The Athletics are expressing quite a lot of optimism regarding the team’s longstanding efforts to secure a new ballpark. President Dave Kaval says that he anticipates final approval to proceed with construction this summer, as Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets.
Over the years, the twists and turns in the stadium-building process have been many. So much so that it’s tough to presume that new obstacles won’t arise. Kaval is obviously well aware of the past history, which makes his seemingly unfettered anticipation all the more noteworthy.
The Athletics president says that it’s time to “get the shovels ready.” But the precise timeline isn’t yet clear. It seems that the hope is for a final go-ahead to be secured within the next six months. Where things go from there remain to be seen.
For reference, the Rangers are set to open their new facility this year after announcing (already largely finalized) plans in May of 2016. The Braves’ clandestine stadium deal was announced in November of 2013, with ground breaking less than a year later and the park coming online for the 2017 campaign.
The Athletics’ new ballpark will be situated on the waterfront in Oakland’s Howard Terminal. But the complex arrangement also involves a redevelopment of the existing Coliseum site. Major roadblocks involving the land deal had arisen, but were sorted out late last year.
matt41265
their always optimistic till someone delays the idea and resets them to square one
oaklandfan22
Couldn’t agree more, that’s why I can’t believe anything Kaval says until shovels hit the dirt.
Ace of Diamonds
Where do they expect people to park?
DodgerNation
Considering the attendance levels at current A’s games it’s not like they are going to need parking at all
athleticsnchill
32,000 people showed up to Fan Fest on Saturday. There were no issues getting people in and out even before traffic and parking improvements have been put in place.
TPFORD
The only site that a new park will be built on is the current Coliseum site.
All the resource exist there already (easy free access, parking, BART). This is the only unobjectionable site. The city of Oakland would have to commercialize the area to entice the fanbase to come and “hang out” in the area.
Short of this happening; the count will 0 for 3: franchises lost!
athleticsnchill
Nah, Howard Terminal is happening. Nice argument, though.
jd396
They’re kind of past that already…
dynamite drop in monty
The A’s should just be nomadic and play 162 road games in exchange for a negotiated higher gate percentage. Everyone wins.
DarkSide830
they should share parks with SF. everyone wins – fans can still watch while the ungrateful city loses the revenue.
dynamite drop in monty
Or they could build a full scale baseball field on an aircraft carrier and they could play at destinations all over the American Coast. Fill blimps w spectators and they can enjoy the game from the skies.
MrMet62
Now that’s an original idea!
dynamite drop in monty
And I don’t mean the passenger compartment. Fill that entire dirigible, make it a zero grab environment filled w helium, build the blimp out of transparent aluminum so the fans can float around up there and watch the game and have squeaky cartoon voices.
dynamite drop in monty
Grav *
baumann
I’m on the app so can’t see if this is getting upvoted, but, just, /makes chef’s fingers/ mwah!
bobcavic
Transparent aluminum hasn’t been invented yet, unless you believe Star Trek IV.
CCCTL
It has
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_oxynitride
kje76
The folks in the helium compartment would probably be dead before the end of the game, but what a way to go.
antibelt
S.F. built their stadium privately. If they A’s do that, then everybody definitely wins. As a Giants fan, I’d even go to more A’s games to support them if they did that.
arc89
They are doing that. The stadium will be privately built.
unpaidobserver
Depends how you define privately built. Giants were give wide tracts of land for a pittance that is now worth tens of millions if dollars.
athleticsnchill
The only thing the A’s are getting any sort of assistance with is public infrastructure costs, which will come via an entertainment district tax. Otherwise they’re finding the funding for what will end up being over $3B between the two projects in funding themselves.
thegmen
They could just go to Portland
Buzz Saw
Or not
Padres458
Or a corporation could pay for its own stuff?
dynamite drop in monty
I dunno 458, how else will they afford to give their CEOs multimillion dollar golden parachutes when they eventually dissolve and pay off hundreds of hard working, struggling people?
dynamite drop in monty
Lay off*
gbs42
Why should any city give a new sports facility to a team? It’s a money-losing expenditure. Let teams pay for their own stadiums.
