Future of Coliseum Complex Debated

OAKLAND, CA — The board that oversees the 130-acre Oakland Coliseum complex discussed a wide range of possible future uses of the site in the wake of the likely departure of all three pro sports teams who currently play there but didn't come to any conclusions.

The NBA champion Golden State Warriors plan to move to a new arena in San Francisco in the fall of 2019, the Oakland Raiders recently broke ground on a new football stadium in Las Vegas and the Oakland A's recently announced that they plan to build a new baseball stadium near Laney College in Oakland in time for the 2023 season.

Despite all of that, Oakland City Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney, who's a member of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority, said, "I feel very good about the future of the site with or without the
sports teams."

Chris Wright, a vice president of AEG Facilities who is the Coliseum complex's general manager, said the stadium where the Raiders and A's play and the Oracle Arena where the Warriors play could be used for more
concerts and for minor league sports teams that might want to be based in Oakland.

Coliseum Authority Executive Director Scott McKibben said the Coliseum complex is "a terrific site and still one of the best sports complex properties in the U.S."

McKibben said the Oracle Arena could be used for tennis matches and college basketball double-headers and it's possible that the National Football League might place an expansion team or an existing team at the
Coliseum.

"The NFL likes this market," McKibben said. "Maybe there wouldn't be an expansion team here but there could be teams like Jacksonville and Nashville (where the Tennessee Titans are located)."

But Oakland City Council President Larry Reid, who's vice chair of the Coliseum Authority's board, expressed doubt that another pro football team would come to Oakland, "The likelihood of getting another football team
here is so freaking remote. I live in the real world."

Board members also expressed skepticism about whether the A's will be able to win approval from multiple regulatory agencies and overcome opposition from Laney College faculty and students so that they can build a
new stadium near the college.

Former Oakland City Council member Ignacio De La Fuente, who plans to run for mayor a third time next year, said, "The Laney site has many problems."

Oakland Assistant City Administrator Claudia Cappio, who advises the board, said, "Laney has multiple challenges and multiple property owners," including the Peralta Community College District, BART, Union
Pacific and the Port of Oakland.

But Cappio added, "The city is willing to engage" with the A's to try to make their proposal work.

Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, the board's chair, said there would be "a clearer and quicker road to success" if the A's had chosen to build a new baseball stadium at the Coliseum site instead of at Laney.

Miley also said, "I'm just hoping the A's aren't trying to do a bait and switch here" by saying they want to build a stadium at the Laney site and secretly hoping that their proposal fails so they can move the team to another city.

"I hope they aren't playing us," Miley said. But McKibben said, "I don't believe this is a bait and switch."

However, McKibben said he thinks the A's Laney proposal is "a card to play to get more public financing."

He said, "I think that is very much in the back of their mind."McKibben said the A's "are going full bore for the Laney site" and have told him there's no Plan B if that site isn't approved.

Miley said the A's could have developed a site in downtown Oakland about 15 years ago but Gov. Jerry Brown, who was Oakland's mayor at the time, blocked that possibility.

Miley said a downtown stadium "would have been successful" but "Brown made a poor decision" not to approve it.

Reid said Alameda County leaders such as Miley need to decide whether they want to follow through on the possibility that they floated several years ago that they could sell their stake in the Coliseum complex to the city.

Miley admitted, "It's very frustrating to have this three-headed effort" to have the complex managed jointly by the county, the city and the Coliseum Authority, but made no commitment to have the county sell its share.

Reid said, "There's got to be a resolution of the ownership of the property."

The Coliseum Authority board didn't come to any conclusions Thursday and will discuss the complex's future again at a meeting in February.

— Bay City News; (AP File Photo/Paul Sakuma)