Board Extends Oakland Coliseum Lease For A's, Raiders
OAKLAND (KCBS) — An Oakland-Alameda Coliseum Authority voted Monday morning to approve a short-term leases for the A's and the Raiders.
The joint-powers authority is a partnership between the city of Oakland and Alameda County. Members voted 7-1 to approve both leases, with sports agent Aaron Goodwin casting the lone "no" vote on both matters.
The lease for the A's, which had been scheduled to expire at the end of this year, was extended for two years, through Dec. 31, 2015.
Coliseum Authority To Vote On Short-Term Leases For A's And Raiders
The lease for the Raiders, which also had been set to expire at the end of the year, was extended for just one year, through the end of the 2014-15 football season.
The Raiders will pay $400,000 in 2014. The A's will pay $1.75 million each of the two years of the extension.
The lease deals now go before Oakland and Alameda County officials for approval.
While it's well known that both the A's and the Raiders want out of the aging Coliseum, officials are attempting to buy more time to work out an alternative.
Oakland City Councilman Larry Reid, who serves as the board's vice chair, said city and county officials would have liked to reach longer-term agreements with both teams but that the teams only want short-term leases at this time.
Even though the leases for the two teams are short, Reid said, "I am very hopeful both will stay in Oakland" for the long term.
Reid said the city and county have a good relationship with the Raiders but that the football team doesn't want to commit to staying in Oakland until more progress is made on building a new stadium for them. He said the team wants to be in a new stadium by 2017.
"At least in two years time for the A's, we'll know where we sit with a new A's stadium and in one year we'll know what we're going to do with the Raiders. It just gives us some more time to work out some more details and get some more infrastructure in place for the new sites for both teams," said board member Chris Dobbins.
Board Extends Oakland Coliseum Lease For A's, Raiders
Meanwhile, there has been talk of movement on a Howard Terminal site for a new ballpark near the Port of Oakland. Jim Zelinski, of the grass roots fan group Save Oakland Sports, said both teams bring positive press to a region that needs good headlines.
"Sixty-three thousand people used to pack that stadium when there was a sellout and that is a tremendous benefit just to bring in tens of thousands of people to Oakland and the East Bay," he said.
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