The African American Sports & Entertainment Group (AASEG) announced today that they have agreed to a deal to acquire 50% of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum site from Coliseum Way Partners, the Athletics affiliate, for $125MM. AASEG already has a deal in place for the other 50%, so this will give them full ownership of the land once everything is complete. It still needs to be approved by Alameda County Board of Supervisors. The press released was sent out on X and on MLB.com.
In 2019, CWP acquired an interest in Alameda County’s half of the Coliseum site for $85MM. Of course, much has changed since then. Negotiations over a new stadium to be built in Oakland eventually broke down, with reporting from April of 2023 revealing that the A’s had bought land in Las Vegas and were pivoting to a relocation plan. Just a few months later, MLB owners approved the move to Nevada in November of 2023.
There was still a chance that the A’s would stay in Oakland for a while, as their Vegas stadium isn’t scheduled to be ready until 2028. Their lease at the Coliseum runs through 2024 and they had some talks with the city of Oakland about staying through 2027. During those discussions, the city attempted to get the club’s share of the land and also have the A’s pay to convert the facility to a soccer pitch for United Soccer League’s Oakland Roots SC franchise. But the A’s then announced in April that they would relocate to Sacramento for the 2025-27 seasons.
That left the unresolved matter of what the A’s would do with their remaining stake in the stadium site. Back in February, it was reported that the club and AASEG had opened talks about a sale. Per the reporting at that time, AASEG also tried to purchase the land the prior year but were rebuffed. Last week, AASEG and the city of Oakland signed a term sheet that would see AASEG acquire the city’s 50% stake in the land for $105MM. Now that they are set to get the other 50% from the A’s, they will eventually own the entire property for a total outlay of $230MM.
“The AASEG is grateful to have reached this historic agreement with the Oakland Athletics to purchase their interests in the Oakland Coliseum complex,” said AASEG Managing Member Ray Bobbitt in the press release. A’s president Dave Kaval, Alameda County Supervisor Dave Haubert and Alameda County Board of Supervisors President Nate Miley also provide quotes supporting the project in the press release linked above.
Carlos Castañeda of CBS covered today’s deal and also provided some more details about what’s next for the Coliseum site. His piece notes that “AASEG is planning a $5 billion redevelopment project to include housing, an amphitheater, restaurants, and a new convention center.” He adds that 25% of the housing built on the land must be affordable, per the term sheet of the deal between the city and AASEG.
The A’s will likely use the cash to help with their moving process. Per reporting from back in May, the club had secured $380MM in government funding for the project, roughly a third of the $1.1 billion projected price tag. Reporting at that time indicated that the A’s were looking to raise $500MM in private funding and may have been willing to offer minority ownership shares of the franchise to incentivize investment. The expected costs have seemingly grown in the past few months, as Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote about the ongoing demolition of the Vegas site last week and listed the projected cost of the stadium at $1.5 billion. Akers added that the A’s are planning to make up some of the difference with $300MM in debt refinancing and $850MM in equity from the family of team owner John Fisher. Fisher’s parents Don and Doris Fisher founded The Gap, the clothing chain, and Forbes estimated the family’s net worth at $8.9 billion in December of 2020.
Perhaps the $125MM will help them balance the books there but they also may have to make some upgrades to Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park to get it more in line with MLB standards. Currently home to the Sacramento River Cats, the Triple-A affiliate of the Giants, the A’s are slated to play there for the next three major league seasons. Concerns have been expressed by various parties that the facilities are of a lower quality than players have come to expect from other big league ballparks and the club may have to pump some money into renovations there as well. Back in April, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic spoke to current MLB players, including Cody Bellinger and Rhys Hoskins, about some of the notable challenges with the environment.
Nepo baby clown show.
At least they got him out of the development plans. I’m not sure running a failed real estate company with all the advantages of daddy’s money and connections qualified him to take part in a 5 billion dollar urban redevelopment project.
100%
Redevelopment deals are always dicey, and there’s no way to know now if the area would support the new facilities planned, but the irony of another group possibly getting done what the A’s couldn’t is delightful.
As someone who didn’t care about sharing benefits with the community, the stain that is Fisher is soon finally gone from Oakland. Hope the redev plans go through
And sadly taking the team with him.
