The city of Oakland doesn’t know how much money It has to throw in.
The talks have now begun in the Major League Baseball Oakland A’s owners bid to build a stadium village near the Oakland, California waterfront by Howard Terminal. The city of Oakland is now listening. A’s ownership had originally wanted to move into the new facility by April 2023. Athletics ownership claims it will provide more than a billion dollars to build a state-of-the-art ballpark. Additionally, the Athletics ownership group will pay for all on-site project costs and for public parks along with protection against sea level rise from climate change. It sounds too good to be true. A group of financiers investing a large costly project that would transform an area. But there doesn’t seem to be a price tag on what the city of Oakland would be required to invest in the project and that right now is an open question.
The city wants to review the Athletics ownership proposal and see what it is going to cost Oakland taxpayers. The city of Oakland put out a statement about the project. “The City is willing to bring to bear its resources to help make this vision a reality; however, today’s proposal from the A’s appears to request public investment at the high end for projects of this type nationwide.” The entire project according to the A’s ownership will cost in the neighborhood of $12 billion and the ownership claims that if the project goes ahead, the city of Oakland would get a billion dollars in revenue. But Athletics ownership wants to use tax generated to finance infrastructure costs. A’s President Dave Kaval tweeted that he wants His team’s fans to reach and sign a petition for Oakland politicians to fast track the proposal. We respectfully ask that the Oakland City Council take a vote on our project before summer recess. The dance has begun.
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