Vin Scully
Until Antifa and the commies in the City Council ask for their pound of flesh. They should move to America.
dynamite drop in monty
Zzzz…..
CobiEven
Always Vin… Stay classy.
sacball
go MAGA somewhere else, clown
arc89
This isn’t texas where the team strong arms the middle class property owners in paying for a stadium so the rich elite owners pay nothing while getting rich off the middle class backs.
RockHard
In Texas we love our teams and pay for a large portion of stadiums through a 1% sales tax on hotels and such that doesn’t really even affect local residents much.. idiot..
snotrocket
California isn’t like Texas in lots of ways, the most glaring being that in Texas you can make 100 grand a year and not be poor. You can buy a house and even have enough left over for food. Homeless people, needles, and human feces don’t litter the sidewalk. I’m a Californian but I lived in Texas for 4 years, and they do things way better than we do.
Vizionaire
but chemical plants explode once in a while, and oil leak under your house is just a way of life for texuxans!
burnt_reynolds
I’ve lived in California for 27 of my 30 years and have yet to experience issues with feces and needles on the sidewalk. I’m aware that it’s a major problem in some areas but it seems like folks are now quick to assume that’s how it is EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME. Get your ass to the burbs homie it’s, like, totally fine out here.
unpaidobserver
Except for the part where you have to live in Texas…
theacebarker
Could it be that building In CA be factor of delay?
wrigleyhawkeye
They should follow the Raiders and go to Vegas.
MB_
As someone moving to Vegas this year I would love that.
arc89
Each vegas property owner will end up paying over S1000 to the raiders for that new stadium. Think about it you just gave a NFL owner $1000 of your money for nothing.
macstruts
As someone who constantly sees our schools waste money, I’d rather spend it on the Raiders.
dynamite drop in monty
Why am I not surprised you’d rather see your taxes go towards Neanderthal head smashing than education. Something tells me you’ve never had much use for schools.
oaklandfan22
I sure hope not
statman
I wonder if the toxic waste on the site will discourage any of their fans from attending (both of them)?
arc89
You do know the A’s at one time outdrew every MLB team. They outdrew the Giants every year before the giants got their stadium. So once the A’s get their stadium they will outdraw the giants every year again.
oaklandfan22
He definitely wasn’t born by then based off the intelligence of his comments on all A’s threads.
athleticsnchill
I’m still not convinced he is alive. Brain dead comes to mind.
Buzz Saw
Statman = loser living in parents basement
sacball
I love the smell of a bitter Giants fan in the morning
Fivehead
Man, you guys sure pounce on anyone with an opinion different from yours.
macstruts
It’s not only California, it’s Northern California. Which means don’t hold your breath.
snotrocket
There are probably like 2 moths and a lizard that live on the proposed site that will delay construction for 2 more years.
OUCH! my GoNats
It’s endangered snail darters that will hold up construction. But it sounds like Oakland will finally get their stadium.
Time to move ahead with expansion. Two new teams with the runner up city getting the Rays if they can’t get a stadium deal in place. Tampa isn’t a very good market in the first place. I’d love to see the Rays move to New Jersey (IF existing area teams wouldn’t block it and IF they can build a stadium there). That corridor really should have another team.
John Kappel
Yeah that’s not accurate. Tampa is a fine market. The Lightning, an NHL team, sells out all the time in Tampa. It’s that their stadium is a dump that is in a place that is totally inaccessible to most people in rush hour traffic. Build a new stadium that is actually in Tampa and attendance will be fine.
