A Deal Between the A's and Oakland Could be Tricky
The A's and the city of Oakland have met to discuss potential terms for a lease extension at the Coliseum for the 2025-27 seasons. The A's current lease expires after the 2024 campaign, which currently has the club without a home in the interim period before their proposed ballpark in Las Vegas could be ready in 2028.
By all accounts, the initial meeting between the two sides was cordial. Yet, we're starting to see that Oakland and the A's may be far apart on what they're willing to agree to in order to get a deal done. Keep in mind, the A's need Oakland way more than the city needs them for three additional seasons.
Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao has said that she's fighting for a Major League Baseball team in The Town. Whether that be a brand new expansion team, or an expansion team with A's branding, that's what she's after.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the A's have something else in mind. "The A’s hope that agreeing to share the stadium with the soccer teams and selling their share of the Coliseum complex would be sufficient enough effort for the city to agree to extending the lease at the ballpark."
The soccer teams there are the Oakland Roots and Soul, who were already close to a deal to play at the Coliseum before the A's came back to the table to negotiate a lease extension. So if there was no lease extension for the A's, then the Roots and Soul would assuredly be playing there anyway. Hard to deem that a concession at all.
The other part of the A's offer is interesting. Yes, selling the team's half of the Coliseum site to AASEG would be good for Oakland long-term, but the A's would be selling that land at market value, likely in the $120-150 million range, when they were given a deal on the land just a few years ago when the team claimed they needed the Coliseum site as a backup plan for if Howard Terminal fell through. The A's have paid $40 million of the $85 million price tag. The other $45 million is due in a couple of months, but even with the bill paid in full the team comes out way ahead.
The A's offer doesn't seem to account for the fact that they need a big-league ballpark to play in or else they'd have to deal with the Player's Association on what they need to do to get the go-ahead to play in a minor-league facility for three seasons. The team is also set to collect around $70 million in TV money for each season they stay in the Bay Area, i.e. Oakland, which would be another $210 million in John Fisher's pocket.
If the A's don't come to a deal with Oakland, then they're out that $210 million in TV money, and they don't make a profit on the Coliseum land, which would be another $40 million or so. That's $250 million that Fisher could desperately use to get this ballpark built, or at least to build up the roster ahead of the 2028 season.
If the A's are forced to play in a minor-league facility, they'd be without that $250 million in cash, and they'd likely have to pay for any upgrades the facilities in either Salt Lake City or Sacramento would require to be fit for Major League Baseball. In other words, they'd be down money by playing elsewhere. They'd be writing checks instead of cashing them.
So the A's need to make a deal with the Oakland, not the other way around. Holding some land hostage to stunt development would be a spiteful move, not a smart one. Fisher could end up selling that land for a profit even if a deal isn't agreed to, so it would be insane to give that up as a bargaining chip. The fact that it's being floated as part of an offer for a lease extension shows that he's willing to let it go anyway.
The guarantee of an expansion franchise is also not likely to happen. If a deal is to be made in the coming weeks, then the A's are going to have to offer a bit more than the current reporting is suggesting, and Oakland may have to come up with something a step below an expansion team.
The fans are hoping for the mayor to say "expansion team or bust," which would solve two problems. Either the A's leave town forever starting next year and the healing process can begin, or they stick around for a few more years, and not long after they're gone there will be a new team in Oakland. It'll be interesting to see what comes out of the next meeting between the city and the team.