Oakland A's, Raiders Agree to Lease Extensions at Coliseum

The agency that runs the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum has approved new leases for the Oakland A's and Oakland Raiders. The Coliseum Authority approved a one-year lease extension for the Raiders and a two-year extension for the A's.

Rebecca Kaplan, an at-large member of the Oakland City Council and a member of the Coliseum Authority board, said the new agreement will give the city time to proceed with its ambitious long-range plan for the Coliseum site. That plan, called Coliseum City, would consist of new stadiums for both the A's and Raiders and a new arena for the Golden State Warriors. The multibillion-dollar proposal also calls for development of new office and retails space and 6,000 units of housing ion more than a square mile adjacent to the Coliseum property.

"Now we're going to begin the work of negotiating for the long term which is the redevelopment of this whole site, new sports facilities, shops, bars, restaurants, and hotels, and an opportunity to expand jobs as well as the fan experience on the site," Kaplan said after this morning's vote.

Oakland officials are hoping the Coliseum City project can prevent the departure of all three of the city's major league professional sports franchises. The A's are trying to move to San Jose, the Raiders say they're looking for a stadium site elsewhere in Alameda County, and the Warriors want to build a massive new arena on the San Francisco waterfront.

One sign of the less-than-cordial relationship between the Coliseum and the A's is a provision in today's agreement labeled "Future Cooperation":

The parties agree to cooperate in the execution of provisions of the License, including at least annual meetings of the principals to discuss related matters and the agreement to refrain from knowingly making inaccurate or factually unfounded statements about the condition of the Stadium.

The A's have complained repeatedly about the condition of the 46-year-old Coliseum. The derision went national when the sewage backed up into both the home and visitors clubhouses on two occasions during the 2013 season.

The San Francisco Chronicle offers this background on the new lease extensions, which came after protracted talks between Coliseum officials and both teams.

...the A's had sought a two- to five-year lease extension in Oakland. The Coliseum's joint-powers authority sought a five- to eight-year lease.

Earlier this month, Major League Baseball demanded that the A's be granted a two-year lease and threatened to help the team move next year to AT&T Park, the Giants' home, if the Coliseum Authority didn't go along.

A's owner Lew Wolff said Sunday that a two-year lease in Oakland was "fine with me. ... We can discuss a longer term later."

One stumbling block had been the A's control over stadium concessions for all events. The lease approved Monday calls for the A's to pay $1.75 million per year, including a $250,000 fee that not only keeps the A's in control of concession revenue, but also allows the team to pick the concessions vendor.

The Raiders sought a one-year extension through the 2014 season. The team will pay $400,000 for the lease. The team receives half of parking revenue, and parking fees will rise to $35 for the 2014 season.

Even if the Raiders were to announce that the team will play outside Alameda County for the 2015 season, the agreement allows the team to lease its training facility in Alameda for $525,000 per year.

The city of Oakland and Alameda County are expected to sign off on the new leases in early December.

KQED's Nina Thorsen contributed to this post.