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Oakland A’s now part-owner of Coliseum Complex

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Updated  December 23, 2019 6:23pm PST
Oakland Athletics
KTVU FOX 2

Oakland A's on brink of becoming part-owner of Coliseum

Alameda County Board of Supervisors on Monday approved the sale of its stake in the Coliseum to the Oakland Athletics. 

OAKLAND, Calif. (KTVU) - A landmark vote by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors officially makes the Oakland A’s part-owner of the Oakland Coliseum Complex.

The unanimous 5-0 vote Monday, approved the $85 million sale of the county’s 50% stake in the stadium, arena, and nearby properties. The Athletics will have 190 days to review the complex before the deal is finalized. The A’s will also pay at least $5 million a year in operating costs.

“We are investing in Oakland and in Alameda County,” Oakland A’s President Dave Kaval said. “We’re doing that because we believe in this community. We’ve been here 52 years. We want to be here 100 more years, if not forever.”

Kaval said no other baseball team has done anything like this. Despite some public outcry before the vote over rising housing costs and gentrification, Kaval and Supervisor Nathan Miley assured the public that this is a positive step to improving neighborhoods.

“We think it’s in the best interest of the county to get out of the sports business and get out of it in a responsible way,” Miley said.

For more than 50 years, Alameda County has financially helped three major sports teams. Now, the money generated from the sale of the Coliseum Complex will be used for housing, healthcare and other core county services.

“It’s bittersweet,” Supervisor Scott Haggerty said. “But it is the right thing to do.”

The A’s are looking to strike a deal with the City of Oakland, which owns the other half of the complex. The A’s said it would be willing to buy the other half.

Right now, there’s no official redevelopment plans, however, the A’s promised it would do what was best for the East Oakland community.

The A’s are also pushing forward with a proposal for a new ballpark in Jack London Square at the Port Authority’s Howard Terminal.

“We want to get construction underway and get a new ballpark opened,” Kaval said. “We’ve been talking about things for a while but we just actually want to get a shovel in the ground, insure there are new jobs, insure they’re protected and make sure the entire project is done in a responsible way.”