OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — Oakland leaders signed a deal this week securing $105 million for the city's half of the Oakland Coliseum site, while saying it's only the beginning of a long process to decide what a local organization will do with the historic stadium.
Mayor Sheng Thao said in a press conference Tuesday that the city inked the deal to sell its portion of the 112-acre Coliseum stadium campus in a term sheet with the African-American Sports and Entertainment Group.
Thao said in a video posted on her social media pages: “This is so incredibly important for me. It's emotional, because I know that this is the very beginning of an incredibly sustainable Oakland. Not just that, but it will open up all the beautiful opportunities for our young people to be successful."
The Oakland City Council subsequently on Tuesday evening voted 5-0, with three excused, to accept the report on the signed term sheet. The group will pay the city $33 million by November, and another $33 million by Jan. 15, 2025, according to the term sheet released Monday.
Negotiations to redevelop the property began in early 2023 following the news that baseball team the Oakland A’s would depart the stadium for Las Vegas and, in the interim, Sacramento. The proposal includes plans for affordable housing, an entertainment and sports complex and more jobs.
In Tuesday’s meeting, Councilmember Noel Gallo appeared reticent about the deal — saying that he is hesitant to commit to the sale without a settled term sheet to legally represent the sale of the public land.
Ryan Richardson, with the city attorney’s office, advised him that the city council already voted to authorize full execution of the sale agreement. Council president Nikki Bas added that the council will review the complete terms agreement in a closed session meeting, likely on Aug. 19.
Many Oaklanders have spoken in support of the deal. Speaker and local union worker Keith Brown said Tuesday that the deal should create more jobs and economic opportunities for the East Oakland districts.
“I was a teacher at Havenscourt Middle School for a number of years, footsteps away from the Coliseum site, and I’m hopeful that we can see in this project support and investments for our youth in Oakland public schools,” Brown said.
However, Gallo was not the only one with hesitation over the deal. Some speakers, like Wendy Peterson, said they’re worried that if something goes awry with payments or the whole deal, the city must promise not to cut its ongoing services provided to seniors.
Peterson, director of the Senior Services Coalition of Alameda County, said that more than 37% of older residents are economically insecure and more than 12,000 older adults are food insecure.
“We’re very concerned about knee jerk decisions or decisions in the dark. Closing programs or reducing services that have critical impact can’t be made without input of city departments and city partners who really know the needs of older adults well,” Wendy Peterson said.
Others said they are worried that the Coliseum sale might circumvent the state’s environmental law.
Speaker Adele Watts said that as organizer at Communities for a Better Environment, she wants to see more opportunities for people from East Oakland to engage in local government decisions.
She asked for a thorough and binding community benefits agreement emphasizing that East Oakland has suffered from environmental injustice and asked the city to partner with the county to seek 100% ownership of the site.
“The county’s half of the Coliseum is still owned by them, and they can terminate their agreement with the partner without penalty," she said.
Bas, in response, said that the process for public engagement has only just begun as the purchasing group must apply with a proposal for how development will proceed at the stadium. She added that officials already explored options to take ownership of the whole stadium.
“We are here because the county has not been cooperative. They did sell their portion to the A’s,” Bas said.
The council on July 2 announced the intention to use the deal to help close a large fiscal gap in the upcoming fiscal year’s budget. Several council members attacked the mayor’s proposal to budget with the projected $63 million windfall from the city’s share of the Oakland Coliseum in mind, rather than making a series of dramatic service cuts over the summer.
The mayor’s proposal added a contingency plan should the Coliseum sale revenue not arrive in September to make significant cuts across all city departments — including within the police and fire departments — and cancellation of many capital improvement projects.
City staff said that without major budget strategy changes in the coming year, layoffs in many departments are guaranteed next year. Finance director Erin Roseman said that even with the Coliseum sale, the city remains short about $40 million.
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