Oakland Alameda County Coliseum at night (photo file by Ticketmaster.com)

The Coliseum to the Rescue? A’s wouldn’t have to shut down operations

That’s Amaury News and Commentary

By Amaury Pi-González

In the never-ending saga of the only baseball franchise in Bay Area history to have won four World Series, the Oakland A’s are now to meet with the City of Oakland and County of Alameda to renew a new lease past this 2024 season (last year for the current lease).

As Spring Training in Arizona is getting underway, the Oakland A’s, who are scheduled to inaugurate a new ballpark in the Las Vegas strip by 2028, have obstacles still on the horizon, the most important being the financing for the $1.5 billion stadium in Sin City as well are the renderings of the proposed new 30,000 seat facility.

If you call the Tropicana Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas today hoping to get a reservation for a stay, you can do so until April. The iconic Tropicana has already officially announced that they will not take any reservations after April 2 because they are making way for the demolition, which is also scheduled for this year.

While the A’s build their new park in Las Vegas, the one city that makes the most sense for the team to keep playing is Oakland, which is common sense, but as we all know, in this current story, ” common sense is not common anymore.”

If the Oakland A’s were to extend their lease with the City of Oakland and Alameda County for 2025 and beyond, that would ensure the team keeps playing in a major league facility. As dated as the Coliseum is today, granted, it is not the most attractive baseball park.

However, it is still a major league facility, and the Players Union will probably never approve of the A’s playing in a smaller setting, barnstorming in minor league cities outside the Bay Area.

So get ready. More discussions are underway. This makes sense, there is money for everybody, if they extend it, plus the A’s will still keep the millions they get in television broadcasting revenue, and the city and county also will benefit financially. This is not amateur sports; this is the Big Leagues, and when there is money to be made, everybody likes to talk about it.

Let’s see what happens now.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the lead play by play voice on the Oakland A’s Spanish radio network at 1010 KIQI San Francisco and 990 KATD Pittsburg and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com