Look as a previous St. Louis Rams fan it hurt when they left. But all the city had to do to renew that lease was upgrade it to like a top 10-15 stadium by a certain year and the owner could not have moved them. Instead we did nothing until the last second after Kroenke had bought land in LA and had a stadium plan unrivaled by other LA competitors. So while majority of St. Louis fans groan about Kroenke when they finally put a plan together for a new outdoor stadium plan it was a done deal already. Now I think the USFL and our continued support of the Rams even when they were bad is proof enough we deserve a team that’ll take time if it happens. The As bad as the dome was in St. Louis the Coliseum has been a dumpster fire for years. It’s not like Wrigley or Fenway where the historical value is there to rebuild that place needs a wrecking ball. I feel bad for true A’s fans but stadiums built partly by public funds put more butts in seats no fringe fan wants to go to that stadium and the city wouldn’t do anything even after the Raiders left. They have a small market franchise and as good as they were on the budget it was unsustainable. I’ll tell you who needs to move that’s the Rays. First of all one team in Florida is enough. Second of all they have been in the playoff hunt year after year and playing postseason after postseason and there are seats empty everywhere. If your team has sustained success and no fan support it’s either time for a new state of the art facility but in my estimation a new city and fresh start. Memphis, San Antonio, etc teams dying to fill a stadium.
Being right on the BART line is a great start. Trains before and after game time usually have fun, affable crowds.
I’d love to see it. It’s good for baseball.
But would the city of Oakland help build a stadium, and would some billionaire invest in Oakland?
“and would some billionaire invest in Oakland?”
Would Joe Lacob? He hasn’t shown any hesitation in spending when it comes to the Warriors. He also wanted to buy the A’s.
AASEG has two billionaires on the board. They are privately financing the $5 billion development they have planned at the Coliseum site which includes a football stadium, a soccer stadium, an entertainment venue, retail and restaurants, and housing. There is no question whether they have the money.
Question is would the all white MLB old boys club sell a team to an African American led group? I know Jeter was the face of the group in Miami, but he wasn’t the majority owner.
I think its going to be interesting to see if Fisher is ever able to build in Las Vegas. He has been unable to secure any financing, not even from his failed attempt to sell minority partnerships in the team, and with the casino being a no-go there due to Bally’s financial problems, I don’t think it ever gets done.
How long can the A’s survive playing in a AAA ballpark in Sacramento with a TV deal that is 20% of what they were getting because they played in the Bay Area?
Just imho, but your post is racially tinged. IMO, there is no doubt in my mind that MLB would love to have an African-American owner.
It’ll e interesting to see what happens.
A’s to AASEG: Thanks, suckers!
That area is extremely dicey, good luck turning it in to anything that isn’t ruined almost instantly.
So was the marina before the Giants invested in the area.
Case, it took decades for Mission Bay to come into itself. The ballpark was just hanging out awkwardly with the Safeway helping Caltrain commuters shop.
If you look for a correlating event, it’d be the height of the second tech boom / peak ZIRP. Maybe the rezoning plan that gave us the Transbay Tower, et al. Maybe the arrival of the T.
Have you never experienced gentrification?
I lived in Oakland for 9 years, I saw a little bit but it was patchy and the bad elements could always leak in anywhere at any time.
That area is in the middle of a large swatch of badlands. Good luck, but I bet it will be kind of like a giant Sopranos HUD special. 25% low income housing will get very ugly very fast too.
It’s 25% “affordable housing” so it’s vague now. It could be capped rent. I’ve seen some developments cap total household income as high as $150k in order to be eligible to apply. Young recent college grads couples would jump all over it. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re going to build mostly low-income projects.
25% low income housing will get very ugly very fast too.
=======================
It depends on the housing stock. Harlem use to be one of my working areas. In the areas of central/west Harlem, where there was a decent amount of one- or two-family houses, it gentrified overnight, particularly when there were brownstones involved.
But just a few blocks away, on 125th Street, with two huge housing projects, nothing has happened. They are huge complexes and it feels like it would be impossible to find enough people with money to move in.
So was the area where they built Petco Park. It was a ghetto and you would not have walked there at night. Have you been there lately?
So was the industrial waterfront area called China Basin where they built the Giants ballpark.
AASEG has committed to a $5 billion improvement of the site and the surrounding area will follow just as it has in other areas.
This area in Oakland has had a stadium for years and years and is still a pit. It’s very close to where the last In-N-Out Burger closed in Oakland.
The Oakland government is not exactly famed for devoting resources to keep areas from falling from grace either. Again good luck but if I had to bet on it, it will be a money pit that is doomed to fail.
Is that area big enough for both a RB stadium and a BB stadium, with shared parking? Sometimes having mass is useful.
The average sales price of homes in the Coliseum area has doubled in the last 4 years. Commercial buildings even more. With this type of development it will continue to go up. I have bet nearly $4 million on it already.
