Oakland Ballpark Informations

Oakland Ballpark is the name for a proposed ballpark to be built in the Jack London Square neighborhood of Oakland, California. It is proposed as the new home of Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics. It would serve as the replacement to their current home at RingCentral Coliseum where the team has resided since 1968. This would mark the first time that the Athletics franchise has played in a brand new stadium since the completion of Shibe Park in 1909.

The Athletics have proposed constructing a 34,000-seat stadium at Howard Terminal owned by the Port of Oakland at Jack London Square. After securing the site, the team proposes to begin construction in 2021 with the stadium opening in 2023.

Towards the early 2000s, it was becoming clear that the Coliseum was inadequate for the long term future to host the Athletics and the NFL's Oakland Raiders. Major League Baseball began pushing the team to pursue a new stadium either in Oakland or elsewhere. The Coliseum is the last facility in Major League Baseball that is also home to a NFL team. It is also the last stadium remaining of the multi-purpose stadiums of the 1960s designed for both baseball and football in Major League Baseball. In recent years, the Coliseum has been criticized as being one of the "worst stadiums in baseball". Problems cited include the large amount of foul territory and the addition of Mount Davis.

The former allows for more foul-outs while the latter has been criticized for "ruining" the ambiance of the original configuration. In addition, the stadium has been plagued with sewage issues which include flooding of the dugouts and clubhouses with sewage. The process of finding a new stadium began in 2001 with a plan for a stadium in Oakland. After the first plans in Oakland along with plans for a stadium in Fremont and San Jose fell through the Athletics arrived at the current plan.

The first of the promising early sites had been a site in Uptown Oakland. In a 2001 study, Populous (formerly HOK Sport) had suggested this as the prime site for a ballpark; however, plans to build a park there were canceled by then-Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown due to the concern of the ballpark ruining the housing development of the neighborhood. Brown (who later became governor of California) opted to sell the site to a condominium builder to whom he allegedly had ties. The City of Oakland also considered a site near the Oakland Estuary for a stadium; however, the A's showed no interest in the site due to lack of public transit access. Another possible location that was explored was land directly adjacent to the Coliseum, to the southeast, in what is currently overflow parking, which would have meant the two stadiums would share a parking lot. However, much of that land had already been sold to a condominium developer.

Oakland Athletics owner Lewis Wolff presented his vision for the team's venue to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority on August 12, 2005. The ballpark he proposed would have been on 66th Avenue just north of the Coliseum. The stadium would have been built on what is currently zoned industrial land and would have included a Ballpark Village which would have included shops and either a hotel or apartment building in one of the outfield walls of the park.

In April 2006, Lewis Wolff took his Ballpark Village proposal to Fremont, a city 26.5 miles (42.65 km) southeast of Oakland, where a large 143-acre (0.6 km2) parcel of land is available just north of Mission Boulevard and south of Auto Mall Parkway off Interstate 880 and across from Pacific Commons. The land is currently owned by ProLogis, a real estate firm, and leased to Cisco Systems. A formal press conference to announce the existence of Wolff's ballpark proposal of Cisco Field was held on November 14, 2006. The plan would be to build a 32,000 to 35,000 capacity stadium on the parcel of land in addition to adding housing and shops.Bud Selig, commissioner of Major League Baseball and John Chambers, the CEO of Cisco Systems along with Wolff were in attendance.

The proposal of the ballpark encountered problems such as delays due to construction issues, lack of public transportation, and complaints from Fremont residents citing traffic congestion, noise, and pollution concerns. This lead to Wolff officially ending the ballpark search in Fremont on February 24, 2009.

On November 16, 2010, the City of Oakland proposed a waterfront site in the Jack London Square area for a new A's ballpark. The site, called Victory Court, was near the Lake Merritt Channel, along the Oakland Estuary. The city conducted an environmental impact report for the Victory Court site and informed Major League Baseball of its decision. The city began accepting public comment on the ballpark EIR at the December 1 Planning Commission meeting held at Oakland City Hall. By the end of 2011, the city had tabled the Victory Court site in favor of a proposed three-venue development at the Coliseum site titled Coliseum City.

