(The Center Square) – A development group has agreed to purchase the Oakland Athletics’ half of the Oakland Coliseum for $125 million after the group purchased Oakland’s portion of the stadium earlier this year for a minimum of $105 million.
The African American Sports and Entertainment Group plans to develop the spot into affordable housing, outdoor space and the preservation of Oakland Arena, former home of the Golden State Warriors.
“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 AASEG Managing Member Ray Bobbitt. “We recognize that while this is a tremendous opportunity, it is above all a profound responsibility. We graciously accept this responsibility and look forward to working with the community on this generationally transformational endeavor. We also want to thank the city and county for their unwavering support.”
The Athletics are set to move to Sacramento and play at Sutter Health Park for at least the 2025 to 2027 seasons with plans to move to Las Vegas afterward.
Professional sports teams, including the Athletics, have long argued that hosting professional sports teams lead to large economic impact numbers that justify large public subsidies for arena projects.
Economists, however, have consistently shown that those impacts do not occur and the taxpayer subsidies are not worth it.
Oakland made similar claims that the Coliseum site sale will “catalyze investment and economic opportunity” in East Oakland.
The Coliseum Way Partners, an Athletics company, purchased their share of the coliseum for $85 million in 2019 and paid of the balance of the purchase earlier this year.