Oakland plans to sell its stake in the Coliseum for a minimum of $105 million in a transaction that could save the city from having to make dire budget cuts while bringing a developer one step closer toward its goal of transforming the site into a major economic engine for East Oakland.
The plans are by no means final and the City Council still needs to sign off on the deal, but officials said this week that they have agreed to sell Oakland’s 50% stake in the Coliseum Site to the African American Sports and Entertainment Group. The city has been in an exclusive negotiation agreement with the group since November 2021. The Black-led team of developers, including Oaklander Ray Bobbitt and backed by the Chicago-headquartered investment firm Loop Capital, plans to build affordable housing, hotels, retail outlets, and to host sports teams on the site.
Representatives from Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s office said that the transaction—which is moving ahead much faster than a traditional development deal—is not without risks. But officials said remaining tied to a property with the Oakland A’s, which are in the process of leaving the city, is itself a risk. The A’s have the rights to purchase the county’s other half of the Coliseum. Selling the city’s stake in the Coliseum is viewed by the mayor and city administration as a financial “bridge” to make it through a particularly rough economic period which has seen tax revenues plummet.
The $105 million deal would also garner the city millions of dollars from the transaction in the form of real estate transfer tax revenue, but that won’t be available for the city to use until 2026. Officials say proceeds from the sale will be immediately available to use against the city’s current budget deficit this year and next year. The city’s current shortfall is roughly $155 million in the general purpose fund, plus another $45 million in other funds, according to the latest projections by the Finance Department.
City officials said the African American Sports and Entertainment Group has already signed a memorandum of understanding with the Building and Construction Trades Council of Alameda County, the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, and the 40×40 Rise East Initiative, which is leveraging private funds to pour money into East Oakland communities. Oakland officials have previously said the deal with AASEG represents the largest transfer of public land to African Americans in the city’s history.
Bobbitt did not respond to a request for comment.
Figuring out the future of the Coliseum hasn’t been easy for Oakland. The A’s chose to abandon East Oakland as a potential site for a new ballpark years ago. After AASEG was brought on board, the developers failed to secure a WNBA expansion team that would play in Oakland, and last year internal squabbling led to a lawsuit over shares of equity in the organization.
But the biggest hurdle between the group and its vision for the site is the Oakland A’s. The team purchased the county’s share of the Coliseum in 2019 for $85 million. Last year, the team announced it was leaving for Las Vegas–a transition that has proved to be slow and painful for fans. The A’s rebuffed an offer from AASEG to purchase the A’s stake in the Coliseum, but the developer and the team were reportedly meeting earlier this year to discuss another proposal.
Before the sale of the Coliseum became a possibility, the city was preparing for brutal spending reductions. City staff said Oakland was prepared to close four firehouses, allow the police force to shrink through attrition to the low 600s, slash hours for senior centers, and lay off dozens of city workers.
Those cuts won’t appear in the mayor’s proposed budget, which will be released on Friday, said representatives of Thao’s office and the city administration. But officials warned that the one-time real estate deal doesn’t resolve the city’s structural financial problems, which will need to be addressed through big changes in the next two-year budget.
