OAKLAND (BCN) The Alameda County Board Supervisors congratulated the Oakland City Council today for approving an exclusive negotiating agreement with the Oakland A's to study building a new baseball stadium at the Coliseum complex.
The City Council's vote late Tuesday night means that the A's are now studying two possible stadium sites in Oakland, as the Port of Oakland commissioners voted last month to approve an exclusive agreement with the A's to explore building a stadium at the Howard Terminal site northwest of Jack
London Square.
The Board of Supervisors said in a statement that it believes the Coliseum site agreement "is an important step in keeping the baseball team in Oakland."
The A's have played at the existing stadium at the Coliseum complex since they moved to Oakland from Kansas City in 1968.
But the stadium is one of the oldest in Major League Baseball and the A's are anxious to build a new ballpark. The team's lease at the Coliseum ends in 2024.
A's president Dave Kaval said in March that the team is offering to buy the entire 120-acre Coliseum complex by paying the more than $135 million in debt currently owed by the city and Alameda County on the site.
The Howard Terminal site needs environmental review but an environmental review for the Coliseum site has already been completed.
The Board of Supervisors said that to expedite the process of reaching an agreement to build a new stadium at the Coliseum complex, it is reaffirming its long-standing offer to sell its 50 percent share of the complex to the city of Oakland at a price based on a 2016 appraisal of the property.
The board said it "strongly believes" that the process of reaching an agreement would be simplified and have a greater chance of being successful if the property had a single owner.
The board said, "Since the city of Oakland ultimately controls land use related to the Coliseum property, Alameda County believes the city should be that single owner."
Alameda County officials said they are basing their proposed sale price on a 2016 joint city-county appraisal of the property despite the strong likelihood that the parcels would be appraised at a higher value today.
They said they are willing to accept the nearly 2-year-old appraisal because conducting a new one would slow the sale process.
Supervisor Nate Miley, who also chairs the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority board, said,
"We think this offer is especially timely now that the Oakland City Council has approved an exclusive negotiating agreement with the A's for the Coliseum property."
Board of Supervisors President Wilma Chan said, "Alameda County is making what we consider a generous offer to the city of Oakland in the belief that selling our share of the Coliseum property provides timely opportunity for an agreement that would keep the A's in Oakland."