Cisco Field was then proposed to be constructed in downtown San Jose immediately adjacent to SAP Center and San Jose Diridon Station at the corner of Montgomery Street and Park Avenue. For the A's to have moved to San Jose, either the San Francisco Giants would have had to rescind their territorial rights on the area, or at least 23 of the 30 MLB owners would have had to vote in the A's favor and force San Francisco to give up their territorial claim to Santa Clara County. Lew Wolff stated, "My goal and desire for the organization is to determine a way to keep the team in Northern California." The Redevelopment Agency of the City of San Jose had been acquiring the properties needed at the Diridon South site. The available land, only 12-14 acres, would have given rise to a very intimate stadium. As a result of its small size, it was speculated that it would have been very hitter-friendly.

The Giants repeatedly refused to cede their territorial rights to the San Jose area (which had been yielded by the A's in the early 1990s when the Giants had been in danger of relocating to Tampa Bay, previously both teams had shared the South Bay), although the team is open to sharing Oracle Park with the A's on a temporary basis if the A's have plans for a permanent stadium in the works.

In August 2012, Commissioner Bud Selig's "blue ribbon" committee, which had been implemented to study potential ballpark locations for the Athletics, met with Oakland and San Jose officials. At the Oakland meeting, the committee was met with a proposal for a ballpark on the site of Howard Terminal, a container terminal on the Oakland waterfront near Jack London Square currently owned by the Port of Oakland. Wolff stated the site "has no ability to be implemented for a ballpark." Major League Baseball, however, stated that it was their preferred location for a new ballpark in Oakland.

On October 5, 2015, the United States Supreme Court rejected San Jose's bid on the Athletics.

On June 25, 2014, the Athletics reached a 10-year lease agreement with the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Authority to stay at the Coliseum. Bud Selig commended both sides for reaching a deal on a lease extension, while offering, "I continue to believe that the Athletics need a new facility and am fully supportive of the club's view that the best site in Oakland is the Coliseum site." On July 16, 2014, the extension was officially approved.

On August 6, 2014, the A's began talks with an architect to build a baseball-only stadium at the Coliseum site, according to Wolff.

In 2016, Lewis Wolff resigned as the majority owner of the team. John J. Fisher then took over as majority owner. Fisher appointed Dave Kaval as team president and head of the stadium project. Around the same time, the Raiders announced their relocation to Las Vegas by 2020, which combined with the Golden State Warriors' move to the new Chase Center in San Francisco in September 2019. This will leave the Athletics as the last professional sports team in Oakland. The team revealed three stadium options in 2016, the current Coliseum site, the Peralta area near Laney College, or Howard Terminal at the Port of Oakland.

After a comprehensive study of three proposed ballpark sites (Coliseum site, Howard Terminal, and Peralta Community College Headquarters District), the A's ownership determined that the best potential site to fit the needs of the A's and create the most community partnership opportunities and benefits was the Peralta site. The team announced that the Peralta site would be the preferred choice for the A's new ballpark on September 13, 2017. The area is located between Lake Merritt and I-880 where there are warehouses, parking lots and administrative offices for the Peralta Community College District.

Opposition to the project included members of the Peralta Federation of Teachers, select student and facility groups of neighboring Laney College and a local coalition of organizations led by the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN). After several months of preliminary discussions amongst the A's and the Peralta Community College's Office of the Chancellor Jowel Laguerre, Chancellor of Peralta Community College District, a statement was issued by the Chancellor indicating that he had been instructed to "discontinue planning" for the ballpark after a closed session meeting of the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees on the evening of December 5, 2017.

The A’s plan to build a privately financed, 34,000-seat ballpark at Howard Terminal, including fixed seats and general admission experience areas. The ballpark will feature an elevated park that wraps and frames the bowl, coming down to meet the waterfront. The ballpark will anchor a new, vibrant waterfront district that will feature a mix of housing, including affordable housing, offices, restaurants, retail, small business space, parks, and public gathering spaces.

Located near downtown Oakland, the Charles P. Howard Terminal is west of Jack London Square and is adjacent to railroad tracks and large industrial facilities. The 55-acre waterfront property is currently owned by the Port of Oakland. Howard Terminal has not been used by a cargo vessel since 2013. On April 26, 2018, the Port of Oakland commissioners voted 6-0 unanimously to enter in to a one-year agreement to negotiate exclusively with the Oakland A's. This agreement allows the A's to pay the Port $100,000 to study economic feasibility and environmental, transportation and accessibility issues. A similar agreement with the A's regarding the Coliseum site was also agreed upon with the city on May 16, 2017. . On May 13, 2019, the board commissioners voted 7-0 to approve and authorize the Executive Director to execute the initial term sheet for a term of four years.

Complete article available at this page.