The Oakland government has gotten the bad apples out of the PD and Commission and are working diligently to build up areas like this, hence the $5 billion investment coming to the area from AASEG. Unlike the sucking sound you heard from Fisher.
They closed 1 of 24 In-N-Out in the Bay Area and there is still ones in Alameda and San Leandro if you REALLY want a mediocre burger. Personally, I would rather go to HegenBurger.
John Fisher is a greedy, grasping, heartless, ignorant, petty trash can of a human being. Sell the team, give away your possessions and retreat to solitude in exile, worm-person.
Tell us how you really feel.
Now tell us what you really think.
Jinx!
You know the answer to that question.
He’s gone. Why are you getting worked up about? Wasn’t this the entire aim of the fans-to get rid of him?
Well, he sold the land.
That’s what I don’t understand. The A’s fan wanted so badly to get rid of Fisher, and now he is gone.
They so badly wanted a new ownership group, and maybe now they have one.
Now all that has to happen is to have people like Fuzz buy season tickets.
Unfortunately, Fisher and the A’s are a package deal. The chances of Oakland getting an expansion team are pretty darn small.
Is real estate development in Oakland a good investment?
It’s about as good as beach development in Idaho
Property prices in Idaho are exploding. I bought 3 houses on a small lake in Idaho in 2022 as they were being built and sold them 6 months later for a $110k profit each.
Idaho has been a crazy hot market since the pandemic.
@sss847
I’m putting my money into Arizona bay
Fantastic investment. Bay area is most valuable real estate in the U.S. outside Manhattan. Perhaps not this part of Oakland at the moment, but invest $5b in it and watch it go through the roof.
$5B creates a lot of jobs.
Absolutely. One of our properties in the Jack London square area tripled in value since 2009. We sold another one in that neighborhood, a 2 bdr condo, for over $1 million last year. It resold a few weeks ago for $160k more. The average household income in Oakland is $139,468 which is 11.55 higher than it was just last year.
If the average household income is $140k, 30% towards a home gets you something like a $650k home. Are there any decent homes in that area at that price?
I believe that area is also on the water. Those areas are easier to gentrify. That’s why Manhattan was easier to gentrify than the Bronx is.
A household with average income in their area is hard pressed to buy a home in most of the country.
But the answer is yes. Here are homes in the Oakland area. zillow.com/homes/Oakland,-CA_rb/
Look north of the Coliseum off Hegenberger/73rd and you will find some good investment properties. We have a craftsman on the market right now off Bancroft that we bought for $399k, renovated and have multiple offers on over $600k.
We are focusing north of International so you should go south of International. LOL
A’s will profit $40M on the sale.
The funding gap that was ‘too large to overcome’ for Howard Terminal?
$36M.
I love it when math hits this hard.
The bottom line in all negotiations is that when both sides work to make a deal happen, it generally happens.
When one or both parties is looking for a reason for it to not happen, they’ll find one.
After accounting for inflation since 2019 they probably broke even or lost purchasing power..
That gap was calculated 12 months ago.
When life gives you lemons (Fisher), make lemonade (MLB baseball in Sacramento). Yay, Sacramento A’s!
I wonder where the money is coming from?
Certainly wasn’t available before. And who will want to shoplift there?
big shame this didn’t get wrapped up before the trade deadline. Fisher could have been a massive buyer and kicked off the Sacramento Bees with a playoff run.
Screw the soccer crap. The group should be working diligently to convince the MLB to award them a new MLB franchise to play in a brand new stadium. Oh, the shortsightedness.
Even if you awarded a franchise today you’d still be looking at 2029 or so for that team to develop and build a ballpark, front office and scouting infrastructure, ticket sales plans and build out their minor leagues.
Whether or not the As moved or Fisher was able to relocate the team doesn’t affect an ability to give Oakland an expansion team.
What you would need more than anything is an ownership group ready to post the roughly $1B expansion fee — well, 2 owners, as you’d only expand if it was to make it 16 teams in each league. So you’d also have to begin the process of city and individual owner bids for the 32nd team.
Nothing going on with the asshat and the a’s precludes an expansion team
Ownership can save a few bucks on the construction of a Las Vegas stadium by just building an open air stadium !!
@Jacksson13
How about MLB’s first underground stadium wholly away from the desert heat. They could develop underneath Vegas.
What’s wrong with playing in 110 degree heat ?
But it’s a dry heat.
🙂
Would be hilarious if after closing on the land, the group were awarded an MLB expansion franchise and placed a team there with ownership that cared about its fans, while the Vegas As sink into oblivion.
that would be pretty funny. fun to watch Jr Fisher lose his shirt and fail both in Sacramento and then Vegas.
