Oakland will provide Athletics ownership with a lease extension.
According to a document obtained by ESPN and KGO-TV in San Francisco on Saturday, the city of Oakland will present Athletics ownership with an offer to extend the team’s lease, which includes a five-year contract with an opt-out after three years and a requirement that the team pay a $97 million “extension fee.”
The Athletics and the city will meet for the third time on Tuesday after major league owners unanimously approved the franchise’s transfer to Las Vegas.
The franchise hopes that their stadium in Las Vegas, on the site of the soon-to-be-demolished Tropicana Casino and Resort, will be ready in time for the 2028 season.
The Coliseum contract expires at the conclusion of this season, leaving the Athletics and Major League Baseball with at least a three-year void to fill.
Commissioner Rob Manfred has stated that the team’s interim arrangements should be finished by early summer for future scheduling considerations, but he has only stated that the team’s temporary home will be “someplace in the West.” The A’s have been in talks with Sacramento and Salt Lake City in addition to Oakland, and the idea of a three-year stint in Sacramento, which would allow the team to keep a larger percentage of its reported $67 million in annual local television revenue than Salt Lake City, has gained traction in recent weeks.
The city is proposing a five-year lease with an opt-out after three years to protect itself in case of construction delays in Las Vegas or the agreement falls through. According to the offer document acquired by ESPN and KGO-TV, the city has waived earlier conditions that required MLB to preserve the A’s name and colors in Oakland, as well as a demand that MLB promise the city a future expansion club.
“We are very interested in doing business and having the A’s stay in Oakland,” said Leigh Hanson, the city’s chief of staff. “Part of that is helping them solve this interim location challenge and just being clear about what we expect in return.“
The $97 million contract price, which Hanson considers non-negotiable and must be paid by the club even if it opts out after three seasons, is expected to be the most contentious issue in the next discussions. According to sources, the A’s, who now pay only $1.5 million in rent to play at the Coliseum, offered a two-year contract with payments of $7 million and $10 million over the term of the lease, claiming they had options after two seasons.
The $97 million—the loss the city claims Fisher walked away from on the multibillion-dollar Howard Terminal project—is what Hanson thinks the A’s must contribute to Oakland’s $170 million general budget deficit. She stated that the city will use that cash to support public safety needs.
The city is also asking the club to cover the costs of converting the Coliseum playing field to the Oakland Roots SC, which competes in the United Soccer League.
The city is also requesting that the Athletics sell 50% of its ownership in the Coliseum complex to a local developer, a deal that has been agreed upon but not executed, so that the city may proceed with site redevelopment.
Both of these prerequisites were addressed in prior agreements and are not likely to be problematic.
“I remain committed to doing everything in my power to keep the A’s in Oakland,” Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao told ESPN. “The parameters we’ve offered for a lease renewal at the Coliseum are straightforward, reasonable, and feasible. Having Major League Baseball in Oakland benefits the owners, the league, the players, and, most importantly, the fans.
In addition, the city is urging Major League Baseball to commit to one of three options:
(1) a one-year exclusive right to seek ownership of a future expansion franchise.
(2) vote to keep the A’s colors and name in Oakland, or (3) enable the sale of the A’s to a locally owned group.
Oakland’s appeal to owner John Fisher and the A’s includes the $67 million in annual local television revenue as well as the convenience of not having to relocate the team and its employees to a minor-league stadium in Sacramento or Salt Lake City, both of which are vying for MLB expansion. The RiverCats, the Giants’ Triple-A club, are based in West Sacramento and are owned by Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive, a friend of Fisher.
“The city is putting forward a very reasonable deal,” Hanson went on to say. “We don’t believe there is a poison pill in this agreement.
We believe this is an attainable goal, and we are proceeding with the realization that we have a limited time to execute.”
The A’s have drawn only 22,784 spectators in their first three games of the season, their 56th in Oakland, and have lost each one to the Guardians. Following 112 losses last season, the squad has a run differential of minus-19 after three games. Two local fan organizations planned a parking lot protest before Thursday’s Opening Day game, which was attended by hundreds of people who refused to buy tickets but stayed in the parking lot to watch the game on a projection screen.
