Oakland A’s block plans for the minor league B’s to play at Coliseum

OAKLAND, Calif. - The minor league Oakland B’s planned to take over the Oakland A’s venue at the Coliseum for a night of nostalgia in late June — until the big league club blocked their agreement as exclusive rights holder to the building for professional baseball.

Months ago, before the newly created Oakland Ballers were official and for the most part still just a big dream, co-founder Paul Freedman went back and forth by email some 70 times in an effort to secure one special game at one special venue where he and so many others hold treasured memories dating to their youths.

"If we’re going to have baseball in Oakland, we should celebrate that baseball’s going to continue in Oakland in what we think is the best place to play baseball in the world, which is the Oakland Coliseum," Freedman said.

Freedman said he and co-founder Bryan Carmel had a signed contract in place and deposit paid through communication with ASM Global, which operates the building for the Coliseum Authority — an agency leasing the ballpark to the A’s through this year.

The City of Oakland is legally obligated to alert the A's about events occurring at the Coliseum under their current lease agreement. 

Major League Baseball owners unanimously approved the A’s relocation to Las Vegas in November, and the team plans to move into a new stadium on the Las Vegas Strip in 2028. It’s not clear where Oakland will play when the Coliseum lease ends.

For now, the A’s have exclusive rights to play professional baseball at the Coliseum and declined to grant consent for the Ballers based on their license agreement with the Coliseum Authority. It is a joint powers agency established by the City of Oakland and the County of Alameda.

"We are happy to work with the JPA on other ways to celebrate and promote professional baseball in Oakland," David Rinetti, A’s longtime Vice President of Stadium Operations, wrote in an email to ASM Global shared with The Associated Press on Wednesday by the team.

The B’s, an expansion club in the independent Pioneer League, were set to begin ticket sales Thursday for a game June 29 against the Colorado Owlz in what they hoped would be "a celebration of Oakland’s baseball legacy and the Coliseum" and "a joyful farewell and celebration."

"We began negotiations to play at the Coliseum in July, and by December we had signed our lease and paid our deposit," Freedman said Wednesday. "A few days after Christmas, we were informed that the A’s would be enforcing a clause in their contract with the stadium that prevents other professional baseball teams from playing at the Coliseum.

"We are disappointed in this development as we believe this would have been a great event for Oakland. Regardless of this setback, nothing will stop us from turning the page on a new chapter for baseball in the Town."

The B’s had already reached out to the Oakland Girls Softball League offering free tickets, and local Babe Ruth players and other youth teams were going to receive the same gift.

"My reaction was not surprised and actually a little bit pissed off. But not surprised," said Jorge Leon, President of the Oakland 68s non-profit organization of fans committed to supporting baseball and the East Bay communities. "I think the A’s are in a position of embarrassment, and again I’m not surprised because I think we would have outdrawn them, we would have filled that place up, and I think they’re worried and that’s why they had to cancel. They had to force their hand."

Organizers aren’t ready to give up the idea of one day playing at the Coliseum, not yet anyway — and Oakland fans have demonstrated their passion this past year for sure.

Hal Gordon, a super-fan known as ‘Hal the Hotdog Guy,’ told KTVU, "Everybody who is an Oakland baseball fan views the Coliseum as home. Oakland fans are not going to forget this."

Staff with Mayor Sheng Thao sent a statement reading, "The Mayor’s Office is 100% supportive of the Oakland B’s. We appreciate their efforts to bring equitable community-based baseball back to the city of Oakland and we’re working very closely with their management team to provide an alternative location for the game." 

Beyond this event, the A's are still pursuing part-ownership of the facility. They owe about $45 million by February. If the deal goes through, the city of Oakland and the A's will share the Coliseum 50-50 starting in 2026, and all decisions surrounding events at the venue will have to be agreed upon by both parties. The team will also have the right to block use of the facility and renovation projects at the site.

It's an arrangement the Mayor's Office is hoping to avoid, with the concern that revenue-generating events could be vetoed by a team no longer invested in Oakland.

For now, A’s fans are planning their own Fan Fest scheduled for Feb. 24, lining up former slugger Khris Davis and pitcher Mike Norris to attend, and also an actual boycott of the March 28 season opener in which supporters plan to tailgate, gather and celebrate in the Coliseum parking lot but not actually enter the ballpark. 

Fans are also fundraising for the Nevada Teachers Union, which does not want the A's to secure a permanent space using tax dollars in Vegas.