Oakland Arena Is Open to Teams Looking for a Home, Group Buying Coliseum Says

Updated 3:45 p.m. Monday

The Oakland A’s have reached a tentative deal to sell their ownership stake in the Coliseum, where the team has played since 1968, to a local Black-owned sports and entertainment company that plans to develop the site and keep the Oakland Arena running.

The team said it reached an agreement to sell its 50% interest in the Coliseum complex to the African American Sports and Entertainment Group for $125 million, giving AASEG full control of the site. Last week, the group agreed to buy the city of Oakland’s half for $105 million.

“AASEG has a community-oriented vision for the long-term development of the site and will be strong stewards of the property,” A’s president Dave Kaval said in a statement. “Their leadership and development provide substantial opportunities and benefits for East Oakland and the broader Oakland community.”

The A’s plan to leave Oakland after finishing the MLB season this fall and head to West Sacramento for at least three years while aiming to build a new stadium in Las Vegas.

AASEG, which entered an exclusive negotiating deal to purchase the Coliseum in early 2023, sees the redevelopment, which will be the largest in the city’s history, as an opportunity to revitalize East Oakland.

“We’re in such a unique position, and because Oakland really needs this, we’re very excited about it,” Ray Bobbitt said. “We feel like this is our contribution, and as much as we see this as a unique opportunity, we see it more as like a profound responsibility, especially as natives, understanding that … we can really have a massive amount of impact and really create an opportunity for people within this community who have typically been very highly impacted in a negative way.”

The group plans to keep the Oakland Arena on the site, and Bobbitt said it is available to sports teams looking for a location to play — “we have the only shovel-ready sports site in the country,” he said.

Currently, the Oakland Roots soccer team is playing its 2025 season at the Coliseum and plans to build a stadium in the adjacent “Malibu Lot” that once served as the Raiders’ training facility.

Oakland Arena will also continue to serve as an entertainment venue, Bobbitt said.

However, AASEG will also focus on workforce development and building housing, green space and entertainment and retail on the site. According to the sale agreement, 25% of any housing units built on the site of the complex must be affordable.

A spokesperson for Mayor Sheng Thao also said that future property taxes from the Coliseum would be used to help the city address its larger structural deficit and create jobs for residents.

“Having one entity control the entire Coliseum site will fast-track much-needed and deeply deserved development in East Oakland,” Thao said in a statement. “This is a multi-billion-dollar development that is going to deliver affordable housing, jobs, business opportunities, community benefits and tax revenue for decades to come.”

Last week, the city of Oakland announced that it had taken a big step in its sale to AASEG — both parties signed a term sheet stating the deal would be signed by Aug. 23.

Thao plans to use $63 million in expected one-time revenue from the sale to help close the city’s massive budget shortfall without making potentially crippling cuts, a move that has drawn some controversy.

The A’s acquired an interest in Alameda County’s half of the Coliseum in 2019 and have paid for it in installments since. The purchase balance was paid early this year, according to a press release. The team’s sale of its interest in the site is subject to approval by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.