Oakland, A's have positive meeting on lease extension

What's at stake in these negotiations?

Representatives from the A's and the city of Oakland and Alameda County met on Thursday to discuss the possibility of a lease extension for the team at the Oakland Coliseum, where they have called home since 1968. About a year ago, the team announced their plans to relocate to Las Vegas with the hope of their proposed ballpark being ready for the 2028 season. The one problem is that their lease with the Coliseum runs out after this season, so they need a home for the 2025-27 seasons. 

Along with Oakland, Sacramento and Salt Lake City are in contention as the team's temporary landing spots with latter two cities offering up their Triple-A facilities for the A's. The one problem is that if the team leaves the Bay Area, then they'd also miss out on some or all of the $70 million they'd earn from their TV deal each season. So the Coliseum could actually be the team's preferred landing spot for that exact reason. 

The statements from the Mayor's office and the A's following Thursday's meeting were fairly similar. 

Statement from the Oakland Mayor's Office:

“The City of Oakland had a productive meeting with A’s and the County to discuss the team’s desire to discuss a lease extension at the Coliseum. All parties have agreed to refrain from negotiating terms of any potential deal in the…

— Casey Pratt (@CaseyAPratt) March 14, 2024

A’s statement on today’s meeting w/ city of Oakland and Alameda County officials regarding extending lease at the Coliseum:

“We once again had a positive and productive meeting with the City of Oakland and Alameda County regarding the extension of our lease at the Coliseum. We…

— Mick Akers (@mickakers) March 14, 2024

The Mayor's office said that they wish to keep the negotiations out of the media, and the A's gave the date of the next meeting: April 2. It should be noted that the baseball season begins on Thursday, March 28, so the earliest this could be squared away will be a few days into the 2024 campaign. 

Those that have been following the relocation saga for a bit may remember that the A's and Oakland had previously agreed to keep their negotiations out of the media when they were trying to come to terms on Howard Terminal. That ended with "somebody" telling the press in Las Vegas that the team was relocating. That led to a phone conversation with team president Dave Kaval breaking the news to mayor Sheng Thao right before the news came out. 

Those initial articles on the A's move had quotes from Kaval and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, so it's not too hard to figure out who the "someone" was. 

This time around the A's have a bit more incentive to keep things out of the media. They want this deal to go through. Not only would it help the club financially, but it would also appease the MLBPA to keep the club in a big-league ballpark for the next few seasons. 

From the Oakland side, they may want to keep things out of the press because there have been a lot of posts on social media directed at the mayor and members of the JPA that are essentially threatening a recall election for anyone that votes to give owner John Fisher a lease extension without an expansion agreement in place. They likely hope to keep some of that at bay by keeping things quiet. 

Sheng Thao has previously said that she wants an expansion team and for the A's colors and history to stay in Oakland. The only problem is that a decision on that front would be up to MLB, not Fisher. Manfred has said that they aren't ready to start handing out expansion teams, but the hope is that before his tenure is up in a few years that the locations of those franchises will have been determined. 

The one card that Fisher has to play is his 50% ownership of the Coliseum site, which he could theoretically hold captive so that the site couldn't be developed without his say. Then again, selling the ownership stake could net him some quick cash on land he's not even interested in that could be used to help build the proposed Vegas ballpark. That ownership stake is the one thing that he has that Oakland may actually want, other than expansion. 

The A's and the group AASEG are planning to meet soon to discuss the sale of Fisher's half of the Coliseum site. The other part of this equation is getting the Oakland Roots and Soul, The Town's soccer teams, a home for the 2025 campaign. The A's have already said that they're open to being co-tenants. The question there is what the terms of that part of the agreement look like.