Selling the coliseum is not a done deal. To get an expansion team, Oakland would have to publicly finance a new stadium. After all the problems teams have had with Oakland and low attendance, they are not getting another team.
James, LMFAO. You are REALLY not paying attention to what is going on there are you? AASEG has $5 billion in plans in place already and have for several years. They have half of that money already committed by investors for a football stadium, a baseball stadium, a soccer stadium, housing, retail, and hospitality businesses on the site.
The problem in Oakland has been John Fisher. They just got rid of the problem.
No way.
MLB IS ALL ABOUT GREED, GREED, GREED.
‘THEY ARE “KILLING THE GOOSE THAT LAYED THE GOLDEN EGGS” THE FANS.
Silcon Valley is loaded with billionaires and centi millionaires
including Warriors Owner Joe Lacob
who offered to either buy the A’s AND/OR partner with Fisher in
Owning the A’s and building a new A’s stadium
in Oakland or some place in the SF Bay Area
WITH HIS OWN PRIVATE FUNDS, CASH AND CREDIT.
The Problem with MLB is that the present PUPPET COMMISSIONER MANFRED is: MLB Owners ARE HOOKED ON PUBLIC FUNDS AND SUBSIDIES
FOR THEIR PRIVATE BUSINESSES/MLB TEAMS.
Letting the A’s be Sold to a Well Funded Billionaire and/or Ownership Group that would keep the team in the Bay Area
WOULD HAVE BLOWN THE WHISTLE ON MLB’S CON GAME
SUCKERING TAXPAYERS TO BUILD THEM MULTI BILLION DOLLAR SPORTS PALACES FOR THEIR PRIVATE COMPANIES/TEAMS
AND, IT WOULD EXPOSE MLB TEAM OWNERS AS PERFECTLY ABLE TO FINANCE THEIR OWN STADIUMS WITH THEIR OWN CASH AND CREDIT WITHOUT RELYING ON TAXPAYERS’ AND CORPORATE WELFARE,.
Surely none of this money goes back to taxpayers that are funding this BS
This is awesome for the city of Oakland and Bay Area sports. AASEG has said they will begin construction of an 8500 seat, soccer only stadium in one of the parking lots soon that will house the Oakland Roots and the Oakland Soul.
They have more than $2.5 billion committed from investors for construction on the site already and I am sure more will pour in now that they own the site. Football, baseball, retail, offices, and hospitality businesses. There very well could be an MLB team playing in a renovated coliseum before Fisher’s As are playing in Las Vegas.
Darragh, The A’s have to make $22 million worth of improvements to Sutter Health Park prior to opening day in order for MLBPA to approve play there. They started the project in Sacramento, but it is almost certain that Fisher needed this money to complete that renovation work. It is still not certain that they will get it completed in time. This is John Fisher we are talking about after all.
For those who are wondering, two members of the AASEG board, Ray Bobbitt and Shonda Scott, are worth more than John Fisher. Another of the members of AASEG, Loop Capital Holdings manages more money than Steve Cohen’s Point72 Ventures. AASEG has the money, the know how, and the deep industry connections to get a sports, entertainment, and housing complex built.
Now if only there were 8500 people in Oakland that were actually interested in Soccer, or that could afford to go to a game. It’s amazing to think that in less than a decade, really only half a decade one city could lose three professional sports franchises
The Roots will sell out that stadium just like they did the 5000 seat stadium they had to leave because of renovations and the 4000 seat Pioneer Stadium they are playing in this season. .10 matches. 40033 attendance. AND they have the women’s team, the Sould, that will also be playing in the Coliseum until that soccer only stadium is completed.
The Bay Area lost the Raiders because of John Fisher. Ask Mark Davis. sfgate.com/athletics/article/raiders-mark-davis-tr…
The Bay Area is losing the As because of John Fisher.
The Bay Area didn’t lose any other team. It moved 15 minutes away in great part because John Fisher would not allow the basketball arena to be built on the site of the Coliseum because it would take up part of the parking lot and construction would interfere with the A’s ballgames. .
Do you notice the common factors here?
Yeah the common denominator is Ebenezer Fisher…
You are obviously in your Mass bubble and completely ignorant of the Oakland situation.
Mark Davis (son of Al Davis) was also offered a
“shared” stadium deal at the brand new(at the time)
Levis stadium in Santa Clara with the 49ers.
The Rams and Chargers have such a deal @ SOFI in LA.
Mark Davis turned it down.
Las Vegas is a much smaller market than the SF Bay Area
and the Raiders attendance in LV is in the bottom part of the NFL.
Bay Area has 7-8M people.
