.
The large investment just to find the right location is the first step in making sure the A’s and the city get it right, president Dave Kaval told this news organization in a wide-ranging interview about the project’s progress.
Kaval, who joined the A’s in December to lead the stadium project, said his staff is examining four sites, including the current Coliseum location.
The others: Howard Terminal, north of Jack London Square; Laney College, near the Lake Merritt BART station; and Brooklyn Basin, along the water west of Interstate 880.
Interest in the project has been met with “universal” approval by the city’s various stakeholders, Kaval said.
“To achieve that goal, you have to look at sites that might be hard and complicated, because this is a-once-in-a generation opportunity,” he said from Arizona, where he is attending his first spring training camp as A’s president. “A decision like this, you need to be deliberate, you need to take your time, you need to make the necessary investments on the front end.”
Kaval wants to build a ballpark with an urban feel like
Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago. “Something that can not only transform the A’s fortunes to spend in the top tier of baseball but also transform part of Oakland,” he added.
Kaval has assembled the same team he used to help build Avaya Stadium for the Fisher-owned San Jose Earthquakes. Kaval is president of the MLS team as well as the A’s.
“It wasn’t perfect,” he said of building 18,000-seat Avaya. “We don’t think we have it all figured out. But we feel pretty good about the progress we’ve made to date” on the A’s project. “We have a path that makes sense. Before, it felt like spinning wheels.”
The A’s have captured the city’s attention at a time when the Warriors plan to move to San Francisco and Mark Davis is trying to relocate the Raiders to Las Vegas. Kaval has spent his first six weeks at the helm meeting the community leaders who could help make the ballpark a reality.
“Universally, the feeling is this is a great thing,” he said. “This is good for Oakland, good for the Bay Area. It’s even good for America to have a city like Oakland call a team its own, especially with all these teams coming and going.”
Kaval said the community goodwill has created a momentum. “That momentum in projects like this is like solid gold,” he said.
Behind the sexy pronouncements, though, is the real work that involves architects, soil engineers, environmental consultants, traffic planners and development partners. Kaval and his staff of four devoted to the project are trying to determine what works best with regard to financing, transit and land acquisition.
Currently, only the Coliseum site comes without major transit, parking and environmental issues. The hangup there involves the Raiders, who share the stadium with the Athletics. If the football team somehow stayed in Oakland, the A’s would have to revise its plans for the area.
So far, Davis has not talked to a group that has proposed to build a $1.2 billion stadium at the Coliseum site.
Kaval also has had minimal contact with the Raiders but said he hopes the NFL team stays put. Either way, the A’s are exploring the Coliseum site for their own needs.
“That’s the only site right now that we know is really viable,” Kaval said. “We have to keep that as an option. We could have a great ballpark with a village around it there, too.”
Kaval has promised to announce the location in 2017. Once he does, he said, “We’re going all in.”
A’s officials hope by then they have those most affected by the project also on board.
Kaval learned from building Avaya Stadium that going slow and building a constituency from the start will make the construction smoother in the long run.
“In this day and age, it is where development is,” he said. “Special interest and ‘NIMBY’ (Not In My Back Yard) groups can throw a wrench in everything. We’re trying to take all that collective intelligence how to get a stadium built and channel it for this new and special project.”
The site analysis has led to a list of so-called pros and cons that continue to evolve. Some locations might need an additional BART station.
The Howard Terminal development would require state approval because of the California Tidelands Trust doctrine.
“We’re trying to get out ahead of it and understand how the location could be planned to make sure those concerns were dealt with initially,” Kaval said. “It might be a little different way to approach this project, but it’s probably the only way to do it.”