By Charlie O. Mallonee

 

With Warriors buying a plot of land in San Francisco and the Raiders having moving boxes ready for Los Angeles, you would think the Oakland-Alameda County Authority would be falling all over themselves trying to keep the A’s at the Coliseum for the next five to 10 years. Well if you thought that, you would be wrong.

 

The Oakland Athletics have expressed a desire for a five-year lease with a five-year option to stay in the O.co Coliseum while they figure out what to do for a new facility. The A’s want some work to be done on the 46-year old building, but they are talking about staying put in Oakland for up to 10 years.

 

The Oakland-Alameda County Authority has responded by reportedly demanding the A’s guarantee to build a new stadium in Oakland before extending the lease. Are you kidding me? Really? You are on the brink of losing three professional franchises within the next two to three years and you are making those types of demands? Frankly, it makes no sense.

 

There comes a time when a government entity must “double down” to gain leverage in a negotiation. This is not one of those times. Oakland-Alameda County has ideas but no funding to make those dreams a reality. They need to be in triage mode in order to stop the bleeding before everyone has left town.

 

Yes, the A’s have been clear they would like to move to San Jose, but it is also clear that Major League Baseball and the San Francisco Giants are not about to let that happen anytime soon. In the meantime, the Athletics need somewhere to play and the Coliseum is in need of tenants. What is the problem?

 

Signing a five-year lease with an option would buy Oakland-Alameda County some much needed time. Time that will be needed to come up with plan to transform the current Coliseum site into a show place of major sports activity. Time to put together a financing plan and time to get the project built. It is a golden opportunity that has a very narrow time-frame to pull off a coup d’état of major proportion.

 

Oakland has the land, the mass transit in place and the freeway access that makes it a perfect place to build a world class facility. Envision an upscale shopping, dinning, housing and entertainment complex with great views of the Bay. Such a facility could transform the area.

 

The first step for any such project is to do whatever is necessary to keep the A’s and the Raiders in Oakland while a plan is put in place that will make all parties happy. The Oakland-Alameda County Authority can come out of this ordeal as a big winner but only if they stop acting silly and get down to business – negotiating in earnest.