by Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND–After 14 months of debating, going back and forth on costs, out clauses, and the threat of tearing down the Oakland Coliseum if the Raiders wish it so, the Oakland A’s ownership have inked a ten year deal with the City of Oakland worth $20 million.

The A’s out clause could come as soon as 2017 if they wanted to move out of Oakland but the team would be obligated for the remaining balance of the lease. The Coliseum which is managed by the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Authority. A’s owner Lew Wolff said that he accepted most of the changes of the lease agreement despite some of the particulars that the A’s might have disagreed upon with the city.

Wolff told Oakland City Administrator Henry Gardner that he intends to build a new stadium at the Coliseum and Wolff told the city that the A’s have good faith intentions of building at the Coliseum Complex. The Raiders have expressed an interest in tearing down the Coliseum by 2016 for a new Raiders stadium but with the A’s new lease signed by the city and the team that might cloud the Raiders plans.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan has said she wants to revisit the Raiders wishes and make both teams happy by building stadiums for the Raiders and A’s side by side. The Golden State Warriors who are moving to San Francisco’s Mission Bay will vacate the Coliseum Arena after the Warriors new arena is completed. The schedule on the drawing board could have the A’s and Raiders build near or in the footprint of the Coliseum Arena if the city choses to tear down the Oracle Arena as soon the Warriors vacate Oracle.

The A’s and Wolff who made it their dream to play in San Jose and build a new stadium near the downtown Cal Train station and SAP Center fizzled over the years of discussion as the A’s came to the realization that San Francisco Giants will never reliquish terriorial rights. The City of San Jose had filed a lawsuit against Major League Baseball to try and force baseball to drop the territorial rights but the case is a stalemate.

The vote to approve the lease goes in front of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and Wolff sounded confident that everything is moving to plan, “it looks like we have a mutually agreeable lease transaction that will be subject to the vote of the board of supervisors” said Wolff. Talk of a Howard Street Waterfront ballpark for the A’s at Jack London Square was never in the cards for the A’s according to Wolff he wants to make the A’s home at the current Coliseum site with a brand new state of the art stadium, “we look forward to moving on and talking about the bigger goal building a beautiful new ballpark for the team right here in Oakland” said Quan

The deal now will go in front of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors for next week’s vote and it is expected to pass with a lot less fanfare than when it was in front of the Oakland City Council which mulled over it for 14 months with the team. It must be noted that the proposal might go in front of the Coliseum Authority again because of the revisions in the lease. Oakland City Councilman Larry Reid who opposed the original lease particulars is happy that a deal was struck and that Wolff and the A’s can get on with business as usual.

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