A’s working to unload ownership in Oakland Coliseum

As the Athletics look to extend their lease at the Oakland Coliseum, the team is meeting with a group interested in purchasing its share of the decadesold stadium.

A’s brass will meet with the African American Sports and Entertainment Group next week about potentially selling the team’s 50 percent share in the Coliseum, the A’s confirmed Monday.

The A’s would look to sell their share of the Coliseum complex immediately. They agreed to purchase the complex, which includes the Coliseum, the Oakland Coliseum Arena, former home of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and 120 acres in 2019 for $85 million from Alameda County. The city of Oakland owns the other half of the Coliseum complex.

The majority Black-owned group last year offered to purchase the A’s half of the Coliseum, but that move was rejected by the team. The group would look to develop a sports, entertainment, business and educational district around the Coliseum site.

The group, whose representatives could not be reached for comment, have expressed the desire of landing professional expansion teams, including with the NFL and WNBA.

After meeting with the group, the A’s will look to set up another meeting with city of Oakland and Alameda County officials to further talks about extending the team’s lease at the Coliseum for the 2025 to 2027 MLB seasons. The A’s lease at the stadium expires at the end of the year.

The A’s are also open to sharing the Coliseum during the interim years before their relocation to Las Vegas with the Oakland Roots and Oakland Soul soccer clubs, the A’s confirmed. The owner of the clubs, Oakland Pro Soccer, is set to buy the Raiders’ old headquarters in Alameda, after the city of Oakland last week approved the sale. The transaction is pending Alameda County approval, with the item on Wednesday’s county Board of Supervisors meeting agenda.

The A’s hope that agreeing to share the stadium with the soccer teams and selling their share of the Coliseum complex would be sufficient enough effort for the city to agree to extending the lease at the ballpark.

If a lease extension can’t be reached in Oakland, the A’s would likely end up in either Sacramento, California, or Salt Lake City. The team has toured sites and met with officials in both cities tied to the potential of playing at minor league ballparks during the 2025 to 2027 seasons.

Las Vegas Ballpark is no longer an option for the club in the interim years, but A’s owner John Fisher previously told the Review-Journal that he envisions the team playing spring training games there each year, such as next week’s Big League Weekend doubleheader.

The A’s plan to move to Las Vegas and a new $1.5 billion, 33,000 capacity ballpark to be built on 9 acres of the 35-acre Tropicana hotel site.

Tropicana owner Bally’s Corp. plans to build a new resort on the remaining 26 acres after the A’s start their first season in Southern Nevada in 2028. The sides are working on how the site layout will incorporate the stadium and the resort, with updated renderings depicting that also in the works.

The A’s are in the process of finalizing various agreements with the Las Vegas Stadium Authority before up to $380 million in public funding would be made available. That would occur after the A’s spend the first $100 million on the project.

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.