The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Oakland Athletics and city officials will meet to talk about extending the Oakland Athletics’ lease for Coliseum.
The Athletics’ present lease is scheduled to expire at the end of the 2024 campaign, but until their planned stadium in Las Vegas is completed, they will still require a location to call home. The planned opening year is 2028.
In an attempt to find a temporary ballpark, team owner John Fisher has been visiting minor league stadiums in the Salt Lake City and Sacramento areas.
Oracle Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants, has also reportedly been considered – at least for some of the A’s home games.
Staying at the Colisum would allow the A’s to receive local media rights fees from NBC Sports California which paid the team $67million last season.
Earlier this month, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred informed reporters that the A’s would require clarification over their home “in the next few months.” He went on to say that if the Las Vegas stadium were not open in 2028, he would be “disappointed.”
Since 1968, Oakland has hosted home games at the Coliseum, reportedly paying $1.2 million in rent annually.
The location of the A’s proposed stadium in Las Vegas has also come into question after Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman said she felt building a stadium on the Strip didn’t ‘make sense’.
‘I thought, this does not make sense, and so why is it happening?’ Goodman said. ‘And then I thought, well, because they really want to stay in Oakland, they want to be on the water, they have that magnificent dream. Yet they can’t get it done.’
