Private Ownership Group Has Deals With A’s, Oakland To Buy Entire Coliseum

An Oakland-based developer will take over the entirety of the A’s Coliseum complex, the team announced Monday.

The African American Sports & Entertainment Group has aggressively pursued the Coliseum site, which is half owned by the city and the other half by the A’s. The team, whose lease at the stadium is up at the end of this season, will sell its stake for $125 million.

The AASEG offered the team $115 million for their half of the site in September, which the A’s rejected, but talks between the two sides renewed in February. In May, Oakland announced it would sell its half to the AASEG for $105 million, and the details were ironed out last week. The city required the AASEG to sign a cooperation agreement with the A’s, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

A’s President Dave Kaval said in a press release that the team is “pleased” to have reached an agreement with the group. “AASEG has a community-oriented vision for the long-term development of the site and will be strong stewards of the property. Their leadership and development provide substantial opportunities and benefits for East Oakland and the broader Oakland community,” he said.

The complex isn’t just the baseball stadium, but also includes the roughly 10,000-spot parking lot and Oakland Coliseum Arena, the former home of the Golden State Warriors. The developers plan to turn the site into “a thriving sports, entertainment, educational and business district in East Oakland,” its website reads, and organizers have previously said they want to build affordable housing, a convention center, a hotel, and a “restaurant row” of local Black-owned businesses. The group also wants to form the first majority Black-owned NFL team. The Chicago-based investment firm Loop Capital is backing the purchase.

“This is an incredibly important step,” Oakland city councilmember Rebecca Kaplan told Front Office Sports. “To have one group in control of the whole site removes a lot of barriers. This is a huge success and this wasn’t accomplished over the last couple weeks. It wasn’t ‘boom, it’s done.’ It’s a great opportunity and it means we will be able to get housing, jobs and revenue out of this huge site.”

The A’s only recently completed their 2019 purchase of the site from Alameda County for $85 million. A lawsuit seeking to invalidate that sale has a hearing scheduled for September.

The A’s did not immediately respond to Front Office Sports’ request for comment.

The next step for the AASEG is a formal proposal to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, which will be put to a vote that is expected to pass. “I am very thankful that the A’s have come to agree with AASEG on the importance of their support for this development that serves all of our interests,” the board’s president Nate Miley said.

Starting next season, the A’s plan to play three seasons in Sacramento at the home of the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate River Cats before moving to Las Vegas.

A.J. Perez contributed reporting.