A's Open to Sharing Coliseum with Roots and Soul

The USL's Roots and Soul need a place in play in 2025, and the A's are willing to be co-tenants if needed

When the Oakland Raiders moved to Las Vegas, the A's had to believe that their days of sharing the Coliseum with a football team were behind them. If the team can come to an agreement on a new lease for the 2025 season, then they may end up splitting time with a pair of Oakland fútbol teams too. 

Last night The Athletic reported that the A's are open to sharing the Coliseum with the USL's Oakland Roots and Soul. "We have shared with the City of Oakland and Alameda County that we are open to being co-tenants of the Coliseum with the Roots and Soul in 2025."

While this is a good sign, the plan was for those teams to play at the Coliseum in 2025 anyway, before the A's circled back to see about collecting their $70 million check from Comcast Sports California. The city also claims that they make more during one soccer match than they do from an entire season of A's baseball games due to the A's low rent of about $1.5 million per year. 

The way the quote reads is that the A's are amenable to working together and making concessions in order to make a deal work, when in reality, they could be costing the city if they were to move back and not allow the Roots and Soul to play in their former (and potentially future) home. 

It's also worth noting that since the A's would be "allowing" the Roots and Soul to play at the Coliseum while they were still tenants, that the team would likely be looking to pay less in rent than may have otherwise been asked of them. Some have guesstimated that Oakland could ask for ten times as much in rent from the A's as they'd been previously getting, which would be about $15 million per year. They could also say that they're open to the idea of sharing the Coliseum, but their idea is that they continue to pay a lower rent while Oakland benefits from the soccer matches. 

If Oakland isn't agreeable with those terms, then the A's could just as easily be against sharing the Coliseum. Word choices can be very important when reading quotes. 

At the same time, the A's being open to at least some degree in sharing the facility is a nice gesture. The Roots and Soul don't have a place to play in 2025 since CSUEB, the teams' current home, will be undergoing renovations. The plan is still to build a stadium in the Malibu Lot, but that won't be ready until 2026 at the earliest. 

The opportunity to play at the Coliseum, a familiar home to many sports fans that are in the process of having their team ripped away from them, could be a boost to the already popular soccer teams. 

One concern, as Jonathan Comeaux points out, is that the cost of changing the field over between soccer matches and baseball games could be a little too costly for the Roots and Soul. Maybe that's something that can be included in the negotiations. Sure, the A's can pay a lower rent, but they have to cover the cost of the field conversions. 

There is a lot of detail at play in these ongoing negotiations, but what's key to remember here is that the A's receive a big check if they stay in the Bay Area, and some of that money could even be used to help fund their ballpark efforts in Las Vegas. 

We'll see how it all shakes out.