OAKLAND Huge economic benefit from new A’s stadium projected
OAKLAND >> A new A’s stadium, no matter whether it’s built downtown or next to the existing Coliseum, would be a big boon for Oakland, bringing thousands of construction jobs and money to a town that is losing both the Raiders and Warriors.
That was the conclusion of an economic analysis released Tuesday by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, which said the building of a team-financed stadium would bring an estimated $3.05 billion in benefits over 10 years and create about 2,000 construction jobs.
At a news conference Tuesday, A’s President Dave Kaval called the revenue projection “an amazing number” and further proof that the team’s commitment to stay in Oakland will add to the vibrancy of the city.
The projections do not take into account the location of the stadium; they are based solely on what the facility itself will generate, Kaval said. The team president would not divulge whether the A’s have selected one of three sites for its new home, though Kaval and the report’s author, Jeff Bellisario, highlighted attention to the success of downtown ballparks.
Major League Baseball has also tended to favor stadiums in the heart of cities, a growing trend in areas like San Diego, where Petco Park helped revitalize downtown.
Howard Terminal near Jack London Square and Laney College, both near downtown, are front-runners, along with the Coliseum site, the historic home of the A’s, valued for its proximity to BART, Amtrak and Oakland International Airport.
The A’s expect to make a stadium announcement this year. The report suggests construction “will begin within the next few years and likely will take two years to complete.”
“It’s not just a decision for the A’s, it’s a decision for the community” and a generational one, Kaval said Tuesday.
Regardless of location, Kaval and Bellisario said the projections for stadium revenue and jobs would be the same. The projections are based on an estimated attendance of 2.55 million in the stadium’s first year and slightly less than 2.4 million in years 2-10.
That would represent a bump from past attendance figures. The team has broken the two million attendance figure only once in the past decade, according to Baseball-Reference. com, when the team made the American League wild card playoffs in 2014. Despite making the playoffs the two years prior, attendance lagged.
The report acknowledges on-field performance plays a role in attendance, and there doesn’t appear to be any help coming soon to the cellar-dwelling A’s: The team has one minor leaguer among the major leagues’ top 50 prospects, infielder Franklin Barreto at No. 44, according to MLB.com.
Bellisario, however, said a new “stadium becomes the attraction, maybe even more than the team.”
The report does not include estimates for any subsidiary commercial development and other business activity that a new stadium would spur, or the money spent by visitors from outside Oakland before or after a game. It also doesn’t include parking fees, because the amount of parking space available to fans would vary widely from site to site.
About half of the economic impact, $1.544 billion, is projected to come from game-day operations. The 10-year projection also calls for $768 billion from construction and related spending and $742 million in ballpark operations.
“A new Athletics baseball stadium would be very, very good for Oakland,” said Micah Weinberg, president of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. “These types of signature projects come along only once every couple of generations. A new ballpark represents a significant and important investment in Oakland that will generate tremendous buzz and excitement, creating local jobs, supporting local businesses and spurring even more investment in the city.”
Meanwhile, the Oakland Raiders are headed to Las Vegas and the Golden State Warriors are jumping across the bay to San Francisco, moves that certainly will suck revenue from local businesses and the city. Scott McKibben, the executive director of the Coliseum Authority, said the authority actually loses money during Raiders home games, but will lose 3,100 jobs when the team leaves. Losing the Warriors will result in about 1,000 jobs lost per home game, he said.