Coliseum Authority negates naming deal
Conflictofinterest charges overshadow contract
The agency that oversees the Oakland Coliseum voted Friday to rescind its a multimilliondollar namingrights contract amid a conflictofinterest scandal, but agency officials said they expect to negotiate a new contract with the same company.
The OaklandAlameda County Coliseum Authority voted unanimously to rescind its contract with RingCentral after the former head of the authority, Scott McKibben, was charged with violating state conflictofinterest laws in negotiating the original contract.
“We did what our legal counsel advised us that we needed to do, and that was to rescind the original contract,” said Oakland Councilman Larry Reid, who serves as the authority’s chair.
Under the original contract,
RingCentral, a Belmont communications firm, would have paid the agency $1 million a year for three years with the option to renew for a fourth year.
The name of the stadium, home of the Oakland A’s, was changed to RingCentral Coliseum in June when McKibben was executive director of the Coliseum Authority. McKibben was charged by Alameda County prosecutors in November with felony and misdemeanor counts of violating conflictofinterest laws.
Employees at RingCentral had their first site visit at the Coliseum at the end of 2018 and were told by McKibben that his fee for negotiating the naming rights was $50,000 if approved, according to court records. McKibben allegedly sent three emails to RingCentral — on June 17, June 20 and June 25 — each with a different invoice for $50,000.
The authority is subject to state regulations that bar government officials from personally benefiting from their decisions.
McKibben resigned abruptly in August when conflictofinterest concerns were raised. Prosecutors said that McKibben admitted in an interview to trying to negotiate the $50,000 deal.
The agency’s interim executive director, Henry Gardner, is working on a new contract with RingCentral, Reid said. He expects Gardner to bring the new contract to the board’s next meeting in early February.
Before RingCentral gained naming rights to the stadium this summer, online retailer Overstock.com. had naming rights for five years. That $1.45 millionayear naming rights deal ended in 2016 after the Oakland Raiders announced plans to move to Las Vegas.
San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Sarah Ravani contributed to this story.