by Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND–After the Oakland County City Council approved the Oakland A’s ten year lease on Wednesday night A’s president Mike Crowley issued a statement saying the team was not happy with the terms of the approved lease by the city council, “we’ll have to take a look at it and talk about it internally” said the unhappy club executive. Sources say that the A’s are not happy with the out clause in the lease that gives the A’s notice to leave the Coliseum by the city if the Oakland Raiders decide to implode the Coliseum to build a new stadium in it’s footprint.

Alameda County is still paying for the 1994 additional seating in the bleachers section at the Coliseum know as Mount Davis and the county remains $180 million on the hook for those past expenses and will no doubt take on more expense if the Raiders set up blueprints to build at the present Coliseum location. The A’s do have an out clause if they decide to bolt the city of Oakland it allows the club to leave in 2018.

Raiders fans who attended Wednesday night’s city council hearing said for the city council not to sign the lease that the A’s plan to bolt Oakland if and when they are permitted to get to move to downtown San Jose, “don’t sign the lease, this guy (Lew Wolff A’s co-owner), is never going to work with you, he doesn’t believe in you guys” said Raider fan Brien Dixon

The A’s in the deal had their rent lowered but the city gets to keep $5.3 million in tax revenue from Coliseum parking from the A’s. Fans, commentaters, and talk show hosts who have been following the lease transition have said that their is a fork in the road with this deal, on one side those who agree with the deal say it will keep the A’s at the Colisuem for the next ten years and the other side is saying the A’s are just buying time and will eventually leave Oakland for San Jose.

Some say that San Jose might not be as easy as people think as Larry Baer Giants team CEO and the San Francisco Giants have said in the past that the Giants have territorial rights to the South Bay and will never relinquish it. Wolff has talked this issue over with baseball Commissioner Bud Selig but the road block to San Jose without a doubt is the Giants.

Also in the agreement the A’s will get a rent break for this season as they’re rent will drop from $1.75 million to $1.35 million. The A’s will install a brand new scoreboard at the cost of $10 million the A’s also are reportedly not happy with another lease clause saying that the city will collect a slice of the revenues from advertising from the scoreboard. The A’s are reportedly adding this to their laundry list of their disagreements regarding the lease.

The city, County supervisors, and the A’s more than likely will be back in discussions reagrding these issues as it’s reported that Wolff is not too happy with the terms and will again request the original lease agreement that the club had with the city. If the city is not willing to redo what the A’s are asking and if there is no agreement in hand MLB has given the A’s it’s blessing to leave Oakland at anytime when ready.

Jerry Feitelberg covers A’s baseball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com