2 21-0412 Subject: Term Sheet With The Oakland Athletics
From: Vice Mayor Kaplan
Recommendation: Adopt A Resolution Approving Non-Binding Terms Of A Development Agreement With The Athletics Investment Group LLC, D/B/A The Oakland Athletics, A California Limited Liability Company, Including Terms For, But Not Limited To, The Financial Plan, Community Benefits, And Non-Relocation, Related To The Proposed Oakland Waterfront Ballpark District Project To Be Developed On The Property Known As The Howard Terminal At The Port Of Oakland
I have been an Oakland A's fan since 1984 thanks to winning some game tickets while in elementary school for my academic achievements. I am one of thousands in Northern California who travel to visit Oakland for an A's game. I also stop by a nearby place to get a pregame meal or post game meal like at Jack in the Box or In-N-Out Burger.
Imagine with a new waterfront ballpark there would be a newly developed Oakland for its community and visitors. New roads, transportation options, housing including affordable housing, jobs, economic engines, regional and local dollars being collected, retail, small businesses, hotels, the industrial site would be cleaned up, and so much more.
I have witnessed what happened in Sacramento with the Sacramento Kings, the Golden 1 Center, Downtown Commons (DOCO) and most recently with the Natomas reuse with a hospital and campus soon to be built that will replace the previous arena. Our downtown went from a ghost town to being packed on a nightly basis. Restaurants, retail and hotels opened up near the new arena. Jobs were saved and created including for those who were apprentices and disadvantaged workers.
It takes a shared vision and leadership to make the dream a reality. It must be a fair deal for the Oakland A's but also the community of Oakland. Please continue to negotiate the best possible deal. This deal is so much bigger than just the Oakland A's. This deal is so much bigger than just a stadium.
As a fellow leader and local CEO in Oakland, I wanted to reach out to you and the City Council to express my support for the Oakland A’s waterfront ballpark at Howard Terminal. This is a defining moment, not only for the A’s, but for Oakland as a whole. Growing up just a few blocks from the Coliseum, I’ve been a fan of the A’s and of Oakland sports my entire life. But more than that, I’m a fan of Oakland. I love this town. I have built my business here. I am invested here. Our community deserves to keep the A’s and all the new economic and community activity that the Howard Terminal project and the redevelopment of the Coliseum site represent.
Simply put, Oakland needs the A’s and the A’s need Oakland.
I urge you all to vote in support of the Howard Terminal Waterfront Ballpark Project and continue to move Oakland forward, not backward.
Thank you for the work you do to keep Oakland a thriving city that we can all be proud of. I look forward to the continued investment the new ballpark represents for the broader community of Oakland.
This Waterfront Ballpark project will help propel the City of Oakland into the future. It will take leadership from City, County and other Community leaders to come together with a forward leaning vision of Oakland. This will attract people into the community to bring additional revenues. I used to have a branch office right near Oakland City Hall for about 10-years; but closed that and moved it to Livermore. I had family members that lived there, but they moved; got too dangerous. Friends and family would come into Oakland to watch the Raiders games; but they also moved. I had dinner in Downtown Oakland on Friday night (1st time since pandemic) and my car for broken into. What will I and others need to come into Oakland if this project doesn't get built, the A's leave, and the crime continues to go up. Something drastic needs to happen in Oakland. This could be the catalyst. Civic/Sports District projects like this are once in a generation. There are lots of other projects in Oakland that have and will have affordable housing components. Who else would invest billions into a development that benefits an entire community? Don’t miss out on this opportunity. What will your legacy be known for? The City that lost all 3 of their major sports teams in 5-years and is no longer on the national radar? Or one that fought for Oakland’s name in civic pride? Vote YES on the A's proposed term sheet.
–Carla Collins, Town Business/CMAA NorCal President/Signet Testing Labs-Alameda Co SBE
My name is Sonya Karabel, I live in D1, and I want to see the city's term sheet strengthened if we are going to prevent gentrification and displacement in the neighboring areas to Howard Terminal. We need stronger housing provisions in particular- 35% affordable housing overall, the A's need to front the cost for the offsite affordable, deeply affordable (very low and extremely low) housing, and the A's need to contribute $1.5 milion annually for anti-displacement services. If they don't act up and invest up front, West Oakland and Chinatown in particular will be unrecognizable and unaffordable for the longtime residents. This is our town, and the city needs to stand up for our terms.
While I appreciate that keeping the A's in Oakland is an emotional issue for many, but I don't think this city needs more generic corporate mega-building(s) while small clubs, galleries, business and communities are displaced. The site lacks infrastructure for proposed development and nothing in this round of negotiations looks like it would remunerate the citizenry adequately for the disruptions it will cause. This really looks like a short sighted money/land grab by a corporation. Also, sea-level rise is predicted to have reclaimed most of that site by 2035 so . . .
