If A’s leave, don’t blame Oakland
The A’s and Major League Baseball assert that the power to keep Oakland’s last major professional team is in the hands of the town, where the City Council will cast a muchanticipated vote Tuesday on a deal to build a new waterfront stadium. But if the A’s wander out of the Coliseum and into the desert on the glittery trail blazed by the NFL’s Raiders, there should be no misunderstanding that it was the team that decided to walk off their home field of more than half a century.
The A’s have demanded that the council approve lopsided terms for the $12 billion project at Howard Terminal, a site fraught with logistical and other complications. Their proposal would finance associated infrastructure and community benefits with future tax revenue from not one but two special districts, encompassing nearby Jack London Square as well as the stadium site at the port. The team also balked at a longterm commitment to the city and outrageously tried to escape a legal requirement that a share of the 3,000 housing units be designated as affordable, though executives appear to have softened their troubling stances on those issues.
The city reasonably countered last week with terms limiting the plan’s reliance on tax revenues to the stadium district while compromising on matters such as the duration of the team’s commitment. Hours later, A’s President Dave Kaval rejected that as equivalent to “a no vote on the project” that would “end our last option to build a new ballpark in Oakland” while unnecessarily reiterating the team’s interest in Las Vegas. His haughty tone was in marked contrast to that of Mayor Libby Schaaf, who expressed support for the project and the negotiations.
The team’s hardball strategy has all but dared Oakland to refuse unreasonable demands on the city and its taxpayers and “force” the A’s do what they seem to want to do anyway. Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said last week that the council’s vote would “determine the fate of baseball in Oakland” and heaped more superfluous emphasis on the threat to leave for Las Vegas, where A’s executives scheduled a visit for the day after the vote.
Schaaf is right to insist on protecting the city from effectively subsidizing the enrichment of a private sports franchise and its billionaire owner. If that means Oakland can’t compete with officials who have shown their eagerness to sell out, so be it.