Oakland sells its half of Coliseum to developer for $105M

The City of Oakland has sold its half of the Oakland Coliseum for $105 million.

The city, facing a two-year budget shortfall, tentatively agreed to sell its share of the 112-acre complex at 7000 South Coliseum Way, in East Oakland, the East Bay Times and San Francisco Business Times reported.

The buyer is the African American Sports & Entertainment Group, based in Sacramento, which last year struck an exclusive negotiation agreement with the city to take the city’s share and redevelop the 58-year-old coliseum.

Final terms of the purchase are still being hammered out between the city and Loop Capital, an investment firm within the AASEG coalition that manages funds worth billions of dollars.

Oakland will put proceeds from the sale into its general purpose fund, which pays the salaries of employees. The city faces a $277 million budget shortfall in the next two fiscal years, according to the Business Times.

The coliseum property, half owned by the Oakland A’s and Alameda County, includes the 63,000 seat stadium used by the outgoing MLB franchise, a nearby arena and the parking lot in between.

The sale does not include the Malibu Lot or Home Base redevelopment properties.

The A’s bought its half in 2019 from the county for $85 million, and had two $15 million payments left after this week’s sale deal.

The Mayor’s Office said the purchase and sale agreement would precede a development agreement with AASEG, under which the group plans a $5 billion redevelopment. Plans call for homes, shops and restaurants, nightlife and a stadium for Black-owned NFL and WNBA teams.

But first the AASEG coalition must buy the other half of the Oakland Coliseum from its former baseball team, with which negotiations are ongoing. In September, A’s President Dave Kaval said the team didn’t want to sell its stake.

In an interview last month, Kaval spoke positively about AASEG, saying the group “has a really interesting vision” for the Coliseum complex. “The arena has actually done very, very well,” Kaval said at the time.

Neither the A’s nor AASEG’s respective purchases of the public property shares can be finalized until January 2026, when the city and county finish paying longstanding bonds they took out to make improvements to the Coliseum site back in the 1990s, according to the East Bay Times.

The Athletics, owned by billionaire John Fisher, will play home games in Sacramento next season and beyond until its permanent stadium in Las Vegas is complete. The coliseum, which opened in 1966, was once home to the NFL’s Oakland Raiders.

AASEG includes former Oakland City Manager Robert Bobb, Oakland developer Alan Dones, former chair of the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce Shonda Scott, former NBA player and sports agent Bill Duffy, and Loop Capital, an African American-owned investment firm. 

Retired WNBA star Alana Beard has linked up with the group to help lure a women’s professional basketball franchise to the East Bay city. 

— Dana Bartholomew

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