Pro to A’s proposal: None
Con to A’s proposal: Many, including:
* Significant interference with the multi-Billion-dollar Port operations - a source of very good jobs and tax revenue
* A direct, unsuitable interface between heavy industrial (noise, dust, 24 hr operation) and housing/office uses. Would you live here? We need more housing but not at this site.
*Sea level rise
*Greenhouse gases - this proposal is not convent to any public transportation whereas the current site has a plethora of access. Coliseum access could be improved (ex. a bus terminal; expanded, direct BART platform to stadium access; expanded AMTRAK service) but it exists!
*MONEY- look at your agenda (Local Homeless Emergency; Sewer Sub-Basin rehabilitation, etc), is the A’s proposal really a City tax dollar priority? Why does the sports industry expect government to build their facilities? Can other business get tax money for that? This is another one-sided fund "ask" - A’s are not expecting to pay any money back, they offer a paltry, long range, dribble of revenue to the City - IF the development reaches full potential within 20 years and threats if they are refused.
*If the A’s were really “Rooted in Oakland”, they would already have a new transit supported home along with a housing/commercial development at the Coliseum, but that would mean they spent their own money.
Just say NO to this money grab! I Love baseball, but I’m absolutely NOT paying taxes to support it!
I come into Oakland to attend A's games, concerts, etc. and use BART as my method of transportation. It is extremely unfortunate that no one on either side considered what a nightmare it would be to get back and forth to a game at Howard Terminal. The nearest BART Station is about a mile away. I just don't understand why the new ballpark can't be built on the existing land where the current one resides since there is plenty of parking and a BART Station nearby. The ownership group for the A's is not being honest here. I would hate to see the A's leave Oakland due to petty demands on the part of a billionaire ownere.
Yes, I get that the project could bring money into Oakland, but it will also bring an enormous disruption into many people's lives. In addition to the financials being skewed to benefit the A's and not Oakland, the rendering of the development is downright ugly, and building a gondola while saying that there is plenty of parking downtown is absurd. A rebuild at the coliseum with transportation and parking in place is a far better idea.
It would be extremely unfortunate if the city of Oakland walks away from this deal with the A's. The economic benefits and improvements to the area surrounding the ballpark are too great to simply ignore. It is absolutely inconceivable to expect an offer of this magnitude again in the near future as a "no" vote would signal to any other possible business ventures that the city of Oakland is too demanding and inflexible to strike a balanced deal. I am tired of the blight, trash, boarded up windows, closed businesses, and ceaseless homelessness and I see this deal as our ticket to a beautiful new future.
Please do the right thing and help West Oakland, Jack London, and the downtown corridor strive by voting YES on keeping the A's in Oakland and building a beautiful new ballpark at Howard Terminal.
We would like to echo the comments by Jacob Buchenauer. .He is absolutely right on all counts. Why would we come to Oakland, except to use the airport? The idea of losing our beloved A''s to another city because two sides can't come to terms is unbearable. On a personal side, we are part of 4 generations of Oakland Athletics fans spanning over 50 plus years. Currently season ticket holders for 21 years. When out of town guests come to visit they plan their trip around the A's schedule so we can all enjoy a game together. We strongly support the Howard Terminal proposal. CITY OF OAKLAND, please VOTE YES.
GO A's!!
Please support the A’s new waterfront ballpark deal so that we can keep the team in Oakland. I grew up watching the A’s and can’t imagine this city without them. I think the council is right to push for the best deal possible for Oakland, but if you don’t negotiate and the team leaves, everyone loses. We already lost the Warriors and the Raiders. Please do everything you can to keep the A’s in Oakland.
I am a resident of Oakland Chinatown and I am against the proposed A’s stadium at Howard Terminal. The reasons are numerous—the problems highlighted in the environmental impact report (the air pollution above the city’s thresholds, daily winds over 36mph, traffic, etc), the lack of consideration of my neighborhood, Chinatown, the lack of truly affordable housing and community benefits to Oakland and the bad faith in which Dave Kaval has been negotiating and engaging with the community are all reasons why I am against the stadium at Howard Terminal. Furthermore, I am frustrated that this issue has taken away valuable time and energy from focusing on things we in Oakland truly need, like support for our homeless residents, affordable housing, mental health services, violence prevention, etc.
