Sports

Athletics Coliseum redevelopment plan[edit]
The Coliseum, along with Oracle Arena and its surrounding parking lots, are owned 50% by the City of Oakland and 50% by the Athletics.[52] The Athletics purchased their 50% share in 2018 from Alameda County, after the City of Oakland dropped a lawsuit that attempted to block the sale.[52] As of July 2021, two Black-led redevelopment groups were vying for the chance to purchase the City's half of the site, one led by the African American Sports and Entertainment Group and the other by Dave Stewart and Lonnie Murray.[53] In November 2021, the council voted to move forward with the plan proposed by the African American Sports and Entertainment Group.[54]

snip

Public debt[edit]
A 1996 expansion of the stadium was funded by a controversial issuance—critics said that &quot Oakland) Raiders' late owner, Al Davis, fleeced local officials at the expense of taxpayers"—of some $220 million of public debt by both Alameda County and the City of Oakland,[99][100][101] resulting in substantial debt service payments for both governments. As of spring of 2018, the City of Oakland still owed $135 million for the expansion.[102]

In December 2019, Alameda County officials announced the sale of the county's interest in the stadium to the Oakland A's baseball club, saying the $85 million deal would allow the county to pay off its share of the debt. In a joint statement, Supervisor Scott Haggerty and Supervisor Nate Miley noted that the two Supervisors "have led the negotiations and played instrumental roles in moving the sale of the county's share forward in the hope that, once finalized, the $85 million valuation will relieve the county of debt which has weighed on taxpayers for decades."[103]