Bay Area has economy of 100’s of billions GDP per year bigger than many countries.
Davis may like the glitter of LV,
BUT, AS WE HAVE SEEN, MARK DAVIS IS A LOUSY BUSINESSMAN.
Mark Davis gambled and lost with his Raiders to LV deal.
“The A’s will likely use the cash to help with their moving process”
Don’t bet on it. Fisher will probably have the check made out to cash and put in his private account never to see the light of day again…
FISHER IS THE WORST OWNER IN PRO SPORTS..
MLB should force Fisher to sell the A’s to a SF Bay Area Ownership group that will move the team back to the SF Bay Area and build a new stadium with private cash and credit.
As I took the BART to and from Oakland Alameda Stadium for a Rangers – A’s doubleheader in May, I lost count of the number of tents, syringes, and garbage dumps for miles in both directions.
All visible from your living room? Maybe it’s time for you to check into rehab.
Now if they can just get those loser dorky morons in the stands to stop yelling Lets Go Oakland and clapping in unison . Makes me want to buy some mace . I will only watch road games for now on . Hopefully we can lose the roaches after this season . Do your amateurish cheering at Ballers games .
Grouchy mouchy
“This is how you fan”- a 300 page tome by Mitchell Page
Las Vegas Vegabonds.
I’m thinking Las Vegas Degenerate Gamblers – the DG’s.
Las Vegas Showgurls starring that lame 80s TV star who tanked her career, Liz Barkley.
They need to attract a major sports back to the area but I don’t see it happening. Oakland left with pioneer league baseball and non MLS level soccer team. They tried for wnba team but lacob sabotaged that idea
Good. A’s should move back to Philadelphia. Get a new Connie Mack stadium built. Philly can support another MLB team.
I watched about a half dozen games at Connie Mack Stadium in the late 60s. What a great experience for a city kid.
So the Federal Government is paying for this waste of project. Gotta love how California always acts like they don’t take money but always has a couple hundred million in wasteful projects like this one. What’s affordable housing cost in a dump of a city like Oakland cost anyway? Is that code word for homeless tent area?
Whoa, pump the hate breaks, Fox & Friends!
*brakes
I love how you all always revert to Fox News. Obviously you must watch them more then I do because I have no idea what Fox and friends has to do with Oakland. Please fill me in. What hate is it because the government is giving hundreds of millions of dollars to make wealthy people more wealthy in California?
It’s a funny line from Deadpool, so please calm down. Oh, I live in the Bay Area, and I’m waiting on some of that cash you just promised.
Why would you get it? They already gave it to wealthy connected dems. Im sure your city won’t be any better in ten years from this but you let us all know.
Palo Alto is doing just fine. My dog pees on Mark Zuckerberg’s lawn twice a day, and he agrees life is good.
LOL thanks for the laugh. Sad that all those billionaires living thirty minutes away and a city would need handouts.
Try to enjoy life a little bit. There’s no need to be so angry. Move to California. Beautiful weather and tremendous prosperity really takes the edge off of people.
I lived in California for four years. It is by far the worst state in the country. The weather is not great. Most of the state is desert. The areas with so called great weather get no rain and have a lack of water. Your area isn’t that warm. I was in an earthquake of an 8.7. You have a very huge disparity in income of very wealthy and very poor. Hardly no middle class any more. No thanks I’ll stay in my beautiful state of North Carolina. Thousand times better.
Okay, but just try to be less angry in North Carolina. Take care.
Got to love Californians going from 100s of millions is just a rounding error to why are you angry. You take care too.
couple hundred million in wasteful projects
==========================
We are $33T in debt. $100M isn’t even a rounding error.
Thinking like that gets you there. Thanks for being the root cause.
I have an idea. how about the athletics share a stadium with the raiders in Oakland for a few years
I mean las Vegas
Mark Davis loathes John Fisher.
FJF FJF FJF FJF FJF FJF FJF FJF FJF FJF
The new group sounds Racist and Woke to me …..
Hopefully, the AASEG can yell, “Get the hell off of my land!” at the A’s while pumping a shotgun.
good luck .. there will be a lot of hype around the redevelopment the first few years .. then there will be endless roadblocks .. have a feeling the stadium is going to sit vacant for many years
It won’t sit vacant for even one year. The Roots and Soul will play their matches there until the soccer stadium is complete on the Malibu lot. They have scheduled 22 concerts and other events in the coliseum next year. Actually starting in October. Something they couldn’t do before because of Fisher.
Will the Giant’s AAA team now play in Oakland?
It has already proved to work.
In Minnesota.
Twins = Minneapolis
Saints = St Paul
That is a great idea.