As someone who lives in Chinatown, my daily life will be directly impacted by this stadium. I have not heard any support for the stadium from people I know in my neighborhood or in other neighborhoods that will be impacted, and I firmly believe that impacted neighborhoods should have the final say as to what happens in them. I am against this proposed stadium.
I am an Oakland resident and I was born and raised here. I have been a lifelong A's fan and would be devastated to see them leave Oakland. However, I would rather see them leave than have my City Council allow themselves to be blackmailed by a billionaire developer who wants to milk Oakland for every cent he can get. Every new detail that has come out about this proposed Howard Terminal development is worse than the last. Additionally, I'm not even sure what the Council is voting on here since it is not a term sheet, given that billionaire developer John Fisher and his crony Dave Kaval stopped negotiating with the City in April. Any development at Howard Terminal must include community benefits that are paid for by billionaire John Fisher, not by an EIFD. It MUST require at least 50% affordable housing for residents making below 80% AMI, divided evenly up between AMI levels (including 0–30% AMI). 30% affordable housing, with the option to build 15% offsite, is an absolute farce and only slightly less insulting than the 0% which billionaire John Fisher is proposing. It must require billionaire John Fisher to commit to keeping the A's in Oakland for at least 66 years, not 25. And that is just the bare minimum. Do not allow yourselves to be extorted by a billionaire developer who likes to clearcut virgin redwood forests and pays his players the lowest amount of any MLB league. Stand up to John Fisher. Demand a project that would actually benefit Oakland.
I am a long-time Oakland Athletics fan, and a huge fan of the Coliseum. As much as I would love to see the A's stay in Oakland, I'm equally concerned that the city council does not realize the national impact of losing all 3 professional sports teams in a matter of years. Growing up in Pleasanton, the only reason I would go into Oakland is to go to an A's game. Once the A's leave, the only reason I would travel to Oakland would be if the airline flights are cheaper than San Francisco.
I have worked in downtown Oakland, and the city desperately needs revitalization in a similar way that Brooklyn has been revitalized. There is a stigma that Oakland has as a "working class" city, that should be embraced, and I feel that the location of the proposed stadium at Howard Terminal reflects that culture well. What better way to promote a city of hardworking people than to locate a professional sports stadium adjacent to a functioning port? What better way to bring together the working class nature of the city than to have a stadium that shows exactly how the working class citizens of Oakland and fans of major league baseball can live in harmony? I support the Oakland A's and the City Council and am confident that an agreement can be reached that is satisfactory to all parties if the city can show some support towards the A's, a TENANT that has been doing business in the city of Oakland for over 50 years.
I have been an Oakland A's fan since 1984 thanks to winning some game tickets while in elementary school for my academic achievements. I am one of thousands in Northern California who travel to visit Oakland for an A's game. I also stop by a nearby place to get a pregame meal or post game meal like at Jack in the Box or In-N-Out Burger.
Imagine with a new waterfront ballpark there would be a newly developed Oakland for its community and visitors. New roads, transportation options, housing including affordable housing, jobs, economic engines, regional and local dollars being collected, retail, small businesses, hotels, the industrial site would be cleaned up, and so much more.
I have witnessed what happened in Sacramento with the Sacramento Kings, the Golden 1 Center, Downtown Commons (DOCO) and most recently with the Natomas reuse with a hospital and campus soon to be built that will replace the previous arena. Our downtown went from a ghost town to being packed on a nightly basis. Restaurants, retail and hotels opened up near the new arena. Jobs were saved and created including for those who were apprentices and disadvantaged workers.
It takes a shared vision and leadership to make the dream a reality. It must be a fair deal for the Oakland A's but also the community of Oakland. Please continue to negotiate the best possible deal. This deal is so much bigger than just the Oakland A's. This deal is so much bigger than just a stadium.
This is bigger than baseball.
As a fellow leader and local CEO in Oakland, I wanted to reach out to you and the City Council to express my support for the Oakland A’s waterfront ballpark at Howard Terminal. This is a defining moment, not only for the A’s, but for Oakland as a whole. Growing up just a few blocks from the Coliseum, I’ve been a fan of the A’s and of Oakland sports my entire life. But more than that, I’m a fan of Oakland. I love this town. I have built my business here. I am invested here. Our community deserves to keep the A’s and all the new economic and community activity that the Howard Terminal project and the redevelopment of the Coliseum site represent.
Simply put, Oakland needs the A’s and the A’s need Oakland.
I urge you all to vote in support of the Howard Terminal Waterfront Ballpark Project and continue to move Oakland forward, not backward.
Thank you for the work you do to keep Oakland a thriving city that we can all be proud of. I look forward to the continued investment the new ballpark represents for the broader community of Oakland.
