A trio of groups angling to bring WNBA franchise to Oakland arena
The race to bring a WNBA team to the Bay Area is shaping up as a threehorse affair. A trio of Bay Area groups have expressed keen interest in jumping into the WNBA, either by buying an expansion team or luring a relocated team.
The fact that there are three horses in the race could work to the benefit of Bay Area hoops fans. A sense of urgency and competition could speed the process.
Here’s your field, so far:
⏩ African American Sports and Entertainment Group, made up of Oakland business leaders and developers. AASEG is also bidding to purchase the city of Oakland’s 50% of the Coliseum site.
⏩ A group of investors and developers fronted by Dave Stewart, former Oakland A’s ace and a homegrown Oakland guy. Stewart’s group is also bidding to buy that Oakland half of the Coliseum site (the other 50% of the site is being
sold by Alameda County to the Oakland A’s).
⏩ The Golden State Warriors. Team owner Joe Lacob has a long history of involvement in women’s pro basketball, and has acted on its interest in getting a WNBA team before.
So a WNBA team in Oakland or San Francisco is more than a wild dream. And the league does have the Bay Area on its radar screen.
“The Bay Area is an exceptionally vibrant market for women’s basketball, and we appreciate the strong interest in the WNBA,” league Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said via email in response to a list of questions. “The league’s primary focus is currently the execution of our ongoing business transformation at the league and team level. As previously indicated, given the tremendous momentum we are experiencing, expansion is an integral part of our vision for the future.”
Sounds good, right?
You could say the horses are approaching the starting gate, but at least two of the Bay Area groups are already running the race.
AASEG has taken the early lead. This group says it has been in highlevel communication with the WNBA for several months and has received encouragement, and has started the process of obtaining a lease agreement to play in the Oakland Coliseum Arena.
The 12team WNBA plays a 36game regularseason schedule, from May to late September.
AASEG met last Friday with the Joint Powers Authority, which administers the Coliseum and the Coliseum Arena, and got the OK to present a term sheet to the JPA at its next meeting, July 16. AASEG and the JPA will meet again Friday to begin negotiating that term sheet.
The term sheet might not be ready for a vote by July 16, because of the complexity of such agreements, but whenever it is ready, the JPA will vote. If that nonbinding sheet is approved, AASEG would then take it to the WNBA and say, essentially, We’ve got the money to buy a team, we’ve got an arena, please let us in.
A fully executed and legally binding lease agreement based on that term sheet would come later.
Stewart’s group also says it has been in talks with the WNBA for several months, including discussions with the league CEO, and has received encouragement. However, Stewart’s group has not approached the JPA about leasing the Coliseum Arena. Stewart said he is confident the JPA will be receptive to his group when it does come seeking to lease the arena, but AASEG seems to have an edge.
“In goodfaith negotiations, you see how far you can get with the party that’s come forward,” JPA executive director Henry Gardner told The Chronicle on Wednesday. “If somebody else comes forward while you’re in negotiations with the first party, it would not be customary to enter into negotiations with a second party that has not (as of now) presented a proposal.”
One possible snag for either Oakland group is that the WNBA, according to AASEG leader Ray Bobbitt, would want assurance of a fiveyear commitment, including a place to play.
The bonds on the arena expire on Feb. 1, 2026, at which time control of the Coliseum site could pass from the JPA to the site’s new owner(s). So the JPA would be unlikely to sign a lease agreement that extends beyond that date.
“I’m not inclined to recommend something that goes much beyond that (date),” Gardner said.
But Bobbitt said, “Once we get it dialed in, I’m sure we’ll be able to work it out.”
While the two Oakland groups have already started down the track, don’t sleep on the Warriors.
“We have been actively exploring this (a WNBA franchise) for a long time,” Lacob said Tuesday by email. “And we know more about it than anybody else. By far. It has just never been the right time. We had to build a (Warriors) team and business organization. Then we had to build an arena (Chase Center). Then COVID hit. If and when we do it, which we are interested in doing, we want to do it right. That means selling tickets and making it successful. Very successful.”
“There’s no question in my mind that (a WNBA team in the Bay Area) will be successful.”
Rick Welts, Warriors president
Lacob owned the San Jose Lasers of the ABL, a women’s basketball league that lasted two seasons, 199698. In 2014, when the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks announced they would fold, Lacob and the Warriors made a deal to buy the team and move it to the Bay Area. But a group led by Magic Johnson stepped in and bought the team, keeping it in L.A.
Rick Welts, the Warriors’ retiring president, was instrumental in the founding of the WNBA when he worked for the NBA. What are his thoughts on the WNBA’s viability in the area?
“There’s no question in my mind that (a WNBA team in the Bay Area) will be successful, and that’s when it happens, not if it happens,” Welts told Chronicle sports editor Christina Kahrl on Tuesday.
Welts said there are two elements necessary to make a Bay Area WNBA team viable.
“Right now, you need local strength in ticket sales and sponsorships,” Welts said. “This market would rally around that. I know it would. We have a history of great women’s basketball. We have the NCAA champions (Stanford)!”