The Oakland Athletics on Sunday sent a letter to Mayor Libby Schaaf and the City Council expressing the team’s desire to assume control of the Oakland Coliseum complex in exchange for paying more than $135 million in debt currently owed by the city and Alameda County at the site.
The Coliseum, the team’s current home, was one of three sites under consideration for a new privately financed ballpark. The A’s were also looking at Howard Terminal near Jack London Square and a Peralta Community College District property near Lake Merritt.
In December, the Peralta board of trustees advised the team that they would no longer negotiate a sale of the site, eliminating the option near Lake Merritt.
In the letter sent Sunday by Oakland A’s President Dave Kaval, he wrote that “it has become clear that the A’s need to solidify control of the one site in Oakland that offers an assured path for the development of a new privately financed baseball venue — the existing Coliseum complex.”
Kaval wrote that the A’s seek to purchase the complex, which is jointly owned by the city of Oakland and Alameda County and also includes Oracle Arena, by paying all remaining debt service on the more than $135 million in debt owed by the two municipalities.