Joel Flory
CEO & Co-Founder of VSCO
This Waterfront Ballpark project will help propel the City of Oakland into the future. It will take leadership from City, County and other Community leaders to come together with a forward leaning vision of Oakland. This will attract people into the community to bring additional revenues. I used to have a branch office right near Oakland City Hall for about 10-years; but closed that and moved it to Livermore. I had family members that lived there, but they moved; got too dangerous. Friends and family would come into Oakland to watch the Raiders games; but they also moved. I had dinner in Downtown Oakland on Friday night (1st time since pandemic) and my car for broken into. What will I and others need to come into Oakland if this project doesn't get built, the A's leave, and the crime continues to go up. Something drastic needs to happen in Oakland. This could be the catalyst. Civic/Sports District projects like this are once in a generation. There are lots of other projects in Oakland that have and will have affordable housing components. Who else would invest billions into a development that benefits an entire community? Don’t miss out on this opportunity. What will your legacy be known for? The City that lost all 3 of their major sports teams in 5-years and is no longer on the national radar? Or one that fought for Oakland’s name in civic pride? Vote YES on the A's proposed term sheet.
–Carla Collins, Town Business/CMAA NorCal President/Signet Testing Labs-Alameda Co SBE
My name is Sonya Karabel, I live in D1, and I want to see the city's term sheet strengthened if we are going to prevent gentrification and displacement in the neighboring areas to Howard Terminal. We need stronger housing provisions in particular- 35% affordable housing overall, the A's need to front the cost for the offsite affordable, deeply affordable (very low and extremely low) housing, and the A's need to contribute $1.5 milion annually for anti-displacement services. If they don't act up and invest up front, West Oakland and Chinatown in particular will be unrecognizable and unaffordable for the longtime residents. This is our town, and the city needs to stand up for our terms.
While I appreciate that keeping the A's in Oakland is an emotional issue for many, but I don't think this city needs more generic corporate mega-building(s) while small clubs, galleries, business and communities are displaced. The site lacks infrastructure for proposed development and nothing in this round of negotiations looks like it would remunerate the citizenry adequately for the disruptions it will cause. This really looks like a short sighted money/land grab by a corporation. Also, sea-level rise is predicted to have reclaimed most of that site by 2035 so . . .
Pro to A’s proposal: None
Con to A’s proposal: Many, including:
* Significant interference with the multi-Billion-dollar Port operations - a source of very good jobs and tax revenue
* A direct, unsuitable interface between heavy industrial (noise, dust, 24 hr operation) and housing/office uses. Would you live here? We need more housing but not at this site.
*Sea level rise
*Greenhouse gases - this proposal is not convent to any public transportation whereas the current site has a plethora of access. Coliseum access could be improved (ex. a bus terminal; expanded, direct BART platform to stadium access; expanded AMTRAK service) but it exists!
*MONEY- look at your agenda (Local Homeless Emergency; Sewer Sub-Basin rehabilitation, etc), is the A’s proposal really a City tax dollar priority? Why does the sports industry expect government to build their facilities? Can other business get tax money for that? This is another one-sided fund "ask" - A’s are not expecting to pay any money back, they offer a paltry, long range, dribble of revenue to the City - IF the development reaches full potential within 20 years and threats if they are refused.
*If the A’s were really “Rooted in Oakland”, they would already have a new transit supported home along with a housing/commercial development at the Coliseum, but that would mean they spent their own money.
Just say NO to this money grab! I Love baseball, but I’m absolutely NOT paying taxes to support it!
I come into Oakland to attend A's games, concerts, etc. and use BART as my method of transportation. It is extremely unfortunate that no one on either side considered what a nightmare it would be to get back and forth to a game at Howard Terminal. The nearest BART Station is about a mile away. I just don't understand why the new ballpark can't be built on the existing land where the current one resides since there is plenty of parking and a BART Station nearby. The ownership group for the A's is not being honest here. I would hate to see the A's leave Oakland due to petty demands on the part of a billionaire ownere.
Yes, I get that the project could bring money into Oakland, but it will also bring an enormous disruption into many people's lives. In addition to the financials being skewed to benefit the A's and not Oakland, the rendering of the development is downright ugly, and building a gondola while saying that there is plenty of parking downtown is absurd. A rebuild at the coliseum with transportation and parking in place is a far better idea.
It would be extremely unfortunate if the city of Oakland walks away from this deal with the A's. The economic benefits and improvements to the area surrounding the ballpark are too great to simply ignore. It is absolutely inconceivable to expect an offer of this magnitude again in the near future as a "no" vote would signal to any other possible business ventures that the city of Oakland is too demanding and inflexible to strike a balanced deal. I am tired of the blight, trash, boarded up windows, closed businesses, and ceaseless homelessness and I see this deal as our ticket to a beautiful new future.
