Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao "Excited to Bring New Energy" to Negotiations with A's
Earlier this week, the AASEG entered into exclusive negotiations with the city regarding their half of the Coliseum site, a venue they hope fill with "a thriving sports, entertainment, educational and business district in East Oakland" according to their website. One of those sports teams could be an expansion WNBA franchise.
With this is the news, along with A's owner John Fisher and President Dave Kaval taking another trip to Las Vegas on Wednesday, it was odd that we still had not heard Oakland's new Mayor about the A's situation and the Howard Terminal project.
It was also odd that the A's were not part of the AASEG announcement, because they own the other half of the Coliseum land, and nothing can really happen to the Coliseum site without their approval--or until they leave.
Mayor Thao went on KRON 4 on Friday to discuss the A's for the first time publicly since taking office.
KRON 4: "Something that we did notice and wanted to point out was that the Oakland A's were not a part of yesterday's announcement, and that's despite them being significant owners of that land. Is there an update on where things stand now with Howard Terminal?
Mayor Thao: "With Howard Terminal, I'm a huge A's fan myself, and we would love to have the A's here in our town. I know that there's an understanding that they have also been in talks with other cities for awhile too. But regardless, my goal and my Northstar is to try to keep the A's here in the city of Oakland. But, not on the backs of the voters and the taxpayers of Oakland. So I'm excited to go into these negotiations, and to have a new perspective, bring new breath, a new energy. I'm very optimistic that we can move forward."
The line about wanting to keep the A's, but not on the backs of the taxpayers is consistent with what she said in council meetings as the District 4 representative, so that is to be expected.
The real takeaway here is that it would appear as though the negotiations have not begun between the city and the A's since Sheng Thao has come into office. It's somewhat surprising, because the A's seemed to drum up some Vegas coverage for themselves right when she came into office, but apparently that tactic didn't get the A's desired outcome of grabbing her attention right away.
A lesser takeaway here is that Mayor Thao is excited to get to work on these negotiations and bring a new perspective. This is likely just politician speak, but fans are hoping that she can get things rolling.