DFAed in Gaffa
In terms of market size, population demographics, household income, and corporate wealth, Tampa is not a great market. But perhaps they’d support the Rays with a decent stadium built in the right place.
misterb71
Ownership of the Rays has had over 20 years to build things to a point where people would want to come and they’ve failed. At what point does MLB accept that Tampa might not be a sustainable baseball market? It does seem strange they support the Lightning in much greater numbers, but the numbers don’t lie. Except for the inaugural season in ’98 the Rays have been outside the bottom 5 AL teams in attendance exactly once and for the last 9 seasons they’ve been either last or 2nd to last every single season. Maybe Tampa’s not a full-season baseball market.
tigerdoc616
For the team and the Oakland fans, I do hope you get your new stadium. Hopefully the optimism will be rewarded this time.
arc89
It will happen unless a unseen group gets in the way that have a political agenda to exploit.
athleticsnchill
I don’t even think that stops this from happening. ILWU tried, they got laughed at by the people in charge and then the A’s poured salt on the wound by being nice and compromising AFTER they got laughed at.
unpaidobserver
That group being…the San Francisco Giants.
athleticsnchill
They’ve already gotten involved. I have no doubts ILWU and Save East Oakland Sports are both Giants funded in some way.
martras
There are some pretty large transit issues they really need to sort out before starting the project in my opinion. BART currently goes right to the Coliseum, but there is no real mass transit to the new site. 2 .3MM rides departed from the Coliseum in 2016. Obviously, those were not all for A’s games as it would be 28,000 per home game. I’ve driven and parked at the game and I’ve taken BART to the game, and there are a ton of people who take BART.
Cutting parking by 75% and having no direct connection to BART sounds like an enormous problem to me. Further, limiting ride sharing pick up and drop off spots to 1/2 a mile away from the stadium is asinine.
In any case, it doesn’t seem like the transit part of the equation has been well thought out at all.
baycommuter 2
It’s true there’s no BART stop at Howard Terminal and a closer one is impossible to build because that’s where the tracks curve to get to the tube under the Bay. However, there are four stations within a mile and a half and there will be dedicated bus service for those who don’t want to walk from there. It’s comparable to all the people who walk or take light rail or a bus from BART to get to the Giants stadium. Also, since Howard Terminal/Jack London Square is close to downtown Oakland, there’s a ton of parking within a mile and the plan is to get those spaces on a reserved basis, which is possible with the new parking apps.
martras
Caltrain is 5min walk away from Oracle and the muni runs right by as well. Plus Uber/Lyft aren’t dropping people off 1/2 mile away. BART is an afterthought for SF Giants games.
1-1/2 miles? That’s a 30-45 minute walk, one way depending on other traffic, intersections and walking speed. Are you kidding me? It’s “okay” for healthy, younger people. People who aren’t in such great shape or families with kids aren’t going to be able to walk more than 1/2 a mile, max. Suits me just fine, but if you want to fill a stadium, it takes all kinds.
athleticsnchill
Oakland City Planners just released a proposed transportation plan, so they’ve got you covered.
martras
Yeah… the gondola, which doesn’t even cover the difference in parking spaces. There are 34,000 seats and the gondola would take nearly 6 hours at absolute maximum capacity to fill or empty the stadium.
The 1.3 mile gap between BART and the stadium is REALLY far when you consider the stadium location and the residential population immediately surrounding it. As I mentioned above, that’s going to be a 30 minute walk, one way best case scenario. Anything over 1/2 mile becomes a tough sell.
CCCTL
Found Larry Baer’s account.
“Ah, no near transit!”
Closer to BART than at ThePhoneBooth/PacBell/AT&T/Oracle.
“Cutting parking seems like a huge problem”
As the Giants eliminate hundred upon hundreds of parking spaces for the Mission Rock development.
“doesn’t sound well thought out”
Well, you weren’t part of the planning, were you? So you’re making this judgement based on what, exactly?
martras
Except SF has the Muni and Caltrain and better ride share service…
1738hotlinebling
Move to Portland Oregon already , perfect name , matches Nike . Color scheme matches the Ducks /
I can see it now .. Athletics field at Nike Stadium
JUST DO IT!
athleticsnchill
No team would find success in Portland. They’d have good attendance for the first 2 seasons and then as soon as the team sucks Portlanders will disappear like they’ve done every time they’ve had a minor league team.
bradthebluefish
Not a fan of the location. Gonna be hard for folks to get to.