Please do the right thing and help West Oakland, Jack London, and the downtown corridor strive by voting YES on keeping the A's in Oakland and building a beautiful new ballpark at Howard Terminal.
We would like to echo the comments by Jacob Buchenauer. .He is absolutely right on all counts. Why would we come to Oakland, except to use the airport? The idea of losing our beloved A''s to another city because two sides can't come to terms is unbearable. On a personal side, we are part of 4 generations of Oakland Athletics fans spanning over 50 plus years. Currently season ticket holders for 21 years. When out of town guests come to visit they plan their trip around the A's schedule so we can all enjoy a game together. We strongly support the Howard Terminal proposal. CITY OF OAKLAND, please VOTE YES.
GO A's!!
Please support the A’s new waterfront ballpark deal so that we can keep the team in Oakland. I grew up watching the A’s and can’t imagine this city without them. I think the council is right to push for the best deal possible for Oakland, but if you don’t negotiate and the team leaves, everyone loses. We already lost the Warriors and the Raiders. Please do everything you can to keep the A’s in Oakland.
I am a resident of Oakland Chinatown and I am against the proposed A’s stadium at Howard Terminal. The reasons are numerous—the problems highlighted in the environmental impact report (the air pollution above the city’s thresholds, daily winds over 36mph, traffic, etc), the lack of consideration of my neighborhood, Chinatown, the lack of truly affordable housing and community benefits to Oakland and the bad faith in which Dave Kaval has been negotiating and engaging with the community are all reasons why I am against the stadium at Howard Terminal. Furthermore, I am frustrated that this issue has taken away valuable time and energy from focusing on things we in Oakland truly need, like support for our homeless residents, affordable housing, mental health services, violence prevention, etc.
As someone who lives in Chinatown, my daily life will be directly impacted by this stadium. I have not heard any support for the stadium from people I know in my neighborhood or in other neighborhoods that will be impacted, and I firmly believe that impacted neighborhoods should have the final say as to what happens in them. I am against this proposed stadium.
Oakland needs this to happen. The town has already lost major sports teams and businesses.
Please do what’s necessary to keep the A’s in Oakland.
I am an Oakland resident and I was born and raised here. I have been a lifelong A's fan and would be devastated to see them leave Oakland. However, I would rather see them leave than have my City Council allow themselves to be blackmailed by a billionaire developer who wants to milk Oakland for every cent he can get. Every new detail that has come out about this proposed Howard Terminal development is worse than the last. Additionally, I'm not even sure what the Council is voting on here since it is not a term sheet, given that billionaire developer John Fisher and his crony Dave Kaval stopped negotiating with the City in April. Any development at Howard Terminal must include community benefits that are paid for by billionaire John Fisher, not by an EIFD. It MUST require at least 50% affordable housing for residents making below 80% AMI, divided evenly up between AMI levels (including 0–30% AMI). 30% affordable housing, with the option to build 15% offsite, is an absolute farce and only slightly less insulting than the 0% which billionaire John Fisher is proposing. It must require billionaire John Fisher to commit to keeping the A's in Oakland for at least 66 years, not 25. And that is just the bare minimum. Do not allow yourselves to be extorted by a billionaire developer who likes to clearcut virgin redwood forests and pays his players the lowest amount of any MLB league. Stand up to John Fisher. Demand a project that would actually benefit Oakland.
I am a long-time Oakland Athletics fan, and a huge fan of the Coliseum. As much as I would love to see the A's stay in Oakland, I'm equally concerned that the city council does not realize the national impact of losing all 3 professional sports teams in a matter of years. Growing up in Pleasanton, the only reason I would go into Oakland is to go to an A's game. Once the A's leave, the only reason I would travel to Oakland would be if the airline flights are cheaper than San Francisco.
I have worked in downtown Oakland, and the city desperately needs revitalization in a similar way that Brooklyn has been revitalized. There is a stigma that Oakland has as a "working class" city, that should be embraced, and I feel that the location of the proposed stadium at Howard Terminal reflects that culture well. What better way to promote a city of hardworking people than to locate a professional sports stadium adjacent to a functioning port? What better way to bring together the working class nature of the city than to have a stadium that shows exactly how the working class citizens of Oakland and fans of major league baseball can live in harmony? I support the Oakland A's and the City Council and am confident that an agreement can be reached that is satisfactory to all parties if the city can show some support towards the A's, a TENANT that has been doing business in the city of Oakland for over 50 years.