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The Oakland A’s will sell its half of the Oakland Coliseum to the investment company African American Sports and Entertainment Group for $125 million, the baseball team announced Monday.
The sale comes after AASEG, which plans to turn the stadium site into multi-use development, signed a deal with Oakland last week to buy the city’s half of the Coliseum for $105 million. The A’s said Monday’s agreement with the development company is pending approval from the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, as the county is still listed on the title of the Coliseum.
“As Oakland natives who grew up merely blocks away from the Coliseum, and as longtime Oakland business owners, we are filled with gratitude for this opportunity to assume stewardship of the Coliseum site,” said Ray Bobbitt, the founder of AASEG.
Should the sale be greenlit by the Board of Supervisors, it would end a more than three-year saga in which AASEG negotiated to acquire the Coliseum. Bobbitt said the negotiations were fast-tracked over the last few months, as Oakland passed a budget that relied on funds from the sale to close fiscal gaps. He also said that the imminent departure of the A’s, who are set to leave Oakland next year for Sacramento, made negotiations easier for their share of the stadium.
The Oakland A’s bought an interest in Alameda County’s half of the stadium in 2019 for $85 million, which the team said it paid off earlier this year. At a press conference last week, Bobbitt said the county was still listed on the building’s title.
“I appreciate the collaboration between the A’s and AASEG and am excited for the future of the Coliseum site,” Alameda County Supervisor David Haubert said.
Both Bobbitt and Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao have touted the development firm’s plan for a “multi-billion dollar” investment to build housing on the Coliseum site. When the Oakland City Council advanced the sale in June, it approved up to 4,000 units, with 25% of them affordable. However, at an event last week, Bobbitt couldn’t yet commit to a timeline for the process.
Thao commended the A’s Monday for striking a deal with AASEG, saying that it brought this investment project closer to fruition.
“This is another incredibly exciting day,” Thao said. “When we agreed on our terms with AASEG for the City’s half of the Coliseum site, we knew this was right around the corner.”
— Story by Cole Reynolds, Bay City News Service
