Oakland – (Exclusive to ZennieReport.com) The WNBA Expansion announcement is less than one day from the event where the WNBA Commissioner will report that San Francisco, and not Oakland, will be the choice for a WNBA Expansion Franchise for the San Francisco Bay Area. The news that this would happen was first telegraphed by comments reportedly made by Golden State Warriors Owner Joe Lacob.
Joe Lacob was said to plan to have the new team’s headquarters in Oakland, but play in San Francisco at Chase Center, owned by the Warriors. But what happened to Rebecca Kaplan, Oakland, and Ray Bobbitt / AASEG?
Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan Had WNBA Oakland Idea
In 2014, and as part of the Oakland Mayoral Election, I produced and helmed an event called The Oakland Sports Forum. There, then Oakland At-Large Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan said that she would bring the WNBA to Oakland. Here’s the Zennie62 YouTube video from that event:
Even though Ms. Kaplan lost the 2014 Oakland Mayoral Election to Oakland District Four Councilmember Libby Schaaf, the At-Large Councilmember kept focus on her objective.
To Tell Oakland AASEG History We Have To Start With Ray Bobbitt And WNBA / NFL Expansion Dreams
The effort to bring a WNBA team to Oakland started early in 2021, and as a primary focus of the new African American Sports and Entertainment Group. Here’s the press message Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan issued June 18th, 2021:
AASEG Announces Press Conference And Juneteenth Celebration Of WNBA Oakland Team Proposal
Oakland, CA – Vice Mayor will join the African American Sports and Entertainment Group (AASEG) and several community leaders, in a celebration of Juneteenth and AASEG proposal to bring a Women’s National Basketball Association (“WNBA”) team to the Oakland Arena.
WHEN: 12 noon – Friday, June 18, 2021
WHERE: Everett & Jones BBQ, 126 Broadway, Jack London Square, Oakland, CA
WHO: African American investors, Vice – Mayor Rebecca Kaplan, civic leaders, local businesses, community advocates, and city representatives who will share details on the push to return pro sports to Oakland Arena, securing a Woman-led WNBA Team.
And here’s the livestream:
But given that the AASEG originally started out of Save Oakland Sports work in establishing the lawsuit against the Las Vegas-bound Oakland Raiders, Ray Bobbitt also had it as an objective to put Oakland in the mind of the National Football League as an expansion candidate. But to do that, he had to secure an exclusive negotiating agreement with the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Joint Powers Authority.
To that end of announcing the successful objective of the Coliseum ENA, Mr. Bobbitt and AASEG launched this press event:
Bobbitt And Kaplan And AASEG Announce Oakland WNBA Team
Later in 2021, Councilmember Kaplan again partnered with the then new African American Sports and Entertainment Group, or “AASEG” to hold another, more formal press conference in a ZOOM virtual room. In issuing the press release for that event, Councilmember Kaplan wrote:
In October of 2021, it was announced that WNBA Champion and four-time WNBA All-Star Alana Beard, who spent 15 years playing the WNBA and earned back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year honors, and Attorney Jade Smith-Williams, of the law firm Baily & Glasser, LLP, a local Oakland women’s basketball legend and who played professionally overseas, would join in the leading efforts by the African American Sports and Entertainment Group (“AASEG”) to have an Oakland Black and Women WNBA Team ownership process.
The group gave this press conference establishing the shared intent to bring the WNBA to Oakland. Here’s Zennie62Media’s full coverage of that ZOOM event:
Ray Bobbitt / AASEG Work On Two Paths: WNBA and Coliseum City / NFL Expansion
That same year and into the next, the AASEG would work on two fronts: landing a WNBA franchise for Oakland, and making an overall plan for the development of it’s portion of the Oakland Coliseum property with the idea of bringing the NFL back to Oakland. The trouble is, both paths were more complicated than they looked at first.
AASEG Has Talks, ENA, And While Bobbitt Says All Systems Are Go For Coliseum City Launch, Nothing Publicly Presented, Yet
The fact is, while Ray Bobbitt managed to partner with well-heeled Loop Capital, he never had a solid contact with WNBA Commmissioner Cathy Engelbert: no phone conversations, and no ZOOM meetings face-to-face. No time to give a presentation before WNBA Commmissioner Cathy Engelbert. Just phone conversations with WNBA legal and chief operating officer, but that’s it.
By contrast, when I worked to bring the Super Bowl to Oakland, I knew I didn’t have a clear path to approval until I and my team with the Oakland-Alameda County Sports Commission met with NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue.
That happened May 10th, 2000, at 2 PM in the afternoon, at NFL Headquarters. After our presentation of our plan to host the 2005 Super Bowl, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue announced Oakland, along with Jacksonville and Miami, as finalists for the right to host Super Bowl XXXIX.
Does Ray Bobbitt actually have a plan? He says he does and that it has buy-in from the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum JPA, and the Oakland City Council. But, that written, AASEG has yet to show any new plans or investors to the public. That is not something written with glee, but with sadness.
AASEG / Ray Bobbitt Never Talked To Joe Lacob To This Point
Also, Ray Bobbitt never once talked to Golden State Warriors Owner Joe Lacob. According to a source, WNBA staff left him with the idea that such a move was not necessary. The idea that a women’s team was tied to an NBA team was something of the past, going back to 2002. But what Ray did not realize is that, tie or not, Joe Lacob personally wanted to bring the WNBA to the San Francisco Bay Area, and said so as far back as 2014.
“We do have interest,” Lacob said, “I think it would be very successful here in the Bay Area.”
Then, Lacob confirmed to ESPN that his team has talked with the WNBA about the Sparks but indicated that he did not know whether the Warriors would end up running the team.
“We are not in a rush to do it because we are focused on our primary business with the Warriors and building an arena [in San Francisco],” Lacob said. “But if the opportunity came along, we would definitely do it.”
Well, the chance came along and strangely tied to the 2021 AASEG annoucement of its objective of bringing a WNBA franchise to Oakland. So, the WNBA clearly knew – the question is at what point in time was Lacob put in control of securing a franchise over Ray Bobbitt and AASEG?
San Francisco WNBA Annoucement on Thursday, But What Will Oakland Do?
So, the San Francisco WNBA Annoucement is coming on Thursday, and it’s expected that Oakland will be presented as the headquarters for the team.
That brings more questions: will Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao be at the press conference, and if so, will they invite Ray Bobbitt?
Did Mayor Thao Know About San Francisco WNBA Plan And Not Tell Ray Bobbitt And AASEG?
One thing is clear to this blogger: Ray Bobbitt and AASEG were sandbagged and the sandbagging will happen with that WNBA Press Conference. One was to ease the sanbagging would be to invite Ray Bobbitt, but it would still be a public sandbagging nonetheless.
It would also be another example of what happens to Oakland in the sports business area because there are too many subgroups working against each other.
Stay tuned.