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The Oakland Athletics still need somewhere to play ahead of their anticipated move to the Las Vegas Strip in 2028, and there will be an offer made to have them remain at the Oakland Coliseum until then.
The city of Oakland will present the A’s with an offer to extend the team’s lease at Oakland Coliseum for five years with an opt-out after three years, according to documents obtained by ESPN’s Tim Keown. The deal would also require the team to pay a $97 million extension fee.
A meeting between both sides is expected to occur on Tuesday.
The A’s current lease at the Coliseum expires after this season.
The city of Oakland is presenting the A’s with a five-year deal “to safeguard itself in case there are construction delays in Las Vegas or the deal falls through,” per Keown.
The $97 million extension fee is “non-negotiable,” according to Oakland chief of staff Leigh Hanson, and it will still be owed even if the team opts out of the contract after three years.
Oakland is also going to ask that the A’s take over the cost of switching the playing field at the stadium from baseball to soccer for Oakland Roots SC of the United Soccer League, per Keown.
Further, the city is asking the A’s to sell their 50 percent ownership stake in the Coliseum complex to a local development company to move forward with the redevelopment of the location. That has been agreed to but not finalized, according to Keown.
Of what is being asked of the team, the extension fee “figures to be the biggest point of contention in the upcoming negotiations,” according to Keown.
The A’s currently pay $1.5 million in rent to play at the Coliseum, per Keown, and they offered the city a two-year deal with payments of $7 million and $10 million over the course of the contract.
“I remain committed to doing everything in my power to keep the A’s in Oakland,” Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao said in a statement to ESPN. “The terms we have proposed for a lease extension at the Coliseum are clear, reasonable and achievable. Having Major League Baseball in Oakland is what is best for the owners, the league, the players and most importantly, the fans.”
In addition to the Coliseum, the A’s have also held discussions with Sacramento and Salt Lake City about temporarily moving the team to minor league ballparks in their respective cities until their stadium in Las Vegas is ready.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is hoping the A’s have their interim stadium plans in place by early summer for scheduling purposes, per Keown.
The A’s unveiled renderings of their Las Vegas stadium project on the Tropicana site earlier this month. The ballpark would have a 33,000-person capacity and have views of the Las Vegas skyline.
The A’s are 0-3 to open the 2024 season and will take on the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday before hosting the Boston Red Sox beginning on Monday.
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