Borenstein: The A's left Oakland but they still control the Coliseum. That must change.

The Warriors moved back to San Francisco.The Raiders left Oakland for Las Vegas.Then the A's decamped for West Sacramento.

Yet the baseball team still holds veto power over the future of the 112-acre Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Complex where the three teams once played.

The site, with an outdoor stadium and an indoor arena, provides one of the Bay Area's most desirable properties for development because of its prime transportation access, sandwiched between a BART station and a major freeway.

But, under a sweetheart 2019 deal scheduled for completion this year, Alameda County agreed to sell its half-interest to the A's owners, purportedly to incentivize the team to stay in town.

Amazingly, the deal contained no requirement that the A's remain in Oakland, set the price without public bidding and put county taxpayers on the hook for environmental hazards.

If consummated, the sale by the county would join the A's and the city, which owns the other half-interest, at the hip - neither able to develop the property without the consent of the other.

Fortunately, there's an opportunity to unwind that horrible deal and clear the path for long-overdue housing and commercial development.

It's a lucky break made possible by an unexpected confluence of events. The clock is ticking. City and county leaders, who are currently part of complex negotiations over a six-party settlement, must not let this opportunity slip away.

Room for a deal

The good news is that the A's, which could just hold their property interest indefinitely, are now open to cutting a deal.

Back in 2019, team ownership aimed to use development profits from the Coliseum site to help finance a massive housing and ballpark project on the Oakland waterfront next to Jack London Square. That project blew up and the team left town after city officials balked at the team's excessive demands for taxpayer subsidies.

Today, "the real estate market has changed," says Sandy Dean, an investor in the A's and the negotiator for John Fisher, the team's primary owner. “And our involvement with Oakland is much less than we had hoped for and envisioned."

Meanwhile, music industry mogul Irving Azoff wants to purchase the arena on the Coliseum site, which could provide at least $100 million in critical funding for the complex deal to buy out the A's.

"The experience in the building will be the best musical experience in the market," Azoff says. "We're 100% committed to doing this if they'll let me do it."

The only thing making all this possible is that the 2019 deal has not yet been completed. Bond debt for past stadium improvements had to be paid off first. That finally happened earlier this year.

But ongoing litigation by an environmental group must still be resolved. That lawsuit is headed for trial in August - unless a new grand bargain can be reached before then.

The players

The ongoing negotiations for a new deal must bridge disparate interests of six entities:

­Communities for a Better Environment filed the lawsuit in 2021, alleging the county's sale to the A's does not comply with the state's Surplus Lands Act, which requires publicly owned property first be offered for affordable housing, parks or open space.

CBE's attorney, Shana Lazerow, says her group will press its lawsuit unless it receives commitments for affordable housing on the site, as well as transportation and transit improvements, and labor standards guarantees.

Coliseum Way Partners, an A's affiliate tied to Fisher and other investors, could recoup the money it has already paid the county under the 2019 deal. Exiting the deal would also spare the group the uncertainty and cost of the environmental group's lawsuit, which could take years to wind through likely appeals. Under the 2019 terms, the team must cover the costs of fighting the lawsuit and any county losses from it.

Alameda County could right the wrong of the deal it agreed to nearly seven years ago and benefit from millions of dollars in new property tax revenues from the site's development. Four of the five county supervisors who approved the deal have died or retired. The fifth, Nate Miley, once an ardent defender of the deal, now tries to distance himself from it.

Oakland would benefit greatly from a new deal, which would allow the city to finally divorce from the A's and clear the way for needed housing and commercial development, providing millions of dollars in one-time and ongoing tax revenues for the cash-strapped city.

Oakland Acquisition Company, a consortium led by Ray Bobbitt and his African American Sports and Entertainment Group with financial backing from the Loop Capital investment banking firm, is the lynchpin of the negotiations. The city chose the group to develop the property.

Oak View Group, Azoff's global entertainment company, seeks to buy just the indoor arena, which sits on eight of the complex's 112 acres. Azoff helped turn the Forum in Inglewood into a world-class concert venue. Now he wants to do the same with the Coliseum arena.

Deal outline

The complexity of a new grand bargain became apparent when the Alameda County Board of Supervisors in May released and approved a non-binding term sheet.

The deal points include:

• The A's would unwind their 2019 agreement in exchange for $115 million from the county.

• Oakland Acquisition Company would purchase the county's half-interest for $115 million.

• An "arena buyer" would purchase just that venue for at least $100 million, of which half would go to the county to reduce OAC's $115 million obligation.

• OAC's remaining obligation to the county of about $65 million would be paid off in three installments over no more than seven years with 5% annual interest on the unpaid balance.

• OAC, not the county, would assume liability for environmental problems at the site. Unlike under the prior A's deal, OAC would purchase the county's interest "as is."

• OAC must reach an agreement with Communities for a Better Environment that addresses the group's demands and permanently dismisses the lawsuit.

Those deal points must all come together at one time. The last point is critical. If CBE proceeds with its lawsuit in August, all bets are off. But, Bobbitt says, OAC and CBE are very close to an agreement in which the lawsuit would be permanently dismissed.

There are also other obstacles to overcome.

First, while OAC has agreed to assume liability for the site's environmental problems, it wants a "carve out" for the arena. That is, it wants the county to absorb that liability so that the arena buyer is not scared off.

But the Board of Supervisors has balked - with good reason. A big attraction for the county is unloading the Coliseum Complex site "as is," with no future taxpayer liability. This would undermine that goal.

If OAC is concerned about an arena buyer backing out, it should take on the liability as it would with the rest of the site. After all, a successful arena will increase the value of development OAC is planning for the land around it.

Oakland effect

Then there's Oakland. The city is not a part of the county term sheet but it controls the other half-interest.

Oakland has already agreed to sell its share to OAC for $110 million plus $15 million tied to future issuance of building permits. Part of that money could come from the other half of the $100 million-plus from the arena sale.

Of all the parties, Oakland most needs the grand deal. It would benefit from the sale of its half of the Coliseum; transfer tax on the sale of the Coliseum complex; new annual property tax revenue as the site moves from untaxed public ownership to taxable private land; new taxes on any upgrades to the arena; and, of course, new taxes from housing and commercial development.

An upgraded arena could also bring additional parking-tax revenue, and city officials are already eyeing a municipal surcharge on arena ticket sales. In sum, this could be a sweet deal for a city.

And it could be a win for the other parties too. The county and taxpayers escape environmental liability. The developers and their investors profit. Communities for a Better Environment ensures affordable housing on the site. The A's get their money back, escape more liability for the current litigation and move on. And Azoff fulfills his dream for another destination concert venue.

The original deal was a lemon. We'll soon see if the six-way negotiations can turn it into lemonade.

Daniel Borenstein is editor-at-large for the opinion section.

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This story was originally published June 12, 2026 at 3:58 AM.